Maracatu [REPOST]

The Elisabeth Waldo Group - Maracatu

released on LP

Performers:

Elisabeth Waldo - violin
Burnett Atkinson - woodwinds
Guy Horn - guitar
Peter Mercurio - string bass
Jose Pablos and Chet Ricard - percussion

Lovers of the unusual will find this album a fascinating offering of music and sounds from the lands of contrast. Mystic - rhythmic - exotic - plaintive - whether the strains that predominate have grown out of Indian, Spanish or African influences, or whether they have their roots in remote jungle lowlands, high mountain peaks or isolated villages - the strains are immersed in the primitive and filled with spiritual symbolism.

Before the advent of the "Conquistadores," no stringed instruments existed in this hemisphere. With the introduction of the violin and the guitar by the Spanish, a fantastic musical change took place with the superimposition of these instruments on the barbaric percussion and the woodwind instruments that already existed in aboriginal America. The Indians and jungle peoples set about carving new instruments in the likeness of those they had seen, thus creating new sounds and scales. And so, the stone hatchet of the jungles, born before the discovery of America, exists today side by side with that which has been contributed by the European culture. This music is the offspring of those two interwoven cultures. (from the liner notes)



Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Siembra {2:51}

2. Carnavalito {1:57}

3. I Coos (Oh Joyous Wind) {2:23}

4. Cueca {2:55}

5. Cancion del Carretero (Song of the Carretero) {2:35}

6. Maracatú {3:51}

Side 2

7. Tun-kul {2:52}

8. Tamborito {2:43}

9. Seri Lullaby {2:20}

10. "La Llorona" (The Weeper) {2:47}

11. Indian Procession (Lament to the Dead Emperor) {2:43}

12. Malaguena {2:55}

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