We’re in the midst of the Alan Lomax Centennial and the achievement of the indefatigable folklorist radiates life-affirming goodness as strongly as it ever did. Global Jukebox is the digital-only imprint of the Alan Lomax Archive, and on July 7 their latest installment Music for Work and Play: Carriacou, Grenada, 1962 will be available for download. Compiled and annotated with essays by Rebecca Miller, it focuses on a cappella groups and string bands with the added enlightenment of interview segments, it adds impressively to the already vast wealth of Lomax’s research and documentation, the sheer value of which is essentially incalculable.
Alan Lomax was a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, writer, scholar, activist, and more, but less grandly he remains part of a family tradition spanning three centuries; he’s the son of distinguished folklorist John A. Lomax and father to Anna Lomax Wood, who currently runs the Lomax Archive in addition to heading the Association for Cultural Equity.
Founded by her father, the ACE is a charitable organization housed at New York City’s Hunter College. Its objective is to “explore and preserve the world’s expressive traditions with humanistic commitment and scientific engagement.” By extension the Global Jukebox, which Lomax and a team of developers began in 1989, attempts to “organize and synthesize the findings of anthropology and musicology that evoked relationships between expressive style, human geography, and long-standing patterns of subsistence and social life.”
One of the benefits of digital innovation is how it aids in the dissemination of large stores of historical material while simultaneously helping non-profits keep costs at a minimum. This shouldn’t bum-out fans of physical media (of which I am one) and lovers of vinyl (ditto) for it’s become pretty plain digital itself is not an enemy, though soulless streaming sites might be. And yet as a correspondent for this website I would be remiss in not mentioning Global Jukebox’s teaming with a handful of other organizations to utilize a wide array of formats.
These include Michigan-I-O: Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition’s e-book, Jail House Bound: John Lomax’s First Southern Prison Recordings, 1933’s compact disc in collaboration with West Virginia University Press and Alan Lomax In Asturias, 1952: The End Of Everything’s CD/book combo in partnership with Asturias, Spain’s Museu del Pueblu, which pairs 101 songs on two discs with a 170-page hardback book designed by McSweeney’s Barbara Bersche.
Don’t fret for there are LPs pressed by Mississippi of Portland OR, though admittedly the five older volumes comprising Lomax’s “Southern Journey” of ’59-’60 appear to be a bit pricey these days. For those on a budget, please consider Whaur the Pig Gaed on the Spree: Scottish Recordings by Alan Lomax 1951-1957 and a pair of upcoming platters, United Sacred Harp Convention: The Alan Lomax Recordings, 1959 and the Sid Hemphill spotlight The Devil’s Dream: Alan Lomax’s 1942 Library of Congress Recordings.
Music for Work and Play: Carriacou, Grenada, 1962 is thus far digital-only, but through the research and preparation for release by Rebecca Miller its worthiness isn’t diminished. Young Anna having accompanied her dad on the trip, it opens with a “pass-play” song; specifically a piece derived from a musical game mostly played by unmarried teenagers, the spirited if brief “Meet Me on the Road” by Beatrice Dick and chorus consists of call and response singing and handclaps. Beatrice returns later on “A-Nana-O,” a piece similar to “Meet Me on the Road” that offers a more complex weave.
The scotch reel dance music of fiddler Conrad James and group wastes no time in establishing the diversity found on this collecting jaunt. “Wila-Wila Mena” sets the tone for two James recordings later in the sequence; all are accented by the background ambiance of partiers and loaded with heavy but fleet bowing.
The fiddle is boosted by emphatic percussion including a triangle player whose mobility occasionally brings the instrument into very close proximity to the microphone, particularly on the scrappily intense “Charlotte-O.” James is also revealed as an appealing singer, Lomax capturing his solo rendering of lyrics for “Charlotte-O.”
To be sure, those fancying the fiddle will not be disappointed; Music for Work and Play corrals eight selections by Canute Caliste intended for quadrille dancing. While employing the same rhythmic instruments as James, the percussive strategy is looser, at least initially. Forcefulness does gradually rise as the tunes progress. A guitarist and boat builder, Caliste attained a measure of worldwide fame as a painter.
The sixth of Caliste’s quadrilles possesses a quickly recognizable melody that’s further explored by fiddler Elias Wilson and group on “When I Go Tell Me Mama.” Distinction is provided in part through the use of chac chac shakers (i.e. maracas) but more so in range; alongside a duo of English quadrilles, “When I Go Tell Me Mama” is described by Wilson as a polka in an interview spot. The killer string sawing of “Bullen Sent My Vera Back” is listed as a calypso.
Devotees of the voice need not feel neglected. Charles Bristol figures far more prominently on Global Jukebox’s Roll and Go: Chanteys and Sailor Songs from Grenada, but his immediately discernible talent leads three vocal numbers here; especially attractive is the vibrant exchange “It Time for a Man to Go.” Bristol’s entries are nicely enhanced by the interview with seafarer and fellow contributor to Roll and Go Newton Joseph, verses of a few impromptu sailing tunes peppering the discussion; the a cappella standout “Rosibella” finds Sidney Joseph and group imbuing a chantey with calypso verve.
By contrast, Sheraf Joseph and chorus impact the ear as much more traditional on “Bo-Moin Homme, Chére Dou-Dou” as the awesomely named Sweet Honey Duncan and group boisterously deliver “Adolphus Coker.” Martha Dick also leads a pair of cuts, the spry “Waterloo, My Boy, Turn Me Around” and the pass-play of “Ele Missi-O.”
Two tracks credited to May Fortune and group deepen Music for Work and Play’s attention to vocal affairs and culminate in an exchange between Lomax and the singer concerning the subject matter of “Khaki-O! Where You Diamond.” A twist closes the set, brevity the sole downside of an unidentified guitarist’s solo fragment “Calypso,” though the program’s entirety is plentiful but digestible, running slightly over sixty minutes.
Lomax’s importance perseveres today, representative of the thirst for knowledge and more admirably embodying the desire to share that learning for the betterment of the planet; it’s no accident his life work overlapped what many consider to be the USA’s finest hour. I don’t partake in the nostalgia but do agree without hesitation that Lomax’s curiosity, diligence, acceptance, and respect, when coupled with the aspiration to enrich minds and to celebrate humanity’s difference from the perspective of equality, make for a rare and beautiful combination.
We will surely never see his like again, but those like Miller and the Global Jukebox who carry on the legacy of Alan Lomax insure this spinning rock will be a better place to inhabit moving forward. Music for Work and Play: Carriacou, Grenada, 1962 is a mere sliver of that endeavor, but its contents are substantial.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
