Sarolta Zalatnay (born Charlotte Sacher in Budapest, Hungary,14 December 1947) is a Hungarian singer. She has been noted for a flourishing popular music career under Communism, and evolved from teen pop to rock music.
Showing posts with label Folk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Folk. Show all posts
01/09/2025
28/08/2025
Escaping the killer skull
John Cameron (1944) is a British composer, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to pop recordings, notably those by Donovan, Cilla Black and the group Hot Chocolate. Cameron's instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", became a hit for his group CCS and, for many years, a version of Cameron's arrangement was used as the theme music for the BBC TV show Top of the Pops.
06/06/2024
Lessons to learn birdsong
Katsutaro Kouta (小唄 勝太郎) was a Japanese geisha, female singer born in Niigata Prefecture on November 6, 1904; died June 21, 1974. She has performed in the following genres:
小唄 (Kouta), 清元 (Kiyomoto: Shamisen music), 民謡 (Min'yō), 新民謡 (Shin-Min'yō : Ondo),
端唄 (Hauta)and 歌謡曲 (Kayōkyoku).
22/02/2024
Art is beyond thoughts
Ersen Dinleten (July 4, 1946, Istanbul, Turkey) became interested in music at an early age. His father (a
hero according to Ersen) was interested in the violin, so Ersen learned
to play his father's instrument - as well as mandolin and guitar - when
he was child. Spending most of his time practicing, he also studied the
art of singing and later found himself singing Turkish folk tunes at
local meetings and wedding parties.
Playing and singing in many orchestras until the end of the '60s, Ersen's faith turned when he met Cem Karaca in person. A newborn star in Turkish rock scene, Karaca was managing Bunalimlar at the time and offered Ersen an opportunity to record. His first single, "Olvido — Ak Guvercin," was released in 1969 and featured hypnotic guitar work from Unol Buyukgonenc. A year later, Ersen replaced Aziz Azmet of Mogollar to lead the band. The collaboration was very short, as Mogollar headed to France, so Ersen joined forces with another Anadolu pop band, Uc Hurel.
Ersen's early singles were mostly Spanish-influenced, but he later evolved into a unique blend of Turkish folk and Western progressive themes. His breakthrough single, "Kozan Dagi," was released in 1972. "Sor Kendine," released that same year, was an incredible show of talent, and it's still one of the pivotal points of his career.
He later joined Mogollar once again, played with Kardaslar, and at last formed his well-known band Dadaslar. Being a group of talented musicians of the present scene, Dadaslar could never maintain a stable line-up; however, they supplied the necessary background for one of the most important figures in the Anadolu pop/rock scene. Ersen released "Cakmagi Çak," "Yine Seni Taninm," "Bir Ayrilik Bir Yoksulluk Bir Olum," "Uc Kiz Bir Ana," "Ne Sevdigin Belli Ne Sevmedigin," and "Ekmek Parasi," among other singles, until the end of 1978. Following the tendency of the Turkish music market in the '80s Ersen laid aside his band and continued his career alone. Like the rest of his fellow Turkish musicians, he was also forced to choose a side in the political turmoil of the day. Despite trying not to reveal clear political beliefs, he was right wing-oriented, and after the Army took control of the government, he was disrespected by many musicians and fans. He played and recorded for the Army and the governmental media, TRT.
Hatamizi Bilmeden Cekiyoruz (1980) and Anadolu Pop (1983) were the last of his musically rich albums. Leaning toward a more poppy and shallow sound, Ersen faded away with his last album of the '90s, Ersen Ustadan Kuru Fasulye in 1993. After a nine-year hiatus, Ersen returned to the music business with Ersen Mevlana Gibi. The album, finding Ersen in a more mystical and spiritual form, failed to draw attention, just like the following year's Donemem. In 2007, Ersen ve Dadaslar re-recorded five of their classic tunes and released them as an album called Ersen ve Dadaslar Yeniden (1973-2007).
Ersen - Dertli KavalPygmies dancing to the beat of love
Francis Bebey (15 July 1929, Douala, Cameroon - 28 May 2001, Paris, France) was a Cameroonian musicologist, writer, composer, and broadcaster; he attended college in Douala, where he studied mathematics, before studying broadcasting at the University of Paris. He moved to the United States and continued to study broadcasting at New York University. In 1957, Bebey moved to Ghana at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah, and took a job as a broadcaster.
In the early 1960s, Bebey moved to France and started work in the arts, establishing himself as a musician, sculptor, and writer. He was also the first African musician to use electric keyboards and programmable drum machines which he set alongside off the traditional African instruments. His most popular novel was Agatha Moudio's Son. While working at UNESCO from 1961-74, he was able to become the head of the music department in Paris. This job allowed him to research and document traditional African music.
Bebey released his first album in 1969 and would go on to release over 20 albums on Ozileka, between 1975 and 1997. His music was primarily guitar-based, but he integrated traditional African instruments and synthesizers as well. Though Bebey's music is now widely praised, it created controversy at the time due to its blending of African and Western traditions. His style merged Cameroonian makossa with classical guitar, jazz, pop, and electronics, and was considered by critics to be groundbreaking, "intellectual, humorous, and profoundly sensual". He sang in Duala, English, and French.
Moreover, Bebey had a major role in popularizing the n'dehou, a one-note bamboo flute created by the Central African pygmies. Bebey conducted field research among pygmy tribes, focusing especially on their musical traditions.
Bebey wrote novels, poetry, plays, tales, short stories, and nonfiction works. He began his literary career as a journalist in the 1950s and at one time worked as a journalist in Ghana and other African countries for the French radio network, Société de radiodiffusion de la France d'outre-mer (SORAFOM); in addition to exploring childhood and adult experiences in his works, Bebey also wrote tales drawn from the African oral tradition.
Francis Bebey - African Electronic Music 1975-198201/10/2023
Soft whispers of the Siamese fireback
Angkanang Khunchai is Molam singer and artist of Isaan heritage; she has recorded vinyl records including country songs, Mor Lam, and Lam Raeng Ta Klon.
Remembering the sunsets in front of the Mediterranean Sea
Jacques Kodjian was a pianist and composer born in Beirut by an Armenian family. He was considered to be one of the great innovators of Middle Eastern music even though this role has not been correctly attributed to him because of his work performed, many times, behind the scenes.
His most famous work is perhaps this album "Oriental Mood - Modern Instrumental Hits From Lebanon" released in 1972, in which he reinterpreted several songs written by the Rahbani brothers, with whom he often collaborated in his career. The remainder of his production consists of albums in which he performs classics of Armenian tradition and compositions performed in an innovative style with jazzy contamination.
He has worked closely with other Armenian musicians residing in Lebanon and founded a record company called "JK" in the '70s. Following the civil war involving the cedar country in the 1980s he moved to the United States, in Las Vegas, where he continued his work as a musician working, among the others, with singer Adiss Harmandyan, another Armenian musician from Lebanon, a pioneer of the Armenian pop song in America.
He passed away at his home in Granada Hills, California on September 17, 2019. because Alzheimer disease.
28/09/2023
Calling the ancestral spirits
Mor Thiam (Dakar, 1941)
is a Senegalese drummer, cultural historian, entertainment consultant and jazz musician and composer.
Hallucinations from hidden corners
Seven Inches of Love: Twenty Obscure 45 rpm records from Around the World is an oldie Psychedelic/Folk/World compilation made by ShellacHead label.
Murmurs from far away times
Sound Storing Machines: The First 78rpm Records From Japan, 1903-1912 is a Japanese Gagaku/ Min'yō/ Folk compilation from bygone eras, compiled by Seattle based label Sublime Frequencies.
19/06/2023
Warm glow of a hundred sunrises
100 Moons Hindustani Vocal Art, 1930-1955 is an old Hindustani folk music compilation made by Mississippi Records label.
18/06/2023
Koalas moving their hips
Omar Khorshid (1945
- 1981) was an Egyptian guitarist, musician, composer, accompanist, and
actor. Born in Cairo, Khorshid was a well-known guitarist who
accompanied many singers, including Farid Al Atrash, Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez.
Khorshid's
musicality in orchestra performances, original songs, and film scores
was considered revolutionary at the time in the Middle East. His
extensive theoretical knowledge, fusion of Western and Eastern music,
and incorporation of different, more modern instruments (e.g. the
electric guitar, electric keyboard, synthesizer) in Arabic music was
previously unheard of. Khorshid's unique style sparked inspiration from
many aspiring musicians not only in the Middle East, but in Europe and
the Americas as well. His mixing of "modern" western electric
instruments with older Eastern tunes spawned a new, more modern sound of
electric music that many use for discos today.
16/06/2023
Poems from the bamboo forests
Sonthaya Kalasin (1957) is a Thai Molam singer, he was the male lead singer in in the molam section of legendary
producer/impresario Surin Phaksiri's beloved musical troupe Thidso Lam
Phloen.
Tales of forgotten times
Veronique Chalot (1950 - 2021) was a French singer and musician; she was born in Normandy in the north of France, but it was in Paris that
she first became interested in traditional French folk music.Over the past 30+ years she has given hundreds of concerts, presenting
her repertoire of traditional French/Italian folk songs and building
awareness of that fascinating patrimony of antique melodies and dance
rhythms. Since 2005 she has played with Veziana, an ensemble dedicated
to early music from both sides of the Pyrenees.
Tender calls from the dunes
Tarik Bulut (1921-2006) was a Turkish percussionist, composer and arranger.
14/05/2023
Reaching transient states of consciousness
Ali Akbar Khan (1922 - 2009) was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, he also composed numerous classical ragas and film scores.
He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which moved with him to the United States and is now based in San Rafael, California, with a branch in Basel, Switzerland.
Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer and as a teacher. He first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.
He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Ustad Vilayat Khan (1928 - 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player. Along with Imdad Khan, Enayat Khan and Imrat Khan, he is credited with the creation and development of gayaki ang (an attempt to mimic the sound of the human voice) on the sitar.
08/04/2023
Swallows flying over the pyramids
Nostalgique Egypte - Chansons d'amour, de charme et improvisations 1925 - 1960 is an Egyptian tribute compilation made by French label Buda Musique.
During this golden age that runs from the interwar period until the
early 1970s, Egyptian music will literally flood the region, from the
Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean, undergoing profound and complex change; the greatest are all there: Oum Kalthoum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Abel Halim Hafez, Farid El Atrache, but also remarkable artists, less known outside the East, like Laure Daccache, Egyptian of Lebanese origin, not only a singer but also one of the first Arab women to compose her own songs and to accompany herself on the 'oud, or even Asmahane, sister of Farid El Atrache.
(This post is dedicated to the wonderful crew of Dream Weapons, who have allowed to open portals of awareness and learning for many years to those who are eager for this ancestral knowledge).
05/04/2023
Harmonies to relive the past
Gogo People - Fabulous Gogo Music From Tanzania is an Ethnic African Compilation made by Kenyan label Sapra Studio.
(The Gogo/Gongwe are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based in the Dodoma Region of central Tanzania).
20/03/2023
Scary sounds from Punjabi
Andy Votel (Andrew Shallcross, 1975) is an English producer and musician who co-operates Finders Keepers Records, Pre-Cert Home Entertainment & Dead-Cert Home Entertainment.
Votel name derived from the acronym VOTEL for Violators Of The English Language, a hip-hop crew on the Manchester scene at the time of early releases on the Fat City and now defunct Grand Central imprints.Andy Votel - Hindi Horrorcore
Lullaby in the rain
Shushā (Shamsi Assār, 1935 - 2008), was a writer,
editor, actress and - under the name of "Shusha" - a singer of Persian
and Western folk-songs.
Her first album produced when she was a student
in France in the late 1950s was under the name Chucha Assar. She had lived in London since the early 1960s. She was also a
talented amateur documentary filmmaker who was even nominated for an
Oscar (a First for an Iranian) back in 1976 for her feature documentary
People of the Wind co-directed with Anthony Howarth which was narrated
by British Hollywood Star James Mason.
Her books were reminiscent of the
very first generation of Iranian expatriates to study and live outside
Iran and who redefined and enriched their Persian heritage within a
cosmopolitan identity both by necessity and choice.
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