Re-uploaded by request 06/07/2024
With its striking Afro-French creole culture, Martinique nurtures a strong heritage of unique music:
drum dances, work songs, quadrilles, story songs, & popular urban styles
such as beguine & mazouk.
Alan Lomax traveled extensively throughout the West Indies in the spring of 1962. His plan was to record
traditional music throughout the area. The region was in flux at the time as
many colonial holdings were being relinquished & many of the islands were
gaining independence. The recordings that Lomax made in Martinique
represent music that to a great extent no longer exists. He turned over copies
of his recordings to the University of the West Indies
where they have become invaluable local resources. Lomax wanted to release his
recordings but that never happened until 2001 when Rounder released this.
Lomax's recordings are remarkable for illuminating three
essential facets of Martinican music: there is rural folk music with direct
ties to the Martinican African antecedents as represented by the Sainte-Maire sessions;
there is rural/small town music with European derivation as represented by the
haute taille; & indigenous popular urban music.
Tracks 1 through 17 are the Sainte-Maire sessions from the
North Atlantic region of Martinique.
Martinique is divided by a high range of volcanic mountains & the music of
the eastern (the North Atlantic) region varies greatly from that of the western
Caribbean area. Tracks 18 & 19 are the Le
François sessions which are quadrilles from the mid-Atlantic region. Tracks 20
through 23 are the Fort-de-France
sessions which is urban popular music.
Various - Martinique: CaneFields & City Streets, Rounder 11661-1730-2, 2001.
decryption codes in comments
Tracklist –
Abraham Soulangé Mwen
Bélia Manmay-la
Woulé Mako
O-Mérilo
Etienne
Léonar-o Plan-o
Manman la Grév Baré Mwen
Bonm Kako-la
Carmélite
An Nouvoté Rivé
Lévé Ason Bwa
La Rivyé Léza
Lanso
Conte Guadeloupéen
Jean Mano di “Bouwo Déhye-mwen Alé”
Makak et Chyen
Oh, Madiana
Ti-Anne
Man Ti Sonson Averina
Ti Paul
Bertina
Homage à Ma Mére
Manzé Marie
Tracks: 1-6, 8, 12-13 - Raoul Grivalliers & group; 7,
10-11 Augustin Gourpil & group; 9 & 17 – Raoul Grivalliers, Augustin
Gourpil & group; 14-16 – Malcousu Florius & group; 18-19 – Bernard
Karaman, Francius Laurence, & Paulimy Laurence; 20 – Loulou Boislaville
& orchestra; 21-23 – Hurard Coppet & orchestra.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max Cilla is the
Martinican master of the traditional flute. In Martinique
he is called 'Le Père de la Flûte des Mornes' (The Father of the Mountain
Flute).
The mountainous regions
in the French West Indies are called the 'Mornes.
The term also refers to the deep countryside, the big forests, which inspire
mystical dreams. These dreams feed the imagination of storytellers, poets &
musicians. The Mornes used to be the hide-out of run-away slaves. The Mornes
are rich in history & vitality, where the breath of the spirit is felt
& heard more intensely. It is known as the house of the Gods the legends
have it. It is in the Mornes of Martinique in the middle of the countryside
deep in the forests that the bamboo flute was born. It is a transverse flute
with six holes. It goes by the popular name of 'toutou 'n bambou' (the sonorous
bamboo tube).
Early on, Max Cilla
became aware that an accumulation of the various historical & naturalistic attributes
had gathered around the Mornes which magnified in them the rich symbols of
natural & cultural values, the vibrant symbols of the authenticity of
being, & the mighty symbols of resistance to all attempts at alienation
& indoctrination.
With these deep
convictions he set about to restore the presence of the 'toutou 'n bambou' to
give it the place it deserved in organology (organology is the science of musical instruments & their
classification. It embraces the study of instruments' history,
instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how instruments
produce sound, & musical instrument classification. There is a degree of
overlap between organology, ethnomusicology which are both subsets of musicology,
& the branch of the acoustics devoted to musical instruments).
From the outset Cilla
had the inspiration to legitimize the 'toutou 'n bambou' by naming it 'la Flûte
des Mornes'. He has made the flute a living symbol whose breath propulses &
animates the energies of life, of joy, of light. Since the 1970s Max Cilla has
championed the qualities of this flute, not only as a specific instrument, but
also as the vehicle of a style of musical expression synonymous with Martinique itself. He has had to persevere for long years
to see the flute emerge into the respect he wanted for it. His research enabled
him to work out a precise method of making the flute, of enhancing its tonalities,
of creating a tablature unique to its music.
Author, composer,
instrumentalist, flute maker, leader of a musical group, whose compositions are
inspired by the rural oral tradition of Martinique, Max Cilla, after a 30-year
career, offers music of both universal spirituality & deep roots, full of
life, joy, & dancing, creating a harmonious alliance of melodies &
rhythm.
On La Flûte des
Mornes Vol II, the musicians are: Max Cilla – flutes en bamboo, ti bwa,
& güiro; Michel Cilla – bass
tambour & sound effects; Alex Soudin – bèlè drum & ti bwa; Sissi –
congas; Joel Zebe – ti bwa; Georges E. Nouel – piano & ti bwa; Max Corneli
- double & electric bass; & Jean Marie Courtois – synthesizer with
Lucie Gascon – concert harp; Henri Guedon – ti bwa; & Roland Brival –
accordion. The ti bwa is a percussion instrument made out of a piece of bamboo
laid horizontally & beaten with sticks. The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an
open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side played by
rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound.
Max Cilla - La Flûte des Mornes Vol II, Coco Sound CS 750, 1988.
Tracklist –
Le Chant d’un Pauvre
La Danse des Bambous
L’Habitation Rochelle
Cadense Libre de
L’Oiseau Pipiri
Mantra Solaire
Enjoy,
NØ
key for flute des mornes not working!
ReplyDeleteI have re-uploaded La Flûte des Mornes.
DeleteNow it's the Cane Fields that doesn't work (for me).
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Thank you!
DeleteThank you thank you!
DeleteJust in the process of fixing the gap in the Around the World project. Sorry it had been so long (June 3 last year) but if you follow things around here, lost music files (7T+), finally data retrieved by a dear friend & getting around to mending the fences. Thank you for the thank you.
DeleteWow, good thing that it ended up good.
DeleteMine was/is tough too: three-month hospital stay that only ended a month ago, with complications still going, etc. Music keeps me going. Cheers.
Thank you!
ReplyDeletecan you reupload this one
ReplyDeleteBoth are re-upped. the decryption codes are below. Thanks for letting me know about the dead links. Enjoy.
DeleteLa Flute des Mornes vol 2
ReplyDeleteeqmh46u6qbFoNArdlGrvEWLWsfriATc6GtKs3bGwSq0
Cane Fields & City Streets
hqBc5uyNjPdcilkgd5ahsifGOgzpfS-YQA8dhJxSI2U