Harte Recordings, together with the estate of Alan Lomax, and in collaboration with The Library Of Congress and the The Association for Cultural Equity, present Alan Lomax In Haiti -- a chronicle of Lomax's 1936 Haitian recording expedition for the Library. This 10-CD box-set, in the modern tradition of those lovingly created by Revenant and Dust-To-Digital, is curated from over 50 hours of field recordings by the pre-eminent Haitian scholar, Gage Averill. Besides the CDs, the set contains two books: Lomax's Haitian field journal, carefully transcribed and notated by his niece, Ellen Harold; and a hard-bound set of liner notes and essays detailing and translating all the songs in the set. The notes examine the historical context and social and cultural relevance of the music. The set also includes the complete black and white and color film footage that Alan and Elizabeth Lomax shot in Haiti, and a facsimile of Lomax's period map of Haiti covered with his handwritten notes.
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The box set is a unique artifact, presenting for the first time this important document of Haiti's rich cultural heritage captured in the field by the greatest musicologist of the 20th century. Anna Lomax Wood, Lomax's daughter, explains in the notes: '...[W]e can now listen in to a pivotal era in Haiti's cultural history, when the country was throwing off U.S. imperialism and embracing both its African roots and the coming influence of jazz and African-American/Afro-Caribbean popular music and dance.' Lomax and his then-newlywed wife Elizabeth (aged 20 and 19, respectfully) worked in Haiti from December 1936 until April 1937, documenting music and ritual at the behest of his colleague and friend, Zora Neale Hurston, and under the auspices of the Library Of Congress. He arrived just two years after the brutal 19-year occupation by the United States Marines, when resentment against the U.S. ran high. The Lomaxes were part of an influx of talented and highly distinguished U.S. artists and anthropologists to whom Haitians opened their arms, despite still-fresh memories of the military incursion. These U.S. citizens were drawn to the island's distinctive culture, its striking musical and visual arts, and its people--as well as by a fascination with the sensationalist accounts of Vodou, the syncretistic local religion that had risen out of religious beliefs and practices originating in West Africa. In the course of his journey, Lomax recorded more than fifty hours of music, made copious notes, diagrams and drawings, and shot rare film footage. None of this material has been available to the general public before. These were the early days of field recording, and Alan recorded to aluminum disc (500 in all). When Lomax revisited these recordings in the 1970s, he deemed them unworthy of release due to the high level of sound distortion and surface noise. So they sat, along with his notes and film footage, for 30 years until the sound quality could be miraculously improved through current cutting edge technology. With recently- developed equipment never used on sound recordings before, the Grammy-award winning team at the Magic Shop in New York City were able to de-noise and bring the recordings to clear and vibrant life. The results have been thematically organized into ten volumes, each showcasing a specific style of music that Lomax encountered. 'Meringue' numbers introduce the set's first volume, combining early Ellington melodies with Hoosier Hot Shot joyfulness and Sun Ra otherworldliness. The sounds of Vodou worship are well represented and further illuminated by color film footage on the next disc. The native Mardi Gras music is collected on another, capturing a glorious, bombastic musical tradition which would find its way to New Orleans and beyond. Lomax recorded hours of an angelic but otherwise completely unknown singer named Francilia, whose amazingly distinctive voice and style are heard for the first time outside of Haiti on a volume devote entirely to her. The set also contains a generous sampling of children's songs and performances of the 'Troubadours,' small bands of musicians who walked the streets of Port-au-Prince, much like the early cojunto groups of Texas. Ludovic Lamothe, the famed Haitian classical pianist, was recorded for the first time by Lomax playing the songs that his international reputation would be built upon, as was Zora Neal Hurston, singing songs from her youth. The final volume is filled with the 'Romances,' a now-extinct style of music brought to Haiti from France during its period of colonization. All these musical styles and others are thoroughly discussed in Gage Averill's meticulously-researched notes, while the making of and circumstances surrounding the recordings are detailed in Lomax's journal." Contains: 10 CDs of music, also including extremely rare B/W & color footage; 2 hardcover books: one is a journal, the other is a book of the full-color liner notes with song transcriptions, translations, and essays (230 pages total); Map of Haiti in 1937 with Alan Lomax's writings; loose photos from Alan's trip.
The box set is a unique artifact, presenting for the first time this important document of Haiti's rich cultural heritage captured in the field by the greatest musicologist of the 20th century. Anna Lomax Wood, Lomax's daughter, explains in the notes: '...[W]e can now listen in to a pivotal era in Haiti's cultural history, when the country was throwing off U.S. imperialism and embracing both its African roots and the coming influence of jazz and African-American/Afro-Caribbean popular music and dance.' Lomax and his then-newlywed wife Elizabeth (aged 20 and 19, respectfully) worked in Haiti from December 1936 until April 1937, documenting music and ritual at the behest of his colleague and friend, Zora Neale Hurston, and under the auspices of the Library Of Congress. He arrived just two years after the brutal 19-year occupation by the United States Marines, when resentment against the U.S. ran high. The Lomaxes were part of an influx of talented and highly distinguished U.S. artists and anthropologists to whom Haitians opened their arms, despite still-fresh memories of the military incursion. These U.S. citizens were drawn to the island's distinctive culture, its striking musical and visual arts, and its people--as well as by a fascination with the sensationalist accounts of Vodou, the syncretistic local religion that had risen out of religious beliefs and practices originating in West Africa. In the course of his journey, Lomax recorded more than fifty hours of music, made copious notes, diagrams and drawings, and shot rare film footage. None of this material has been available to the general public before. These were the early days of field recording, and Alan recorded to aluminum disc (500 in all). When Lomax revisited these recordings in the 1970s, he deemed them unworthy of release due to the high level of sound distortion and surface noise. So they sat, along with his notes and film footage, for 30 years until the sound quality could be miraculously improved through current cutting edge technology. With recently- developed equipment never used on sound recordings before, the Grammy-award winning team at the Magic Shop in New York City were able to de-noise and bring the recordings to clear and vibrant life. The results have been thematically organized into ten volumes, each showcasing a specific style of music that Lomax encountered. 'Meringue' numbers introduce the set's first volume, combining early Ellington melodies with Hoosier Hot Shot joyfulness and Sun Ra otherworldliness. The sounds of Vodou worship are well represented and further illuminated by color film footage on the next disc. The native Mardi Gras music is collected on another, capturing a glorious, bombastic musical tradition which would find its way to New Orleans and beyond. Lomax recorded hours of an angelic but otherwise completely unknown singer named Francilia, whose amazingly distinctive voice and style are heard for the first time outside of Haiti on a volume devote entirely to her. The set also contains a generous sampling of children's songs and performances of the 'Troubadours,' small bands of musicians who walked the streets of Port-au-Prince, much like the early cojunto groups of Texas. Ludovic Lamothe, the famed Haitian classical pianist, was recorded for the first time by Lomax playing the songs that his international reputation would be built upon, as was Zora Neal Hurston, singing songs from her youth. The final volume is filled with the 'Romances,' a now-extinct style of music brought to Haiti from France during its period of colonization. All these musical styles and others are thoroughly discussed in Gage Averill's meticulously-researched notes, while the making of and circumstances surrounding the recordings are detailed in Lomax's journal." Contains: 10 CDs of music, also including extremely rare B/W & color footage; 2 hardcover books: one is a journal, the other is a book of the full-color liner notes with song transcriptions, translations, and essays (230 pages total); Map of Haiti in 1937 with Alan Lomax's writings; loose photos from Alan's trip.
Details
Cat. number: HR 103CD
Year: 2010
