World Library Of Folk & Primitive Music, Vol. 4: Spain
The long-awaited reissue ofAlan Lomax's continental European recordings begins withVolume IV: Spain. In his inimitable and casual way, Lomax has assembled a group of songs and dances that exalt the performers without ever losing sight of the elegant simplicity of their music. These recordings were made in the early 1950s in a country that was still very "regional" in nature. The music of Galicians, Castillians, Basques, Andalusians, and many smaller regional cultures is here still in a somewhat pure state (as pure as anything in Europe can claim to be), with radical differences in instrumentation and delivery still evident. At the end of the century, when almost all anyone knows of Spain's music is modern Western pop and flamenco fusion, here is a look at where it all came from.--Louis Gibson