Sounds and Visions

One of fon's (Dafut king) wives/Pat Ritzenthaler

Music of the Cameroons [Folkways, 1961]was recorded by Robert and Pat Ritzenthaler in western British Cameroon in 1959. I assume that the more intimate domestic recordings of women and children were made by Pat Ritzenthaler and the men's ceremonial music by her husband Robert. The advantage of a husband and wife team of ethnomusicologists is that there is access to men only as well as women only quarters. It allows me to mix up the genders of the people I portray (it's been a stag fest lately.) The song in the top 100 is called Hail Muma and was performed by children and wives of the brother of the king (fon.) Muma is the brother of fon and the second in command in the Dafut society. I don't know how many wives Muma has but the liner notes tell of 41 wives of fon and over a hundred children. Hail Muma is an improvised song under the influence of palm wine to honor the fon's brother.

Martin Cradick/Bounaka

The British musician Martin Cradick is known for the fusion of world music and western rock and jazz. He founded the band Outback that featured several didjeridu players. His best known fusion is that of western and Baka (pygmy) people of Cameroon in a mixed orchestra he called Baka Beyond. The group featured his wife Su Hart as well as a host of Baka musicians he had recorded in the field on an earlier occasion (1992) including the m'gongo player Bounaka pictured above. On the solo m'gongo performance called Venlouma that Cradick recorded in 1992 Bounaka places his instrument on a cooking pop as a resonator. It appeared on the very successful Heart of the Forest cd from 1993.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk/Dick Fontaine

The song Three for the Festival is almost a customary feature of a Top 100 (I missed last year) and especially the version from the film Sound!! by Dick Fontaine (and narrated by John Cage) is a long time favorite of mine. (There are many version on line and in my own music collection.) I assume it was Dick Fontaine who filmed Kirk in performance for this film. Sound!! is from 1967.