Originally released in 1972, this delightful and historically important album is finally available in CD format as part of Nonesuch's reissues of the Explorer series. The noted producer/ethnomusicologist John Storm Roberts taped 18 seminal field recordings in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. Each selection captures a specific Afro-French, Afro-Spanish or Afro-British tradition, but from within its natural cultural context. The tunes are infectiously melodic and rhythmic, hot-house hybrids derived from 19th-century European balladry and assorted African styles. Call-and-response structures are either sung a cappella or flanked by any combination of handclaps, drums, shakers, guitars, thumb-pianos, harmonicas, or even sea-chantey-like accordions. Prototypes of the bolero, merengue, and reggae turn up in unadorned but easily recognizable incarnations, alternating with songs meant to accompany work, play, or religious observance. The tracks not only reveal the roots of today's bewilderingly interrelated Caribbean pop trends but provide intriguing hints of how parallel styles from elsewhere in the African Diaspora might have evolved. --Christina Roden
Explorer Series: The Caribbean - Island Songs and Dances,Various Artists,Nonesuch,Caribbean,Dominican Republic,Haiti,Int'l & World Music,International,Jamaica,Pop,Traditional,V/A Compilations,World Music
New Age Music:
- Flamenco: Disque Catalogue
- For Export
- From the Inside [Import]
- Get Up and Dance
- Gnawa Music of Marrakesh: Night Spirit Masters
- Grandes [Enhanced] [Import]
- Grandes [Enhanced] [Import]
- Grandes [Import]
- Grandes [Import]
- Grandes [Import]
New Age Music
Piano Concertos 1 & 2 [Import]
Soul Sisters: Sights & Sounds of 1970'S African-American Underground [Soundtrack]
Queen II [Import] [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered]
Princess of Africa, Vol. 2 [Live]