Ii. Archive of Books, Recordings, Sheet Music, Videos, and Advertising Materials
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II. ARCHIVE OF BOOKS, RECORDINGS, SHEET MUSIC, VIDEOS, AND ADVERTISING MATERIALS IIB. Recordings II B1. African Source Materials It is Africa that is the largest presence in African American music, and it is still the least understood. Africa itself is still largely unknown to most Americans, and there is so much uncertainly in placing the ancestry of any specific African tribal group in any particular area of the United States or the Caribbean. Slaves were marched thousands of miles from their tribal areas before they were placed on the ships, and when they arrived in the Western Hemisphere there was generally an effort to separate members of the same tribe so they would not be able to communicate with the other slaves except through the slave holder’s language. What is known is the general area the slaves came from - West Africa, roughly from Senegal to Angola, and inland in the northern regions to the Niger basin in what is now Mali. This selection of recordings is only an introduction to the wealth of music from this area, but the archive includes the documentary recordings of the music I recorded on my travels in these areas as I searched for roots of the blues and other musical forms I knew from the United States. Six albums were released by Sonet Records in Sweden, and Folkways Records in the United States, and the book The Roots of the Blues also resulted from these travels. The 1974-1975 Recordings AFRICAN JOURNEY A Search for the Roots of the Blues Vol. 1 - LP, Recorded and documented by Samuel Charters. Sonet Records, 1974. Dodd LP 1 Music of griots of the Mandingo, Wollof, and Serrehule peoples, including master Mandingo griot Jali Nyama Suso, with processional and dance music of the Jola and the Fula peoples. AFRICAN JOURNEY A Search for the Roots of the Blues Vol. 2 - LP, Recorded and documented by Samuel Charters. Sonet Records, 1974. Dodd LP 2 Music from Ghana, Togo, and The Gambia, with griots from the Mandingo and Wollof tribes. The albums were also released in the United States by Vanguard Records. JALI NYAMA SUSO - LP, “Songs from The Gambia” Recorded and documented by Samuel Charters. Sonet Records, 1977. Dodd LP 3 Suso was a brilliant musician and singer, and here he is documented performing traditional Mandingo griot narratives accompanying himself on the kora. 193 Traditional African Music from Slave areas Many of the albums in the archive were released by Folkways Records, a company I was associated with for more than thirty years. Included in the catalog of more than 2000 releases were a large number of albums documenting African music. It was part of the determined effort of the owner and director of the company, Moses Asch, to document every area of human expression and creativity. Few of the albums had large sales, and it was always necessary for the person who had done the field recordings to supply their own notes and photographs as best they could, but without Asch’s determination we would have a much more limited knowledge of the world’s music. GAMBIA’S MUSIC - double LP boxed set, recorded and annotated by Marc D. Pevar. Folkways Records, 1978. Dodd LP 4a, 4b Informal music from a Mandinka compound and performances by professional griots. Notes in English, French, and Swedish. GAMBIAN GRIOT KORA DUETS, featuring Alhaji Dal Konte, Dembo Konte, Ma Lamini Jobate - LP, recorded in Dakar, Senegal and Brikama, The Gambia in December, 1977 by Marc Pevar. Folkways, 1979. Dodd LP 5 FOLK MUSIC OF GHANA - LP, recorded by Ivan Annan, Folkways Records, 1964. Dodd LP 6 TRADITIONAL DRUMMING AND DANCES OF GHANA - LP, recorded by John Tanson Folkways Records, 1976. Dodd LP 7 MUSIC OF THE JOS PLATEAU AND OTHER REGIONS OF NIGERIA - LP, recorded by Stanley Diamond; edited, with notes by Victor Grauer, Folkways Records, 1966. Dodd LP 8 MUSIC OF THE IDOMA OF NIGERIA - Ediigwu Sings the Ancient Songs of Oturkpo, Nigeria - LP, recorded and documented by Robert G. Armstrong Asch Mankind Series, Asch Records, 1969. Dodd LP 9 During this period of the late 1960s Moses Asch of Folkways Records had licensed the Folkways label to Verve Records, but he continued to issue ethnic material under his own name. MUSIC FROM THE VILLAGES OF NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA - Double LP boxed set, recorded by Paul Newman & Lyn Davison, annotated by Paul Newman & Eric H. Davison. Asch Mankind Series, Asch Records, 1969. Dodd LP 10a, 10b INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF THE KALAHARISAN - LP, recorded by Marjorie Shostak, Megan Biesele, and Nicholas England Folkways Records, 1982. Dodd LP 11 194 The !Kung San people, whose music is documented on this album, did not become part of the wave of slaves brought to the Americas, but their music is interesting as a glimpse into the older traditions that have undergone considerable acculturation in the coastal areas colonized by the Europeans. MODERN SOUNDS IN AFRICAN MUSIC This small introduction is only a sampling of the rich world of new music in Africa. Some of the recordings are traditional in nature, many of them are experimental blendings of African idioms and instruments with European instrumentalists. Whatever African music is today, it is certain that the newer styles will continue to change and develop as African society rushes to join the modern world. AFRICAN FORCE - LP, no title. ITM Records, 1987. Dodd LP 12 A hybrid group with a single white member, rock drummer Ginger Baker of “Cream.” STELLA CHIWESHE - CD, “Ambuya?” Shanachie, 1990. Chiweshe is from Zimbabwe and her group includes traditional instruments like the mbira, or thumb piano, and hosho, dried gourd maracas. Dodd CD 1 SONA DIABATE - CD, “Girls of Guinea” Shanachie Records, 1990. Dodd CD 2 TOUMANI DIABATE - CD, “Djelika” Hannibal, 1995. Dodd CD 3 Diabate, who is from Mali, is a virtuoso performer on the kora. HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Music of Nubia” Vanguard, 1964. Dodd CD 4 HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Al Oud” Vanguard, 1965. Dodd CD 5 HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Eclipse” Rykodisc, 1988. Dodd CD 6 Hamza El Din was born in the Upper Nile Valley, in the area that was known in Egyptian history as Nubia. Nubia has no tradition of any instrument other than the drum, but as a student in Cairo El Din learned to play the oud, a prototype of the lute that is a popular instrument for restaurant musicians throughout the middle east. Using the lute he began to compose melodies to poetry in the Nubian arabic dialect and became a performer while he was a student for three years in Rome. He moved to the United States and became part of the Greenwich Village crowd of young folk singers. He signed a recording contract with Vanguard Records, and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO - CD, “Heavenly” Gazell Music, 1997. Dodd CD 7 South Africa’s best known vocal group performs a group of gospel songs, with three African pieces. ALHAJI GARBO LEAO and his GOGE Music - LP, recorded in Nigeria by Randall F. Grass, Folkways Records, 1976. Dodd LP 13 195 The goge is a one-string violin, similar to the riti played by the Fula musicians in The Gambia. Leo (his name is spelled differently in the notes to the album) is a member of the Hausa tribe who was living in Northern Nigeria at the time of the recording. The goge is amplified and there is percussion and drum accompaniment. DOCTEUR NICO - LP, “Dieu de la Guitare (No. 1)” Tabansi Records, n.d. Dodd LP 14 ORCHESTRA SUPER MAZEMBE - LP, “Kaivaska” Virgin Records, 1983. Dodd LP 15 OUSMANE M’BAYE & His African Ensemble - LP, “Songs of Senegal” Folkways Records, 1975. Dodd LP 16 MOZAMBIQUE ONE - CD Globestyle Records, 1994. Dodd CD 8 MOZAMBIQUE TWO - CD Globestyle Records, 1994. Dodd CD 9 Two documentations of contemporary music in Mozambique, including dance musicians, song, and instrumental ensembles. FELA RANSOME-KUTI & The Africa 70 - LP,“Greatest Hits” EMI, 1984. Dodd LP 17 Ransome-Kuti was a charismatic performer who used the tenor saxophone to create a style of jazz that has more African than European influence. RHYTHM OF RESISTANCE - Music of Black South Africa - LP, Virgin Records, 1978. Dodd LP 18 This is music from the soundtrack of a film of the same name. Among the artists included: Babsy Mlangeni Malombo Ladysmith Black Mambazo Mahotella Queens Abafana Baseqhudeni MOSHE SEPHULA and Orchestra - LP, “Bantu High Life” Folkways, 1967. Dodd LP 19 Although High-Life music is a style of music from South Africa that developed long after the traffic in slaves to the Americas it is widely popular everywhere in Africa today, and it contains traditional elements from many of Africa’s tribal cultures. SONGHAI 2 - CD, Rykodisc, 1994. Dodd CD 10 Songhai is a collaboration between Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabete and two young Spanish guitarists, Ketama and Jose Soto. ALI FARKA TOURE - CD, “African Blues” Shanachie Records, 1990. Dodd CD 11 196 Toure’s CD caused a great deal of excitement, with its blending of traditional African melodies - he grew up in Mali - and the American blues he heard on recordings by John Lee Hooker and Albert Collins. The Victoria Jazz Band is from Kenya, and their music is a mix of a number of styles. The term for the music is Luo. The note on the back of the album claims, it’s the ‘in’ sound in Kenya today.” See also listing in video section of the catalog. II B2. American pre-Blues and Related Source Materials It will probably never be possible to find the place and the moment when the blues was first created, but there is a wide array of musical traditions that we know became part of the blues.