LISTEN: 1st recordings of folkloric rumba

[Xeno]

Zeno, first of all thanks a lot for sharing these historic rarites. It must have been a great thrill to find these discs. I sent a link to your site to Cristobal Diaz Ayala, those recordings are not even listed in his comprehensive discography, I am sure he will be glad to have that info.

Xeno: Thanks Barry, I too was surprised that the recordings were not in Ayala's discography.

To compare the vocalists, I listened to the CD called "Santero" which Ayala's discography says was originally recorded in 1947-48, and features (the more famous?) Merceditas Valdés (you can listen at the link below). Especially the song "Yemaya," which you can hear at the link below:

Xeno: I have and had those old Panart LPs from long ago and know them well. So I guess that would be the "more famous" Mereceditas (Barreto) Valdes (?) recorded in Cuba. The other Mercedita (Guerra) Valdes was probably already in the USA at that time while here husband "Rapindey" Marcelino Guerra had a smoking Afro Cuban Jazz band similar to Machito's (not to say I know when anyone really got married), and would be the more likely candidate for the SMC vocals, the Mongo vocals, and the Tito Puente vocals.

http://www.goear.com/listen/f69e58a/yemaya-merceditas-valdes

At 00:59 Mercedes begins singing "Yemaya e, olodo awo yo Yemayá" which the vocalist on the SMC recordings begins singing at 2:27 (a bit oddly, this song is introduced by the coro a few seconds earlier).

To me it is clearly not the same person on the SMC record, Merceditas Valdes has a more full-throated voice and somehow more professional...the singer on the SMC recording is more nasal and more casual, natural sounding. I like them both, they just don't sound the same.

Interesting info about the "other" "Mercedita" Valdés, I wasn't aware of that.

Xeno: Since she was in the US, apparently married to Marcelino Guerra, is credited on the SMC Mongo (1952) and along with Marcelino is credited on Tito Puente's Top Percussion (1958) I am thinking that this is the career of a different person who , although Cuban, was based in the US at the time, moreso than the Mercedes "famous" to most of you.

However, I believe the adding or dropping of the "s" at the end is more a factor of Cuban speech patterns and lack of careful notation that about distinguishing one performer from another. I see (the more famous?) Merceditas Valdés written both ways, and also sometimes as "Mercedes Valdés."

Orovio's dictionary of Cuban music has it as "Mercedita," Radamés Giro's Diccionario Enciclopédico has it as "Mercedita." (They also give completely different birth dates, for what that's worth!)

Xeno: Thanks for pointing this out. I was basing my theory about spelling based merely on the records I have. I knew about Mercedita (Guerra) Valdes way before I knew about Mercedes (Baretto) Valdes since I had more of these US made recordings before I had many of the Cuban records I have today, especially after my trip there.


If I am correct though, the whole notion that the singer on the SMC recordings could be Mercedes Valdés is based on mistaking the players on the Mongo session, is that right? So it could be anyone really.

Xeno: Since we have no actual notes about the Bolodo 78s, yes theoretically it could be "anyone", however, this Mercedita was on the scene as was Marcelino Guerra and such a specialty is not all that common (realistically there are not that many "anyones", around, unkown to us, just like there are only a small handful of us nuts on this forum from the whole planet, right, hahaha) . If I were to look further I probably would find Mercedita (Guerra) Valdes on other recordings I have in my collection -- produced in the US. I am not sure that Mercedes (Barreto) Valdes was in the US to be making recordings, most recordings I have of her were made in Cuba starting with that classic you mention on an early Panart LP (Celia Cruz was also doing material on that LP).
My intuition is that Mercedita (Guerra) Valdes was the female voice on the scene in the US for these various Afro Cuban recordings and she and her husband are there on the Top Percussion date.
When I have time I will round up other records on which she is credited.

It would be great to nail down the players on this session. I see Carlos Vidal died in Los Angeles in 1996, maybe some of you guys on the west coast could track down someone who knew him, maybe he talked about it before.

Xeno: Yes we are fast loosing the people who might have known. Interesting that Max Salazar didn't mention these Bolodo recordings as he did the Chano, probably because the Chano recordings had come out in 1947 and he knew those, but the other issues were more obscure and came out later (see my speculation below).

\There is a video of him on youtube in 1994 with a group called the Estrada Brothers Latin Jazz Sextet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMA2eyyD0GE

Xeno: I love it: it would have even been better had the band played a nice waltz. Invite up a legendary conguero and feature him on a quiet waltz....What's wrong with these musicians? Guess they wanted to show that the legendary conga player could do one tune with them and show his chops at being a quiet humble member of the band. At least they gave him some "solo" space at the intro, just what you want...no context to blow against just take off your shirt, oil up your chest, and let's see what you got.....without the band. Just like a band the drops the montuno for your solo! Don't you just love that? I digress.

One other question I have, about the dates of the sessions, you wrote they were recorded "circa 1948".

Ayala says the Chano Pozo sides were done on Feb 4 1947. The catalog numbers are 2517 and 2518 and the titles are "Ritmo Afro-cubano 1 - 4."

The Vidal Bolados sides are numbered 2519 and 2520 and entitled "Ritmo Afro-cubano 5-8." So couldn't we assume that they must have been recorded very close to the same time, maybe even at the same session, with some of the same players?

Xeno: The matrix numbers of the SMC Chano are 1084, 1085, 1086,1087, for the Bolodo the matrix numbers are SMC97, SMC98, SMC99, SMC100. Gabriel Oller took over sole ownership of the label from his partner ( they made records under the Coda label and also SMC -which was the name of Oller's store where he had recording equipment (see the other legendary with Chano "band" recordings with Tito Rodriguez et al on Coda) and we feel this transition to his own exclusive SMC label happened after the Chano recording dates (1947). The matrix numbers seem to suggest this line of thinking. That and the fact that Chano dies around this time and we feel Oller would have perhaps wanted to make more with Chano (unsubstantiated rumors have it that there were more of the Chano records than we all know about), I am thinking that after Chano died, and after Oller solely owned the label he decided to go back and record a couple more discs in order to have an "album"s worth which in those days was at least 4-78s to complete a Ritmo Afro-Cubano offering. These new SMC matrix numbers suggest he already issued nearly 96 sides (48 discs on 78 rpm) prior to the matrix numbers for the Bolodo tracks. Could have been 1948, could have even been a bit later. Doubtful that it was in '47 when the Chano tracks were made because of all the history I just mentioned, eg. the label ownership change and the big change in matrix numbering system. The matrix numbers are scratched in the wax and are a better indicator that the other numbers you referred to which misleadingly suggest a "continuity" which does not reflect the recording logs based on matrix numbers. After Oller took over sole ownership the matrix numbers use the SMC prefix whereas before it was simply a four digit number.

For example, I am pretty sure the singers of the columbias Nos 4 & 5 are the same person. (BTW your transfers sound much better than the ones on the Tumbao reissue, I have to say.) Maybe the Tumbao booklet that came with the Chano Box set lists the personnel? I don't have it at hand at the moment.

Xeno: from the Chano Box set booklet: Chano Pozo (cg. voc.), Miguelito Valdes (cg. voc.), Kike Rodriguez (cg. voc.), Carlos Vidal (cg.), Jose Mangual (bg).


PS. I did the best with what I have on hand for the tranfers. Technics 1210 TT with proper stylus for 78s, Juicy Music Blueberry (last version) tube preamp with NOS telefunken tubes, to my mini disc, to iMic to Imac to Toast Titanium to my CD burner, watching the levels carefully, and doing numerous takes and constant cleaning of record and stylus along the way until I got the best transfers. What you here is typical 78 surface noise, and I have heard much worse on some 78s. Many of us, Emiliano E. too, do not like to remove noise with digital devices and software, because it invariably takes something away from the music's presence and edge. Granted, the weak link in the chain is my little digital recorder. If and when I get a current state of the art digital recording device I will do this whole thing over again with better bits so to speak.

Xeno: all just my two cents, speculations, whatever, in this process of deduction.

Xeno aka Zeno (so glad this forum has the Edit feature!)

Saludos
Barry

[guarachon63]

Thanks for that detailed reply Zeno. I am now really curious to hear a recording with Mercedita (Guerra) Valdés singing lead. On "Top Percussion" she just sings coro.

Thanks also for the personnel info from the Chano dates:

Xeno: from the Chano Box set booklet: Chano Pozo (cg. voc.), Miguelito Valdes (cg. voc.), Kike Rodriguez (cg. voc.), Carlos Vidal (cg.), Jose Mangual (bg).

So does anyone know for sure who is singing lead on the tracks? Seems like Miguelito on "Ya no se puede rumbear" (another example of a columbia sung over a guaguancó, BTW), and I guess that could be him on the Abakuá, but doesn't sound like him to me on the columbia.

I wanted to correct one error I noticed in my post:

Orovio's dictionary of Cuban music has it as "Mercedita," Radamés Giro's Diccionario Enciclopédico has it as "Mercedita." (They also give completely different birth dates, for what that's worth!)

That should have been:

Orovio's dictionary of Cuban music has it as "Mercedita," Radamés Giro's Diccionario Enciclopédico has it as "Merceditas" (with an "s").

See how easy it is to make those careless mistakes? (I'm going back to change it in the original.)

About the Coda/SMC switch, I had read about that, I think in one of Salazar's articles.

Curiously, the lyrics to Chano's columbia "Placetas"* has these lines:

Había un cangrejo arando
un gorrión tocando un pito
de risa muerto un mosquito
Por ver un burro estudiando
un buey viejo regañando
trepando en una butaca
y una ternerita flaca
que de vista estaba muerta
por ver una chiva suelta
comprando un disco Coda

(There was a crab plowing
a sparrow blowing a whistle
a mosquito dying laughing
from seeing a donkey studying
An old ox scolding,
climbing on a chair
and a weak calf
that looked dead
from seeing a loose goat
buying a Coda record)

At first I thought it strange they would be making a reference to the old Coda label, but with the information you provided, this may be at least anecdotal evidence that the performers were under the impression the recording was being made for Coda.

saludos
Barry

(*Speaking of othographic carelessness and Cuban speech patterns, it seems this one was once rendered as "La Teta"!)

[JohnnyConga]

Hello I have those "santero' records i think i have 3 of them...i have to look ..in mint condition as well...Tks Zeno for sharing.."JC" Johnny Conga.....ps chek out my archived radio show as well at www.kbcs.fm right now on ur PC or laptop..my show is called AL LADO LATINO for THE BEST IN LATIN MUSIC!..."JC" Johnny Conga

[Xeno]

Johnny, I tried to listen, but couldn't figure out how to get there. Do you have instructions?

Zeno

[windhorse]

Hey Xeno, go here:
http://kbcsweb.bellevuecollege.edu/playlist/searchplaylists.aspx
Then click on the search function to play archives, and select ALado for Johnny's show.

I remember you from Humboldt a few years ago. Are you going again?
Dave

[Xeno]

Hey Xeno, go here:
http://kbcsweb.bellevuecollege.edu/playlist/searchplaylists.aspx
Then click on the search function to play archives, and select ALado for Johnny's show.

I remember you from Humboldt a few years ago. Are you going again?
Dave

Hi Dave, Thanks for the that. Yes, it sounds like the AfroCuban workshop 2010 is not to be missed. I will be hanging out there for sure.

Zeno