Thursday, April 15, 2010

Earliest known folkloric rumba recordings, 1948


Our friend Berta Jottar just alerted us to Zeno Okeanos's site, where he has published sound files of the earliest known recordings of folkloric rumba, check it out:

http://www.zeno-okeanos.com/rumba-1947.html

Besides the guaguancó, there is also a columbia, a "santo" and an especially fine Abakuá.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

Fidels Eyeglasses said...

These may be the first to be "recorded in the U.S." (They were recorded in in Gabriel Oller's studio in Queens, N.Y.C. )
These are actually not "the first known rumba recordings", the earliest are several (rumba) field recordings made by 'Richard Alan Waterman' in Cuba.

The Woman singing is 'Mercededes Hernandéz'. (not Merceditas Valdés)
Mongo Santamaria is not playing in these sessions.

karletto64 said...

Great stuff, Barry. Thanks for pointing me that way. Always great to hear anything new that's that old.

So I guess the logical question that Fidels Eyeglasses' comment brings up: Where might one get one's hand on those Richard Alan Waterman tracks?

Hmmmm.....