African Music on Records: America Lends an EarAuthor(s): Harold CourlanderSource: Africa Today, Vol. 3, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1956), pp. 6-7Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183806 .

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White community of South African footballers or whether to recognise the non-racial community which represents the non- Whites. In Lisbon this year, in July, a decision will be taken. It is most unlikely that it will favor White South Africa. This paves the way for similar action by the Olympic and Empire Games Organizations. It is probable that within three or four years, White South Africa will be ostracised by the world's sportsmen until it mends its ways. White South Africans are sports-mad, and this will have an immense impact.

The lifting of the mists will therefore help many sorts of people to make up their, minds. Up to now these people have been able to cloud the issue by the use of ambiguous phrases. Now that the issues are starker, they must make up their minds between domination or democracy. Nor am I pessimistic about the result.

AFRICAN MUSIC ON RECORDS America Lends an Ear

By Harold Courlander

Mr. Courtander, as an author and folklorist, is editor of the Ethnic Folkways Record Library series. He is also the author of two books of African folktales, "Fire on the Mountain," and "Cowtail Switch.' A third book, of Ashanti folktales, is to be published by Harcourt Brace this fall.

Before World War II, the number of discs of genuine African music available in the United States was scarcely worth mention. Decca and Victor had tried albums of African recording (78 rpm, of course) without much public response. Reeves Sound Studios (General Records) had issued a six-record set of Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi music waxed by the Denis-Roosevelt film expedition in 1935-6: it was then the best collection available in the U S, and the forerunner of serious efforts to come.

As of the present moment, traditional African music seems to have found a growing circle of friends in this country-fairly small, it is true, but sufficient to encourage issuance 6f a number of long-playing recordings on commercial labels. This is not ex- clusively an "African" phenomenon, but an expression of widen- ing interest in the ways of other peoples, and it is hard to escape the conclusion that the war was mainly responsible for the change. Nevertheless, traditional African music has had a special appeal. Many jazz adherents had spoken freely about the "Afri- can origins" of jazz; there had been a long controversy among musicologists as to African and European elements in Negro

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spirituals and folksongs; African sculpture was arrive; and heyond all this, the "Dark Continent" had developed a romantic and adventurous character second only to our own Wild West. As authentic recordings became more and more available, our cliched concepts of African music began to fall by the wayside; familiarity bred increasing respect. It became obvious that there was a good deal more to Afrian music than exciting and highly- developed drumming techniques. In fact, the greatest surprise of all was the wide divergence of musical style from one part of Africa to another.

Today a number of U. S. record companies include African music in their catalogues. Columbia has an assortment of music from French-held areas of Africa, secured from the archives of the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, and a sampling from Central, South and East Africa. Riverside has two long playing discs covering parts of West Africa, the Eastern Congo and Ruanda- Urundi. Esoteric also has drawn on the Musee de l'Homme col- lection for two long playing discs sampling the music of the Baoule, the Malinke, and the princes of Dahomey. London Rec- ords has issued eight 10-inch long playing discs of authentic music from Central, South and East African areas such as Tanganyika, Kenya, Ruanda, Uganda, Rhodesia and the Congo -all under the editorship of Hugh Tracy, a South African who is carrying on a wide campaign for preservation and study of African music. The Ethnic Folkways Library, the major pro- ducer of authentic folk and traditional music around the world, lists eleven collections of African music on 12-in long playing discs. They include French Equatorial Africa (Badouma, N'Goundi, Okandi, Mboko, Koukouya, Yaswa, Bongili and oth- ers), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somaliland, the Western Congo (Ba- bunda, Bapende, Bambala, Bapindi and Bakwesi), the Watutsi of Ruanda, the Yoruba of Nigeria, the Cameroons (Bulu), Sene- gambia (Wolof), Liberia, and examples from various parts of South Africa.

Materials representing music north of the Sahara also are available upon Esoteric, Westminster, Columbia and Folkways. In addition, African folk tales, told in English, are to be found in the Folkways and London listings.

Some spurious recordings have infiltrated the field . . . sup- posedly "African" music recorded in French studios, "Zulu" music found in South African hot spots, and so on. And so-called "modern" urban music-variously called "Spanish" and "High- life"-has had some appeal among those who are especially fond of Calypso and other Latin American forms. But with the supply of authentic music growing ever larger, there should be little difficulty in separating the wheat from the chaff. 7

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