Caribbean Island Music (1972)



To finish this month, here is a fantastic recording from John Storm Roberts, great musicologist who make us dive into the roots of reggae, merengue and calypso. I don not have pictures for illustrating those traditional rhythms because I didn't find some on the web. Maybe they don't exist anymore...
P.S: when I wrote this post, I didn't know that John Storm Roberts had just died. Paix à sa grande âme... Check out the article on N.Y.Times.

Side 1:
1.Calunga (Dominican Republic)
2. Ya Lo Ve (Dominican Republic)
Both of these pices have a very high African content. The singing is a called-and-response pattern, by far the most common african-drived vocal technique in the new world.

3. Amantina (mangulina, Dominican Republic)
4. Canto de Hacha (merengue, (Dominican Republic)
Those two pieces are charectiristic of the country dance music of the Dominican Republic; both have the typical accompaniment of a small accordian, tambora drum and metal
guïra scraper.

5. Ay Lola Eh (Dominican Republic)
6. Salve Corrida
7. Pindo Mama Pindo
This last piece have been recorded in a tobacco-grinding factory. Most of the work is done by hand, and the laborers sing at their work and preserve and perfect many old forms.

8. Les Deux Jumeaux (bolero, Haiti)
9. Joséphine (méringue, Haiti)
Haiti has a great deal of highly African folk music. The best-known rhythm in Haitian popular music is the méringue, which has a chicken-and-egg relationship with its Dominican cousin but has developped very differently. The bolero spread throughtout the Spanish.


Side 2:
1. Percy Where him gone? (Jamaica)
This is an example of Tambo drumming. Singing and playing both show many africanisms.

2. Bahl 'Oman Bahl (Jamaica)
3. Georgie Lyon (Jamaica)
Two digging songs, in call-and-response orm, acompagned by the rhythm of the pickaxes that Jamaican countrymen still use for digging the fields.

4. Emmanuel Road (Jamaica)
One of the best known Jamaican songs, Emmanuel road originated as a ring-play or game song (probably among quarry-men) that involves the passing of heavy stones round a circule of squatting men. This song has been heard as a calypso and in many other versions. The present recording shows it in its the original forms, sung in the thudding rhythm of the stones being passed around a circle.

5. Mango Time (Jamaica)
6. When I was In Colon (Jamaica)
7. Chi Chi Bud-Oh! (Jamaica)
8. Obeahman (Jamaica)
9. Mummies (Dominican Republic)
This recording presents a phenomenon native to the small islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The "mummies" perform in the streets at Christmas, reciting, playing and dancing in colorful costumes.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Oro,
Mediafire seems to not be working anymore… I have been 100% unsuccessful in downloading this file for the last week. (Same with other MF links from you or other bloggers.)

Unknown said...

Sorry i was not making sense earlier. The sentence should read : I have been 100% unsuccessful in downloading this file. (For the last week, same with other MF links from you or other bloggers.)

Janas said...

Thank you very much

Unknown said...

Janas, so you were able to download the file? Are you a subscriber to Mediafire or a standard user like me?

Janas said...

Hi,FroguetteMiNote
I am simply a standard user like you.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Janas. I'll keep on trying, then. (Up to now, download keeps on breaking at all hours of day or even night. :-( )

spinning in air said...

I am very sorry to say that John Storm Roberts died on November 29th of this year. I would post a link to the newspaper site that published his obituary, but that appears to have been archived and I'm having difficulty locating it.

Farewell, mestre...

oro said...

Hello Spinning,

I did not know that John Storm Roberts had died when I posted his record.
Paix à sa grande âme...

spinning in air said...

the New York Times published an obituary today. I'm not sure if this link will work, though...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/arts/music/10roberts.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=john%20storm%20roberts&st=cse

and yes, he was a great soul.

CarneZafiro said...

could this please be re upped?!?! many thanks !!

Unknown said...

hey oro. im very interested in the carribean sound and am asking if it is possible to re upload the file on mediafire as it has been romved or deleted. thanks

oro said...

link is fixed