Tuesday, November 23, 2010

C'est Pour Cleoma


Last night I noticed a comp of early cajun music being spotlighted on WFMU's "Beware Of The Blog", and when I took a look at it, all I could think was....I've got something much much better than that.

This is a collection of Cleoma Breaux recordings I put together several years ago and then posted on another blog.

Cleoma Breaux Falcon was more or less "the mother" of recorded cajun music, in fact the first female inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame. She played, along with her then husband-to-be, Joe Falcon, on what is generally considered to be the first cajun record. This was in 1928.

At the time I decided to put this collection together, I couldn't see that anyone had bothered to gather her recordings before, not in a comprehensive way. Usually, she's lumped in with her husband, when she was absolutely a major regional recording artist in her own right. But more than that, the band she grew up playing with before her marriage were the fabulous Breaux Freres. and her father was the legendary [unrecorded] accordion player Auguste Breaux.

My point being that Cleoma can be viewed as central to a musical clan, and that her role within that clan, musically speaking, is often more obscured than need be. Her brothers recorded with her and her husband after she was married, she at times recorded with her brothers without him. And she played the guitar with both, which in those days was the rhythm instrument. Now, the way she plays may sound ham-handed to modern ears, but it's to be remembered that there was no such thing as amplification in those days, and these were dance bands. The only other "percussive" instrument used at that time was a triangle.

Initially, my thought was to only gather the recordings on which Cleoma sang, but as I got into the project, I thought....why not include those songs on which she also played guitar?.....and even, why not include the work of what was once her family band even if it's unclear if she's playing at that moment?...in short, why not put Cleoma at the center of it all, just this once. Ya know, just this one time, let's give her what's due.

There were problems. First, the availability of recordings...as far as I can tell [I have a fairly accurate discography] there are at least 12 recordings missing. Secondly, where to draw the line with the Breaux Freres. Cleoma died in 1941. Whereas Joe Falcon refused to record after her death [bless his heart], the Breaux Freres, together and separately, continued to record after that time.

Thus I can't say this collection is either totally complete or even 100% correct, but I gotta tell ya....after several years, I've yet to find another obvious Cleoma Breaux recording to add to the mix. I don't remember where all of these recordings came from, but I do know that some are direct from the 78's.

And ya know what? Even if all these songs are all available on comps at this point, I've still yet to see anyone put them together in this form. As far as I know, this is the most complete collection available of recordings by the Falcon/Breaux clan up to Cleoma's death.

Just my way of saying thanks to all of you for stopping by, commenting, sending me emails, and in general being so very kind. To those of you in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving. To those of you elsewhere, my best wishes. I thought I'd put this up now in case I don't have time to do so over the next couple of days.

I call it, "C'est Pour Cleoma", I hope ya'll find it as interesting as I did putting it together. Truly a labor of love.

23 comments:

  1. Zounds! Thanks so much for sharing this. I have added an alert in the comments to my original Mining the Audio Motherlode post at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

    Cheers,
    Doug Schulkind

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  2. Hey Doug, It's totally my pleasure. I'm glad to know someone appreciates the collection for what it is.

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  3. Can't quite remember where (Twilightzone?) but I got this one first time you put it up - not realising at the time that you had your own blog - & it's much treasured & was pored over at the time. If memory serves you were looking for those remaining sides you mention & I commented that one was available on the very comp that WFMU have highlighted & I said I could stick it up on a file site if needed. Wondered if you ever followed that through.

    J

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  4. Thanks Ana for all the great music. I just downloaded this monster and hope to find time to play it during the holidays! I only own about one or two million records and Cd's, so hopefully I can play them all during the holidays.

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  5. J...I didn't have the blog at that time. I do remember getting a few responses to my query at the time, all of which I tracked down, all of which were already included [I think].

    The deal is, and I almost mentioned this in the post, even the names of these tunes are somewhat obscure. The originals were undoubtedly transcribed by someone less than conversant in Cajun French, and even if they were a native speaker it's worth remembering that Cajun French is not a written language.

    Trying to transliterate some of these titles into standard french is a fools game, but that's exactly what's happened over the years.

    Thus, from comp to comp you'll considerable variation in the titles. If my memory serves me correctly, that was exactly the case in the supposedly missing titles. The songs were simply listed under another title variation. I happen to think the comp linked to by WFMU is particularly bad about the titles they've given.

    Part of the problem is that few seem to actually seen the original records, which is understandable, they are rare, in fact I'm starting to wonder if the titles I'm missing even exist anymore. But I have seen, oh, maybe 6 of the original Deccas, 2 of the Bluebirds, maybe 10 of the Columbias....

    The titles I've used are probably not totally correct, but they are better than are listed in a lot of comps.

    Sorry to go on so, but you've hit on one of the reasons why this collection took a good bit of effort to put together.

    And again, I'd love it if anyone had anothet tune to add, it's just that it's a bit more complicated than just looking at the titles.

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  6. Gyro, I know the problem well. I realize most people won't listen to all of it. As I said in the post, it was truly a labor of love. I'm a fanatic.

    But ya know, some of it is soooo very beautiful. I figure if "Ma Blond est Parte" doesn't affect someone, then I'm not sure I understand what kind of human they are.

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  9. J....I looked at the comp from the link on WFMU again, and all of those songs are on my collection.

    Perhaps the questionable tune is one they list as "Ma Meilleure Valse". I know this song as "Ma Valse Prefere" and that's how it's listed on my collection.

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  10. Thanks for such a detailed answer Ana. This is what I reckon. That I found one you had with the same title but yours was sung in French Cajun & the other in English. Now I'm gonna have to prove this or fess up that I'm talking hockum. I will but I have just spent far to long getting totally muddled & if I don't get that fancy dinner on I promised then the song will be D-I-V-O-R-C-E (& we aren't even married). Watch this space...it may take a week.

    J

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  11. J...as far as I'm concerned it's not a matter of you being wrong, I'm hoping you're right!!!

    I'd love it if someone found more songs.

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  12. http://pour.inn.over-blog.com/article-14286953.html

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  13. Thanks Ana - nice to have all these in one place.

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  14. Thanks for the link Anon.that's a nice collection for those who don't necessarily want everything.

    Bobb....my pleasure...

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  15. My download window says it's going to be another 45 minutes before I get to listen to this collection. I look forward to hearing it. I have heard couple of her songs on a collection of old rare cajun songs that my son, aware of my penchant, at the time, for cajun and zydeco music, urged me to listen to a few years back. Ana, thank you for being a fanatic and taking the time and effort to produce this collection. I hope to be listening to it soon. Thank you!

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  16. It's a huge file Jem, something over three hours of music...hope you enjoy it...

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  17. With thick snow & work down to a minimum I have had time to review the Trikont CD (on WFMU) against your mighty tome & your absolutely correct, you have everything on it. I'll keep searching though.

    J

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  18. J...it's a continuing project. There are still tunes out there, I hope.

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  19. After listening to "Ma Blonde Est Partie" hundreds of times, I was looking for more from the Breaux family. 66 songs! This is manna from the gods, and you are an angel from heaven. Thank you so much! This is music that will last me a lifetime.

    -JM, Long Beach, Calif.

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  20. You're most welcome JM. Ya know, I still can't find any other Cleoma Breaux/Joe Falcon tunes to add....even though more were definitely recorded. Perhaps some day....

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  21. File of Cleoma is not available anymore there on ''Sendspace'' ,,,Please can you upload again, preferably on ''mediafire'' THANK YOU ! cheers

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  22. Anon...I'll see what I can do. May take a few days though. Mediafire and I are having a feud atm so I'm not sure what server site I'll use.

    Actually, the file's too big for Mediafire anyway.

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