The Penguin Encyclopedia Of Popular Music released in 1991, edited by Donald Clarke, has more than 3,000 entries on rock, rock'n'roll, folk, soul, R&B, gospel, country and swing, and a whole host of lesser-known genres. Musicians, songwriters and producers are all in this tome.
But what you won't find in such reference books (a publishing business that has been almost entirely superseded by websites and mobile phone apps) are any of the "other" popular (and traditional) music genres and musicians that "other" places were enjoying. Because, and this is a big surprise for many people who are not record collectors, recordings were being made across the globe, right from the beginning of the 20th century.
The US-based record label Dusk-to-Digital has produced a series of important CD compilations on early recorded music. In 2014, I reviewed a superb 4-CD compilation of early recordings from Southeast Asia, Longing For The Past: The 78rpm Era In Southeast Asia.
Since then the label has released similar compilations, each one meticulously researched and beautifully packaged. Some of those compilations, such as Opika Pende: Africa At 78RPM, Excavated Shellac: Reeds and Excavated Shellac: Strings, were compiled by Jonathan Ward who runs an endlessly fascinating and highly recommended website for 78rpm record buffs, Excavated Shellac. His new effort may be his best yet: Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History Of The World's Music.
Shellac is the material from which recordings of musical performances were made and distributed, from 1898 to the late 1950s, when the material was completely replaced by vinyl records. Indeed, most countries replaced 78rpm shellac discs in the 1950s, although in Thailand they lasted to around 1970 before being discarded. One of the first local companies to make and distribute shellac 78rpm recordings was the Kratai (Rabbit) Record label, which produced them from 1925 to 1970.
This new 100-track compilation features music from six continents and 89 different countries and regions, recorded in the 60-year period between 1907 and 1967. The liner notes, a 186-page PDF with period advertisements and illustrations, are a revelation, providing important context to the staggering range of music on show.
The first volume begins with a South African choir, followed by a Mexican band and on to some Okinawan folk music. And the journey has only just begun because there are some many delightful surprises -- soaring harmonies of Georgian choral music, plaintive Kyrgystani songs, groovy Malagasy tunes, stirring Russian songs from the 1950s and lots of fascinating popular tunes in the 60s from Afghanistan, Albania, Mongolia, Vietnam, Uganda, Spain, Ireland, Wales and Zimbabwe. And some of the very early recordings from the 1920s and 1930s even include the mysterious Miss Phuaphan And Miss Pleng With The Organ-Phinphat Ensemble Of Bang Khun Phrom Palace, Part 12.
Compiler Ward has been running his Excavated Shellac website since 2007, on which he tries to post a new shellac number every day. The site is a treasure trove for people interested in the music industry and 78rpm records, and while most sites and books that feature 78rpm records tend to focus on early jazz, ragtime, blues and Western classical music, Ward's website focuses on the rest of the world, and, as such, provides an important alternative to the idea that early recorded music was just about early jazz music in the USA. Ward has commented in several interviews that places like Okinawa, Kyrgyzstan and South Africa had their own musicians, producers and bands who made popular and traditional music locally for local audiences -- this is the music the compilation delves into.
Ward has also gone to great pains to provide as much context as possible to music, so that we know something of the background to it; this is certainly a key issue for this column as well because context is so important to understanding the role of music in our lives.
Although Excavated Shellac: An Alternative History Of The World's Music has only just been released, and we still have 11 months to go before the end of the year, I don't think any release will top this absolutely essential 4-CD collection. Highly recommended.
More info from dust-digital.com and Ward's site excavatedshellac.com.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
