Subject: Fwd: BLACK EUROPE
I have just received #147/500 of the new Black Europe production. It is quite astonishing. (I can hardly lift it ! ). With 44 discs ! and color photographs ! and informative biographies ! Thank you so much. It will take me many hours to appreciate all that is here.
I am particularly impressed with the African material which is all new to me. Also to read about and hear Afro-Am artists who are merely dim legends until now.Thank you again, Tony Hagert
Here’s more about the African material from one who knows it in some depth.
For those who have not kept abreast of this project, please see the attached announcement ( scroll down to very end ). That’s TWO books plus the 44 discs !
Some of the African material is indeed outstanding and in remarkably good sound quality considering their age. The Madagascan valiha, the Senegalese cora, the Baule flutes, the Pygmy folk songs, the Congolese speaking drums, the Amharic masinko, the Jaunde xylophone, etc etc.
Among the African-Americans my favourite is Pete Hampton, a name completely forgotten in the US (as are almost all the others brought to life again, with the exception of Josephine Baker)
Thornton Hagert, Vernacular Music Research