I’m back, and will be on schedule for the forseeable future.
This track hails from the Auvergne region of France, and is an authentic bourée – a folkdance usually in double-time whose origins date back to the 17th century. Performing here are Jean Pradal on accordion, and Martin Cayla on the cabrette, the Auvergne bagpipe traditionally made of goatskin. (There are other types of bagpipes from different regions in France I’ve been able to find examples of on 78, such as the binioú kozh from Brittany, which are more reedy and high-pitched.)
Cayla was a popular folk musician of the time and the man behind the short-lived Le Soleil record label, which, as far as I can tell, was in existence from the late 20s to the early 30s. Despite the sometimes cruddy pressing quality, there’s great music on this label – besides fantastic accordion and cabrette jams, there are excellent examples of banjo and hurdy-gurdy playing as well. I’ve been lucky enough to find a bunch of them, several of which came from the collection of a certain cartoonist residing in the south of France. Even his cast-offs are great! I’m not worthy!
If you’re interested in more vintage music from France, try digging up this CD. (This one might be decent, too.)
Technical Notes
Label: Le Soleil
Issue Number: 221
Matrix Number: C 221
Excavated Shellac 
Found your site through a link on Benn Loxo Du Taccu (http://bennloxo.com/) and am really impressed. Keep uploading, and I’ll keep checking it out 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying it. I will keep posting the rare stuff…weekly, if not more often!
Also, all the mp3s are still up, so get ’em while the bandwidth lasts. I began this blog in April, so there are posts going back till then.
Also arrived here via Benn Loxo and have done a little walk around. Keen to hear any more South African 78s you may have. I’m putting up a link at my site to send more folks here. All the best
Thanks for stopping by, and for linking!
I have a solid cache of South African 78s – from HMV’s first sessions in the country in the 30s, to mbaqanga of the mid-60s (they kept pressing 78s in South Africa until at least 1967 or so).
As I’m sure you can see, my purpose for this blog is to provide a wide range of musics from all over the map without prejudice or, heck, even a logic – really just for people to form their own connections between early music from other regions. A lofty goal, I guess, but earnest.
I’m not sure when I’ll post something more from S.A, but it’ll happen at some point!
This recently released 10 CD set of French folk music on the Fremeaux label, with R.Crumb artwork is worth checking out, although only a small percentage of the recordings are from the gramophone era: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/france2.htm
I’ve seen the set – very pricey. Thanks for the link!
Wait – the review states that the tracks are entirely “field recordings.” That doesn’t sound correct to me – is it?
Hi, I am the compiler of the 10 CD set of French folk music mentioned above (in this… 5-year-old post !). The tracks ARE entirely “field recordings”, although there are some 78s which of course were recorded in a studio, but featuring traditional musicians. A few words on the “Le Soleil” label : it was not that short-lived ! The last sides were recorded in the early 1940s, and even long after Martin Cayla’s death (which occurred in 1951), there were some LP reissues of older recordings in the late 1950s.
Thank you! And thank you for your work! Actually, it’s an EIGHT-year old post, and as you probably noticed, I didn’t do much writing or research in the early days. If you’re familiar with the site, you can tell that has changed dramatically. Since I posted that disc, I certainly had found out that Le Soleil lasted until the LP era – however, unfortunately I did not update the post. This is a good excuse to do that, and I’ve thanked you by name. I should do the same for the rest of the early posts, too…
I will disagree that these are “field recordings,” though. I know what you mean, they are LIVE recordings of traditional musicians, as nearly everything on this website is, as well. However, the term “field recordings” in this instance infers that the recordings were not made for commercial purposes and were made for anthropological, linguistic, or ethnomusicological purposes, and not for the general public. Many true field recordings from this era were issued commercially in small numbers, sometimes for curious westerners or adventurous listeners, but by and large, most traditional music was mediated and issued by commercial recording companies, and released for the people who were meant to enjoy it. Of course, the irony is that these commercial companies recorded some of the very best traditional music – not the scientists who were making field recordings! But the distinction is meaningful, especially in the world of ethnomusicology.
Hi, you did not fully understand my post (English is not my first language) : I mean that most recordings on my 10 CD set of French traditional music definitely are field recordings (from university or museum sound archive, private song collectors, etc.) and were not made for commercial purposes. The only recordings on the set that are not field recordings come from 78 rpm records(which, I agree, mainly are live recordings of traditional musicians for commercial purposes). And there are only 15 or 20 of them out of more than 300 tracks in the entire set.
Aha! Thank you for the clarification! I will fix that in a moment. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the music and writing on the site.