< New Compilation Of Old Tunes Is 'An Alternate History Of The World's Music'

 ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Many histories of early recorded music recognition on stuff like this...

(SOUNDBITE OF music, "loopy BLUES")

MAMIE SMITH AND HER JAZZ HOUNDS: (singing) Now i have got the loopy blues given that my toddler went away.AZlyrics

SHAPIRO: ...Or this.

(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGE GERSHWIN'S "RHAPSODY IN BLUE")

SHAPIRO: but on the identical time record labels have been pressing Mamie Smith and George Gershwin's music, they have been doing the identical component all over the international, like in Nigeria.

(SOUNDBITE OF song, "ARTHUR PREST")

TUNDE KING: (singing in non-English language).

JONATHAN WARD: What most of the people likely don't know is that the recording industry existed everywhere, and it turned into big and large. An fantastic quantity of track was recorded around the arena, and nearly none of it's miles to be had.

SHAPIRO: many of those fragile discs had been broken or lost over the years, and beginner track historian Jonathan Ward has been carefully assembling a group of them. he is now released 100 tracks with histories of every tune and performer. He calls the collection "Excavated Shellac: An change history Of the sector's music." And we commenced by means of speaking approximately a recording from Panama with a sharp political message.

(SOUNDBITE OF track, "COGE EL PANDERO QUE SE TE VA")

GRUPO ISTMENO: (singing in non-English language).

WARD: There had been very few recordings made in Panama previous to the Fifties - about a grand overall of 22, in reality - frequently captured via American recording engineers who likely have been en course to some place else. This piece is by way of the Grupo Istmeno. what's interesting about this song is that it's miles a protest tune.

(SOUNDBITE OF music, "COGE EL PANDERO QUE SE TE VA")

GRUPO ISTMENO: (singing in non-English language).

WARD: The lyrics are stridently anti-U.S. and in opposition to the depopulation of Indigenous people within the Canal sector when the canal turned into being constructed about 15 years previous to while the recording became made.

SHAPIRO: And it became made in 1928, right?

WARD: it is right. And i'm certain the engineers had no concept what they have been recording.

SHAPIRO: but the lyrics are, like, if we don't depart, they may kick us out, those sons of Uncle Sam.

WARD: Yeah, precisely. They want to take it all. And the natives of Panama, we can't even breathe just like the loose for freedom.

(SOUNDBITE OF track, "COGE EL PANDERO QUE SE TE VA")

GRUPO ISTMENO: (singing in non-English language).

SHAPIRO: The identify of this collection, "Excavated Shellac," refers back to the type of cloth that became used to make those old discs. are you able to inform us approximately the bodily method of creating those recordings?

WARD: sure. The whole system again then turned into each crude and resourceful. You had these beeswax masters that, if you had been recording in the tropics, you had to ship lower back to Europe to get them steel-plated, after which the masters were destroyed. and then all of the copies of data have been then shipped all the manner lower back to the point of sale, which every now and then can be Africa or Southeast Asia or Brazil or who knows wherein.AZlyrics

SHAPIRO: So those file labels might without a doubt ship engineers on ships to port cities and say, report what you discover there. And simply to provide an example, like, we've got got one track here from Zanzibar in 1930.

(SOUNDBITE OF SUBEIT BIN AMBAR'S "TAKSIM HIJAZI")

SHAPIRO: tell us approximately that.

WARD: The East African recording market genuinely exploded inside the past due Nineteen Twenties, and the tune that was captured become largely a fashion referred to as taarab. it is a track that's very a great deal influenced via track of the center East and the Persian Gulf. And this piece changed into honestly recorded on Zanzibar in 1930 - first time all of us had made industrial recordings there - and capabilities Subeit bin Ambar gambling an improvisation on a localized version of the oud.

(SOUNDBITE OF SUBEIT BIN AMBAR'S "TAKSIM HIJAZI")

SHAPIRO: As you know, there's a protracted, unhelpful history of white human beings imparting, quote-unquote, "ethnic track" or "global tune" to Western audiences. and that i recognize you're aware about this colonialist cliche, but how do you think about your role in offering music from different cultures from different elements of the sector?

WARD: , I thought about this for the duration of the whole technique. And practicing cultural sensitivity as excellent as I knew how, honestly, changed into paramount for me. And that means you would possibly personal the records, however you do not very own the song. So I did my great on this venture to eliminate any pressure of romanticism from the textual content. I reached out to as many people who knew lots extra than me round the sector. I looked at as a lot scholarship as I may want to locate. And but I nonetheless experience like initiatives like this are all the time unfinished. , i'd be embarrassed if this became canonized in a way. it's intended to be a constructing block.

SHAPIRO: Does the undertaking risk falling into these identical acquainted colonialist tropes? - due to the fact, you recognize, what does the music from Panama have in common with the track from Zanzibar other than they're made by non-white, non-international-North performers singing in a language it truly is now not English?

WARD: it truly is truely an excellent query. The linchpin is the recording industry and the way it worked. whilst engineers were in Panama, they had been additionally in Zanzibar. They were additionally in Czechoslovakia. that is the umbrella with which this assignment can be considered. but I additionally believe that listening to track from unique cultures can provide a serendipity. You didn't realize which you wanted to explore a sure form of track similarly until it was supplied to you in that manner. I don't have any real problem with a variety, so long as it's now not exoticized.

(SOUNDBITE OF tune)

SHAPIRO: as soon as you have determined such a recordings, how tough is it to discover the story at the back of the musicians?

WARD: extremely difficult every so often - you already know, now and again, you cannot find whatever at all. And once in a while, it is very tough to get lyrics translated. for example, i was searching hard for a translation in a Filipino language, Ilocano.

(SOUNDBITE OF song, "PIRITIPIT")

VALENTIN EUGENIO: (making a song in Ilocano).

WARD: and that i ended up getting a translation from the person who wrote the Ilocano-to-English dictionary, and even he had problem expertise maximum of it. some of the phrases were so a82ee8a4ee179e54beacaecce0423cb2. He stated, I actually do not know. , that is extremely hard.

SHAPIRO: And what are these lyrics which you had to paintings so hard to translate into English?

WARD: it's miles simply kind of a naughty love music. He says things like, you call me a cat with my long mustache. You name me a bukto (ph) fish and a water buffalo butting his horns. there may be all this type of indistinct sexual innuendo in the course of a quarreling husband and spouse.

(SOUNDBITE OF song, "PIRITIPIT")

EUGENIO: (singing in Ilocano).

SHAPIRO: All right. let's go out on a music. can you give us a deep reduce inside this collection of deep cuts?

WARD: certain. properly, there is plenty to say approximately the famous tune of Portugal known as Fado. This man, Julio Silva, he was pretty influential at some point of the early twentieth century however kind of sad together with his recording career, switched to turn out to be a painter. And alas, he died destitute. however in 1927, he gave us this.

(SOUNDBITE OF JULIO SILVA'S "FADO MELANCOLICO")

SHAPIRO: Jonathan Ward - the brand new collection of early recorded tune from around the world is called "Excavated Shellac: An trade history Of the sector's song."

thank you so much.

WARD: thank you a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF JULIO SILVA'S "FADO MELANCOLICO")AZlyrics