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Uncle Dave Lewis lives in a hole in the back of his brain, filled with useless trivia about 78 rpm records, silent movies, unfinished symphonies, broken up punk bands from the 80s and other old stuff no one cares about. This is where he goes to let off a little steam- perhaps you will find it useful, perhaps not. Who knows?

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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Hundred Year Old Cuban Music



Click on the box above and you should hear "Jamon con Yuca," made at the first recording session in Havana in 1907. I certainly don't have an original of this; I got it from a reissue CD, which I listened to it many times, and even played it on my radio show, before I realized that something was wrong with the recording. Certain rhythm patterns weren't making sense and it was behaving to my trained ear like a recording that was playing too slowly.

So I pitched it up to what seems natural for the rhythm and pitch of the instruments. The source CD transfer was also very muddy and I wanted as much of the drums as I could get. In the process I got back a little noise but I want to hear the violin.

100 year old Cuban music, like what LMG himself might have heard. I think this recording should cause us to REALLY RECONSIDER the relationship of Cuban music to early jazz, not just the jazz of the Bebop era.

What Happened to the Archive?

Hmm - it does appear to be missing now. Three years of posts - gone. A friend of mine was trying to find a way to fix this blog and save the archive. I think him for his efforts, but it appears blogger has decided for both of us. Oh well.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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