March round-up
One by one, the producers of ethnographic records are giving up the fight for survival, and who can blame them? The shops won’t display their wares, and media support has largely dried up; expensive international tours are no longer on the menu; the ‘world music’ boom has gone bust. Yet ethnomusicology is flourishing and it’s good to see Smithsonian Folkways carrying the torch: Dan Sheehy’s Hermanos Herrera comes with all the paraphernalia of scholarship in its extensive track-notes. The son jarocho and son huasteco styles found in Mexico – and Mexican California – represent an ebullient musical success, with its roots in the post-revolutionary Mexican government’s determination to forge a national culture. And the Herrera siblings have inherited this music from their father, uncles and aunts. Powered by Spanish-descended instruments – harp, bass, and two sizes of guitar – it’s intensely convivial, and its rich textures are purveyed with remarkable precision. (Smithsonian SFW 40580 ★★★★★)
Since the future of Albania’s unique folk music is under threat – young Albanians much prefer pop – At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me is to be welcomed. Here are the laments and instrumental dances with their leaping sevenths and sighing falls, and here are instrumental pieces based on Albania’s extraordinary four-part vocal polyphony. Traditionally the first soloist is called ia merr
(he begins), the second ia pret (he carries), and the third ia hedh (he throws), while the fourth provides a ground bass. In the Saz’iso ensemble’s versions these roles are taken respectively by clarinet, violin, lute, and drum, with the players doubling as vocalists. The lyrics are pervaded by the sadness of enforced migration and consequent family break-up. There are love songs too. (Glitterbeat Records
GBCD 053 ★★★★★)
György Ligeti was fascinated by the rhythms of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa, regarding these as superior to his own in terms of sheer complexity. Globe-trotting
Ian Brennan brings us his own take on Pygmy music with a CD called Abatwa (The Pygmy): Why did we stop growing tall? The music has down-home charm – one song has three tuning systems going at the same time – but his liner notes are mere impressions of village life, with no musical analysis of any kind. (Glitterbeat Records GBCD 049 ★★)
The Kronos Quartet ’s latest collaboration is with griot musicians from Mali. Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet is an immaculately-turned product. The strings underpin the skittering/ lyrical lines from Hawa Kassé
Mady Diabate’s solo voice plus the ngoni and balafon with washes of colour, chordal interjections, and racing glissandos, sometimes taking over the melodic line. If it all feels a bit too smooth, that is because with such supreme professionals we know that nothing could ever go wrong. (World Circuit WCD093 ★★★★)
The qanun is the Middleeastern zither, and what the Syrian virtuoso Maya Youssef does with it on Syrian Dreams – aided by cello, oud, and percussion instruments – is dazzling. (Harmonia Mundi HMM
902349 ★★★)
The Swedish nyckelharpa – keyed fiddle – is a more mundane curiosity. Yet on Erika and Cecilia’s album Polska
Till Vendelsjön, accompanied by the folk fiddle, it casts its own bleak spell. (Do Music Records DMRCD 026 ★★★)