Martinique

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. 

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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.  

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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