Label: East-West Records – EW-1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue Country: US Released: 1969 Genre: Folk, World, & Country Style: Ethnographic
Authentic, culturally traverse Eastern traditional music performed by Western students of the University Of Utah led by master musician and academic Lloyd Miller.
Miller is an interesting character to say the least, with a list of accolades and accomplishments that almost seem made up.Born in the late 1930’s he learnt to play a multitude of instruments and became an expect in New Orleans trad-jazz, but it’s a move to Tehran with his parents where he first became aware of Iranian music and traditional folk styles of ‘the east’.He travelled around Afghanistan, SE Asia, India, Hong Kong and Japan, learning more about each country’s musical heritage and studying all the languages.He lived in Beirut, playing in jazz clubs and studying Arabic classical music before driving Sweden and becoming well integrated within the European Jazz scene.Eventually, he found himself back in Utah, where he set-up the Utah Eastern Ensemble - a group of student musicians who perform music of the orient.It’s pretty staggering how authentic these pieces sound, if you didn’t know it’d be easy to mistake any of these pieces for music published by ethnographic instructions like Ocora, Folkways, Musicaphon, etc.The pieces from Thailand and Vietnam are a particular stand-outs, both with stirring vocals and flat-harp and flute accompaniment.The B-side travels back towards the Near East with Armenian wedding music, lively ceremonial recordings of Turkish and Greece heritage with additional Persian classical bits performed by Miller himself.It’s a hyper-condensed trip through millennia-old musical traditions, but captured and performed by enthusiastic outsiders.Privately published by The University Of Utah.(NM/NM - top copy in shrink still).
Tracklist A1 Japan - Sakura A2 China - Yang Chin Solo A3 Viet Nam - Luu Thuy A4 Viet Nam - Kim Tien A5 Viet Nam - Luu Thuy A6 Viet Nam - Co La A7 Laos - Ramayana Prelude A8 Cambodia - Rop Koh A9 Thailand - Khmen Sayok A10 India - Table Bols B1 Afghanistan - Song From Loggar B2 Iran - Zarb Solo B3 Iran - Sehgah B4 Armenia - Khnaminer B5 Armenia - Yerevan Wedding Dance B6 Turkey - Amen Avci Vurma Beni B7 Greece - Hasapiko
