Instruments of the spirit

Father Louis J. Luzbetak/Tua playing a kambar

Wahgi and Shimbu melodies. Two men play on their home made 'spirit' flutes kambar) recorded by Louis Luzbetak in Papua New Guinea. From the record Primitive Music of the World [Folkways, 1962] selected and edited by Henry Cowell. The image of Tua playing a kambar comes from a slide taken by Dr. Michael David Peter O'Hanlon in 1979 in the Wahgi Valley in Papua New Guinea. Since the image is in the collection of the British Museum, the data for it are impeccable. I quote from the page dedicated to it: "Previously, such flutes were secret from women and revealed only to boys at initiation; while no longer secret, they made and played only during the Pig Festival." Father Louis J. Luzbetak (1918-2005, American) was a professor of Cultural Anthropology at Georgetown University. He studied the Wahgi extensively in 1954 and I may assume the recording was also made in that year.

Musical bow (Mitsogho)/Pierre Sallee

Harp and vocal solo from the Bwiti ritual from the LP Gabon: Musiques des Mitsogho et des Bateke [Musee de l'Homme, Ocora, 1968] recorded by Pierre Sallee. The Bwiti is an all male sacred ceremony that involves ingesting the bitter root from the iboga tree. Initiates enter other dimensions and see the past, present, and future of their own lives. [MusicRepublic, blog] Pierre Salle (1933-1987, French) was an ethnomusicologist known for work in Gabon.

CRASS

Gee Vaucher/Penny Rimbuad

 

Rest in Peace, Lee "Scratch" Perry

Mad Professor/Lee "Scratch" Perry

I heard the news through the No Wave facebook group I subscribe to. The page, the group, they are actually responsible for about half of the non-ethnographic recordings in this year's list. I was surprised to find Lee Perry on No Wave as most materials posted relate to the No Wave movement one way or another. But I clicked on the YouTube link and enjoyed listening to the clip a whole bunch. Then a few hours later a second post appeared and I knew something was up: Lee "Scratch" Perry had just died. Lee Perry died on August 29 in Jamaica, he was 85. Last week I listened to a number of his records, including ones I have myself on vinyl, and watched several live videos on YouTube. The song that made it into the Top 100 was the first video posted by the No Wave group: Heads of Government, a live recording made during the Tibetan Freedom Festival in 1997 in New York City. He is assisted by Mad Professor & the Robotiks Band. Mad Professor (b. Neil Fraser, 1955, Guyana) was also Perry's collaborator when Heads of Government was recorded on Black Ark ExPerryment in 1995. Originally it appeared on History, Mystery & Prophesy from 1984.
 

Colorfields

 

Studio portret van een Dajak vrouw uit Borneo/Jaap Kunst

I'm Dutch, and like other Western European countries the Netherlands was also a colonial force in the early 20th century, and of course, like those other European countries, some compatriots were ethnomusicologists as well. The best known Dutch ethnomusicologist is Jaap Kunst, who specialized in Indonesian gamelan music. He actually coined the term ethnomusicology. He became curator of the Royal Tropical Institute of Amsterdam, an institution distinct from the Tropenmuseum of Amsterdam. On the right is a portrait of Kunst blowing a conch shell and on the left a Dayak woman with a drum from a photograph from the Tropenmuseum collection. Kunst recorded in Indonesia but his best known contribution to ethnographic records was as curator: Indonesian Music which was volume 7 from the Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, a series edited by Alan Lomax. The recordings on the record were made by J. Hobbel, Andre Dupeyrat, Bernard Ijzerdraad and others. (The name Bernard Ijzerdraad rings familiar in my head because of the cartoon character Phil Ijzerdraad, a lanky bandit who featured in a Lucky Luke cartoon—friends said he looked like me.) The recording of rice song by a Dayak woman that features in the Top 100 was made by J. Hobbel on the island of Borneo. You may have noticed that the last ten or so paintings were done on a ground of four colored rectangles. This is my foray, like I did for the Top 100 2018, into the world of abstract art and color theory. Below are a few 'colorfield' paintings. Enjoy.