DRUMS OF HAITI ETHNIC FOLKWAYS LIBRARY 1949 1ST PRESS 12" MICROGROOVE VINYL LP

$

200

DRUMS OF HAITI
DRUM MUSIC

ETHNIC FOLKWAYS LIBRARY

CATALOGUE NO. LP 403

RARE 1949 FIRST PRESSING
12" MICROGROOVE 33 RPM VINYL RECORD LP

Drums of Haiti
Recorded in Haiti by Harold Courlander

This is the original, 1949 first vinyl pressing of the Drums of Haiti field recording by Harold Courlander. This 1949 release of the vinyl version of this album coincided with the 1949 release of the 10" 78 RPM shellac records. As with the 78 RPM album version, this original 12" microgroove vinyl record album cover features a paste-on label over the textured black cover that features the name of the album, the song titles, and a sketch of a Haitian musician. This vinyl record represents one of the earliest vinyl records ever pressed, and one of the first ever recordings of Haitian drum music.

Beads of sweat roll from the brows of drummers who never tire. They play the manman, moyen and bébé drums of vodoun, an often misrepresented organized religious and cultural practice that values communion with the land and respect for the community. The rhythms are said to chofé (or heat up) players and listeners alike, inspiring increasingly impassioned drumming and dancing. Folklorist, ethnographer and ethnomusicologist Harold Courlander, known for his important early work documenting the “vast unwritten literature, dances, music” of the Haitian peasants, released these field recordings from the mountain villages of Haiti before nearly any other recordings were available.

TRACKLIST
A1 Vodoun Dance (Three Vodoun Drums)
A2 Ibo Dance (Three Drums And Ogan)
A3 Salongo Dance (Two Drums)
A4 Juba Dance (Drums And Catas)
A5 Petro Dance (Two Drums)
A6 Quitta Dance (Two Drums)
B1 Baboule Dance (Three Drums)
B2 Mascaron Dance (Two Drums And Basse)
B3 Congo Payette Dance (Three Drums)
B4 Congo Larose Dance (Three Drums)
B5 Ganbos (Bamboo Stamping Tubes And Organ)
B6 Vaccines (Bamboo Trumpets And Sticks)
B7 Bumba Dance (Two Drums)

Harold Courlander (September 18, 1908 – March 15, 1996) was an American novelist, folkorist, and anthropologist and an expert in the study of Haitian life. The author of 35 books and plays and numerous scholarly articles, Courlander specialized in the study of African, Caribbean, Afro-American, and Native American cultures. He took a special interest in oral literature, cults, and Afro-American cultural connections with Africa.

In 1939, Courlander published his first book about Haitian life entitled Haiti Singing. Over the next 30 years, he traveled to Haiti more than 20 times. His research focused on religious practices, African retentions, oral traditions, folklore, music, and dance. His book, The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People, published in 1960, became a classic text for the study of Haitian culture.

Courlander also took numerous field trips to the southern United States, recording folk music in the 1940s and 1950s. From 1947–1960, he served as a general editor of Ethnic Folkways Library (he actually devised the label name) and recorded more than 30 albums of music from different cultures (e.g., the cultures of Indonesia, Ethiopia, West Africa, Haiti, and Cuba). In 1950, he also did field recordings in Alabama later transcribed by John Benson Brooks.