A mesmerising crate-diggers delight arrives on September 15th from Jalopy Records. The Secret Museum of Mankind – Atlas of Instruments, Fiddles, Vol. 1 (LP and digital – pre-order here), features music from Crete to Madagascar – Mexico, England, Sicily, Norway, India, the USA, Cape Verde, China and more. It extends the beloved Secret Museum of Mankind series, which explores global music from the first half of the twentieth century, compiled by “a kind of ethnic-music scholastic… audiophile, guitarist, postal worker” (New York Times) Pat Conte since 1996; this new compilation marks the tenth volume.
A double-sided first single is out today consisting of “Volana Fenomanana” by [Fandihizana Malagasy] Orchestre de M. Michel Ratsimba, circa 1930 from Madagascar and “Okukomawe” by Abadongo Abaganda Kampala, circa 1948 from Uganda. The latter is based on an epic poem and is accompanied by vocals and odi, a hand-held harp then made with antelope horn and elephant ear:
The Times described early volumes in the Secret Museum of Mankind series as “often anonymous performers whose renditions of songs — coughs and mutterings included — are devoid of the show-biz flourishes that adorn even amateur music today.”
The second single will come out digitally on August 16 and consist of “Brown Skin Girl” by Mississippi champion fiddler Jabe Dillon accompanied by his son on guitar, circa 1949, with the b-side Norway’s Gunnulf Borgen playing “Igletveiten.”
The album kicks off with “Pentozali,” recorded in 1926 in Crete, which would accompany Πεντοζάλης or five-step dances, among the most ancient dances known. Quebec, Canada’s Joseph Allard, born in the 1870s, was among the first Canadian musicians to ever record. New York City serves as the site for recordings by Syrian-Lebanese and Irish musicians, respectively.
Noted early ethnomusicologist and folk-song and folk-dance collector Cecil Sharp used England multi-instrumentalist and dancer William Nathan, aka “Jinkey” Wells, born in 1868, as a source. Jinky was a member of Brampton Morris, whom he began ‘fooling’ for in 1887, later playing fiddle (according to Reg Hall, his last official performance with the team was on Whit Monday 1949). Sharp met him in 1909, after which he published some of the Brampton tunes and dances. Reg Hall’s notes on Topic Records’s Voice of the People (Volume 5) noted that Jinky added an extra dimension to his music by humming and la-la-ing roughly in unison with his fiddling, and he could dance a solo morris jig (with its energetic capers) and play at the same time.
Mariachi Coculense Rodriguez’s “El Jilguerillo” may be the earliest mariachi to be recorded. Conte describes the track as “Harmony twin-fiddling with guitarrón, before the advent of the more familiar brass.”
France multi-instrumentalist Paul LeVault often played on historic instruments from the 1700s, including rare wheel-fiddles and cabrettes whose function remained basically unchanged since the Renaissance.
Conte’s collection numbers over 30,000 78rpm records, over 5,000 LPs, plus 45s, cassettes, and numerous reel-to-reel tapes. In a profile that ran in 2000, New York Times described the collection, saying, “The museum, which fills the basement of his mother’s Long Island ranch house, includes dinosaur bones, tribal masks, a pipe collection, antique microphones and stereo gear from the 1950’s and 60’s. But at its heart is the music of a lost time, when adventurers and entrepreneurs fanned out across the continents with 78-r.p.m. and wax cylinder recording equipment in search of indigenous music.”
The Secret Museum series has had a home with Jalopy Records since 2021, releasing via Yazoo Records prior. The vinyl release will be a beautiful gatefold package featuring liner notes booklet by curator Pat Conte, original drawings of rare and unique fiddles in Conte’s collection, by artist Jeff Tocci, and a selection of historic images of fiddlers, also curated by Conte and drawn from his collection. Audio restoration, mastering, and engineering was done by Don Fierro.
Previous releases in this series received heaps of praise, and I’m sure this new release will be no exception.
Secret Museum of Mankind – Atlas of Instruments: Fiddles vol. 1 track listing
A1 Pentozali • Trio Th. Picoula • CRETE (c. 1926)
A2 Le Reel Du Pendu • Joseph Allard QUEBEC (1927)
A3 Pianto Ignoto • Joseph Ziccone & F. Guandi SICILIAN (NYC 1928)
A4 Volana Fenomanana • (Fandihizana Malagasy) Orchestre de M. Michel Ratsimba MADAGASCAR (1930)
A5 The Maid of The Mill • Jinkey Wells Oxfordshire, ENGLAND (c.1943-1952)
A6 Raks Jamili • Anon Group • Syrian-Lebanese Brooklyn, NY (c.1946)
A8 Sam Liang Gow • San Chi La & Shim Yi Chu PEKING (c. 1929)
A9 Le Chibrely • Paul LaVault, Vielle Commagny, FRANCE (c. 1929)
B1 Okukomawe • Abadongo Abaganda Kampala, UGANDA (ca. 1948)
B2 Bunjecacko Kolo • Stevan Bačić-Trnda • Sombor, SERBIA (1930)
B3 Thanam II • Tiramakudalu Chowdiah • Mysore, INDIA (c. 1937)
B4 Brown Skin Girl • Fiddlin’ Jabe Dillon • Mississippi, USA (c. 1949)
B5 Igletveiten • Gunnulf Borgen, hardingfele • Oslo, NORWAY (1939)
B6 Danza De Matachines • Yaqui Group • New Mexico, USA (1933)
B7 Fattenin’ Frogs • Mobile Strugglers • Alabama, USA (1949)
B8 Sligo Maid’s Lament; Trip To The Cottage • Paddy Killoran • NYC, USA (1936)
B9 Valsa Continental • Abrew’s Portuguese String Trio • CABO VERDE (1931)