David Fanshawe - Heiva I Tahiti- Festival of Life - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This new is a beautiful album of traditional music from Eastern Polynesia that was taken from David Fanshawe's monumental Pacific Collection. The Pacific Collection was recorded over the course of fourteen years (1978-88), and focuses on the rich variety of authentic himene (hymns) indigenous to Tahiti, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands and others. David Fanshawe was a composer, ethnic sound recordist, guest speaker, photographer, TV personality, and a Churchill Fellow. He was born in 1942 in Devon, England and was educated at St. George's Choir School and Stowe, after which he joined a documentary film company. In 1965 he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. His ambition to record indigenous folk music began in the Middle East in 1966, and was intensified on subsequent journeys through North and East Africa (1969-75) resulting in his unique and highly original blend of music and travel. His work has been the subject of BBC TV documentaries including African Sanctus, Arabian Fantasy, Musical Mariner, and Tropical Beat.

Included on this DVD/CD set are artists from this Portland/Vancouver BC tag's roster.

Gétatchèw Mèkurya is the 'inventor' of a distinctive musical style. Amongst Ethiopia's vocal genres, there exists a form of singing that is purely warlik epic and declamatory, harsh and hoarse-voiced « shellela ». Gétatchèw had the idea of transposing the genre to his saxophone, creating a musical form that is daring, improvisational, angry and impetuous, a sort of free jazz before it's time.