General was a record label based in New York that began in the late 1930s. While the label is best known for it’s 1939 set “New Orleans Memories”, featuring the last recording sessions of Jelly Roll Morton, they also released several sets of ethnographic music. These include the Yaqui (and Tarascan) set by John H. Green heard in the last post, as well as a set of Haitian music, presumably recorded by Harold Courlander. Courlander was the son of a noted American painter and intellectual. In the 1930s he made folkloric field recordings across the American south and eventually became smitten with Haiti. Haiti seems to have been a super hip place to be “into” back in the 1930s through the 50s, with artists like Maya Deren and choreographer Katherine Dunham taking inspiration from the music and Voudoun practices of the island. Courlander made more than 20 trips to Haiti and wrote the classic “The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People.” As if that wasn’t enough, Courlander was general editor of the Ethnic Folkways Library, recording over 30 albums for the esteemed label.

Admittedly, I’m not absolutely positive that Courlander made these recordings for General. Please give me a shout if you have further information. Unfortuntely, these recordings are simply credited to the “Damballa Wedo Singers,”  with no indication of the performers’ names. Damballa Wedo is one of the primary spirits in Haitian Vodou, as well as in West African Vodoun, from which the Haitian religion is descended.

General closed shop in 1943 and the masters were subsequently purchased by Commodore. To my knowledge, Commodore did not reissue any of the ethnographic recordings.

Shawm-like instruments are found all over the place, from the well-known Turkish zourna to the obscure Khmer sralai, or the Algerian ghaita, as heard in the previous post. The double reed oboe has been an important instrument in military and festival musics around the world. It even made it’s way to the Americas. The P’urhépecha, or Tarascan as they were called by the Spanish, are a pre-Columbian culture from the Mexican state of Michoacán. Much of their music heard today is Spanish influenced string music, but these examples recorded by John Green in the early 1940s showcase an earlier traditional style. For some unknown reason, this single P’urhépecha record was included in the 4 record set of Yaqui music recorded in Arizona. This side of the record is divided into 3 tracks. The first two tracks feature the double reed chirimia, a member of the shawm family brought to Mexico in the 1600s by Spanish priests. In the third track we hear a small reed flute, which unfortunately ends somewhat abruptly.

We just heard the Colombian flutes called gaita, then the Galician bagpipe of the same name, now let’s check out this version from the Mozabites of Algeria. The Mozabites are a Berber cultural group living at the north end of the Sahara in Algeria. Their ancient hilltop cities are built around oases in the Mzab valley. The ghaita played by the Mozabites, and other North Africans, is a reed instrument of the ubiquitous shawm family, the predecessor to the modern oboe. This rarity was recorded using the old acoustic method in 1924 by George Dillnut in Oran, one of only three Mozabite records released from that trip.