Alan Lomax Visited Haiti In 1936-1937. This is the tale of his trip, the music he found. The result has been put together into a massive box set that tells the complete story.
On December 21st, 1936, Alan Lomax sent a report to Herbert Putnam at the Librarian Of Congress, about his first impressions after arriving in Haiti.
"I have looked about enough to be sure this is the richest and most virgin field I have ever worked in. I hear fifteen or twenty different street cries from my hotel window each morning while I dress. The men sing satirical ballads as they load coffee on the docks. Among the upper-class families many of the old French ballads have been preserved. The meringue, the popular dance of polite society here, is quite unknown in America and has its roots in the intermingling of the Spanish and French folk-traditions. The orchestras of the peasants play marches, bals, blues, meringues. Then mama and papa and kata tambours officiate at as many kinds of dances; the congo, the Vodou, and the mascaron. Then there seem to be innumerable cante-fables [oral tales punctuated by songs or rhymes performed by the audience]. Each of these categories comprise, so I am informed, literally hundreds of melodies; French, Spanish, African, mixtures of the three. The radio and the sound movie and the phonograph record have made practically no cultural impression, so far as I can discover, except among the petit-bourgeois of the coastal cities. And American jazz is hardly known here except among the rich who have visited America. Composition, by which I mean folk composition, is still very active. So I think I can say that unless a piece of sky falls on my head, this trip will mean some beautiful records for the Library’s collection."
Disc 1; Urban Music. Disc 2; Music Under the Arbor: Haiti's Rustic Troubadour Music. Disc 3; Marti Gras.
Disc 4; Rara. Disc 5; Children's Songs; Disc 6; European Son / Romances. Disc 7; Francilia. Disc 8; Kraze Gato. Disc 9; Work Brigades and Worship. Disc 10; Zondo Ceremony / Sosyete Workbook
"Alan Lomax was capturing the human spirit in song... The music moves us... not only because the traditions it documents are disappearing, but because it lives and breathes anew each time it's heard." - David Greenberg. NPR's All Things Considered.
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| www.document-records.com | December 2009 / January 2010
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Happy Christmas, happy holidays and all the very best from Jesse & Lula and
New Releases!
Blues Blues Christmas Vol 2 Blues Blues Christmas Vol 1 2010 Calendar Vintage Blues; Volume 7 (with Free CD) Memphis Blues Vol 4 Charlie Burse And His Mudcats Bankers Blues Memphis Blues Vol 3 Memphis Jug And Harp Blowers (Re-mastered, Blues Blues Christmas Volume 1- (1925-1955) Various artists
Double album with full colour 20 page booklet. DOCD-32-20-9 Blues Blues Christmas Volume 2 - (1926-1958) Various artists Double album with full colour 24 page booklet. DOCD-32-20-15   The idea of Christmas themed blues and gospel numbers stretches back to the very dawn of the recorded genres. “Hooray for Christmas” exclaims Bessie Smith to kick off her soon to be classic “At The Christmas Ball”, which inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded “Silent Night, Holy Night” for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For some reason there’s far fewer gospel Christmas songs although there were plenty of Christmas sermons in the 1920’s and 1930’s when recorded sermons rivaled blues in popularity among black audiences.Going hand in hand with Christmas is quite a number of New Year’s songs, a good vehicle for juxtaposing the problems of the past year with the glimmer of hope that the upcoming year will bring better fortune. Whether these artists sung these numbers as part of their regular repertoire is unclear but it’s almost certainly the case that many of these songs were recorded at the prompting of the record companies. Like any business they were always looking for a new angle or gimmick to sell records and advertised these boldly, often with full-page ads, in black newspapers like the Chicago Defender. Perhaps you think this is a bit cynical but then you probably still believe in Santa Clause and good will towards men! Well, sit back, tip a glass of holiday cheer and enjoy our survey of yuletide classics spanning the 1920’s through the 1950’s, a simpler, more wholesome time – right! Informative booklet notes for both volumes by Jeff Harris. Detailed discography Click here to visit Jeff's excellent site and and on-line radio show Big Road Blues. The show airs on Sundays 5 to 7 PM (EST) on WGMC Jazz90.1 and streams live on the web. The show is an exploration of traditional blues spanning the 1920’s through the 1970’s. In addition to classic artists, the show will focus an equal amount of time on those forgotten blues figures from the past; from the once popular artists who are now forgotten to the obscure artists who may have only cut a handful of 78's or 45's. This site is updated regularly with playlists, show notes, blues articles and reviews. Click here for more details and to order DOCD-32-20-09 Blues Blues Christmas Volume 1 Click here for more details and to order DOCD-32-20-15 Blues Blues Christmas Volume 2 Back to top 2010 Calendar Vintage Blues; Volume 7 (with Free CD) Blues Images 12" x 12" (35 x 35 mm) Printed full colour onto substantial, high quality paper. Punched for hanging. 
From the very beginning blues recordings have inspired the visual arts. As recordings were being prepared for release, so graphic artists have scratched away with pen and ink in an attempt to depict their interpretations of song titles into advertisements for papers such as the Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News and The New York Times.The wonderful collection of Blues Image Calendars are a must for the walls of any self respectable lover of vintage blues. Over the last seven years these productions have been thoughtfully put together using the wonderful and often humorous advertisements placed by Paramount, Okeh, Vocalion and others.
The reproduction of the hand drawn illustrations and the original publicity photographs are excellent. The original advertisements for the blues recordings which appear on the CD are reproduced on the top half of each calendar month. Also included are brief biographies of each month's featured blues singer as well as birth and death dates marked in the date boxes of numerous important blues artists and other prominent African americans. As with all of the previous Calendars, Volume 7 (2010) comes with a FREE CD. The Eighteen tracks on this year's gem INCLUDES A PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED GOSPEL / BLUES CLASSIC BY FRANK PALMES, and TWO NEVER BEFORE RELEASED TAKES OF AN UNRELEASED SONG BY BLIND BLAKE WITH IRENE SCRUGGS. Click here for more information and to order. Back to top 
Although the blues city of Memphis is known, in particular, for it's Jug Bands, most notably the Memphis Jug Band, Jed Davenport and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and for some of the biggest names in vintage blues recordings such as Frank Stokes and The Beale Street Sheiks, Jim Jackson, Memphis Minnie and Robert Wilkins, to mention a few, there were also Memphis based artists who's styles were not straight out of the so called 'pre-war country blues' packet.
This album presents two artists who, unlike the names given above do not instantly spring to mind when the halcyon days of vintage Memphis blues is being discussed, yet there recordings are evidently those of regular, working professionals of the day. If tags and pigeon holes are to be used then Jenny Pope's performances seemed to be more rooted in the 'Classic Blues' era of the early twenties than the more driving, rhythmic blues of Memphis Minnie or Minnie Wallace, though, if anything Jenny is nearer to the latter rather than the former. She takes up the first six tracks singing her blues of hard times, drink and men and his given some fine accompaniment by Georgia 'Tom' Dorsey and Tampa Red and Judson Brown. Many will know James De Berry from his handful of Sun recordings made in 1953. They're here, with the wonderful accompaniment of Walter Horton on harmonica ('Easy' is an absolute "must"), Houston Stokes, drums, Mose Vinson, piano and Ratmond Jones, drums on second session. All excellent, "down-home" blues. But De Berry's recording began in the same decade that Jenny Pope's finished. In a similar vain to Charlie Burse, James De Berry's early recordings are a blend of blues vocal set with the backing of blues/jazz band. Mellow blues and up-beat, good time, swing paced pieces are abound and it interesting to hear how De-Berry developed through to the fifties. With Pope and Berry, this album takes a little time away from the mainstream of the typical Memphis vintage blues scene and presents a fascinating alternate view which transcended from an acoustic and somewhat sophisticated style developed in the early days of blues recording through to stark, raw, powerful electric blues of the 1950's. Informative booklet notes by Chris Lee 
If this isn't good time music then what is? Many will know Charlie Burse as being one of the central figures, alongside Will Shade, of The Memphis Jug Band. Yet, during the late 1930s at least Charlie had another musical interest, a band which he led called The Memphis Mudcats This band gave Charlie the ability to "open up" and unleash his artistic and performance eccentricities that he evidently held at bay during the MJB recoding sessions. The MJB was able to reach the level of jollity and a sound that would make the listener smile. Charlie's sense of humor and notable abilities as a musician created something more sophisticated one might even use the phrase 'surreal blues'! Put Cab Calloway at his most manic and Spike Jones and City Slickers together you have Charlie Burse and his Mudcats.
Charlie leads the way with some nifty playing on his National Tenor guitar (watch out for his solo on 'Magic Spell Blues') and behind him is the very competent, tight, Mucdcats with guitar, alto sax, piano, double bass and drums. But that isn't the end of it. The humor is provided by the inappropriately timed interjections of police car sirens, duck calls, rattles (of the football rattle kind) and ridiculous drum, cymbal and cow bell rolls. Could this be the great grandfather of the Bonzo Dog Do-Da Band? The fast pieces such as Beale Street Holiday and the excellent Scared To Death and many others are hectic enough, with Charlie occasionally throwing in an effected laugh. There first, slow piece Wee Smoking Mama doesn't arrive until the seventh track. But rather than settling down to a moment of decorum the hum our is even more effective with romantic passages being underlined with the odd rattle and duck call. But who were The Mudcats? As it stands, they are a mystery band with every band member unidentified. It is obvious that they were of a professional standard and certainly swung and were very much in tune with both Charlies This is a superb album which stands out from the norm. A great collection that can be there on stand by when those blues get too heavy and things get a little too serious. Informative booklet notes by Chris Lee
Detailed discography Click here for for more information and to buy Back to top Haiti - The Alan Lomax 1936-1937 Field Trip Recordings Harte Recordings HRT 103 10 CD Box Set with hard cover book.
Click here for more information and to order. Click here to watch Alan Lomax In Haiti Commercial (Long Version) Back to top Bankers Blues – A Study In Fiscal Mischief Document DOCD-32-20-16 
As many of our customers and subscribers know, we got quite a bashing by those HBOS banking people. It has been a life changing experience and for us. It has brought into question the world that we live in and what such organisations such as the banks and its so called trustees are prepared to do in the name of money. Beware; we are witnessing asset stripping by the banks on a grand scale. It’s as if nothing else matters and to Hell to all to those that get in their way, despite the fact the world's economy, along with the livelihoods of thousands of innocent people, has been brought to its knees as the result of the finance world's fiscal mischief.
We have been very fortunate to have survived the battering that we have had and to pull the Document through, intact. If you have not been affected by Fiscal Mischief then you have done well and long may that be the case. If you have, then our thoughts are with you and we hope that the effects are not too deep or that they will not be long lasting. It was as if we could not avoid bringing Bankers Blues out. Not Banker's Blues but Blues about the Bankers. As we worked on other things, including the time consuming effort of fighting off HBOS along with its parasites, including and in particular its appointed trustees and many others on the high finance band wagon, titles kept popping up at us; Mortgage Blues, No Money, We Sure Got Hard Times Now, Money Kills Love, Trying To Make A Living, Poor Millionaire, Save That Money and many more. The appalling fact was that people have been here before and before that and despite cries, warnings, documentation and history itself, greed and the insatiable thirst for money, money, money, money at all costs, has not been suppressed or cured. Lil Son Jackson, Hop Wilson, One String Sam, Blind Alfred Reed and many others have known what it is like to have their livelihoods threatened if not decimated in the name of “market forces”. The words of caution from the first hand accounts of past victims are all here on our latest, special production, ‘Bankers Blues- A Study In Fiscal Mischief’. Has anything, will anything be learned? Those that have lost everything will not be heard because, conveniently for the perpetrators, it takes money to fight ones way through the court and that money was siphoned off into the fat wallets of the perpetrators themselves. A sophisticated, legal, mugging. So, it is hoped that this album, this CD, will remain as a reminder, a cautionary tale. Listen to it, enjoy the music but more importantly regard it as a tiny, tiny thorn in the financier’s side. Better still, buy it as an ideal gift for your “favorite” bank manager or financial adviser and tell them that, next time, when they consider being party towards anything as outrageous as, let’s say “sub prime” which actually means “less than good”, they give a few tracks of ‘Bankers Blues’ a listen.
 Oh, to have walked down Beale Street on a balmy summer's evening in the nineteen twenties and thirties. The bars and good time houses would be full of raucous laughter, loud voices, joking, arguing, loving, threatening... Had you survived the stroll by dodging the odd knife, razor or axe using your charm and winning smile, what music would you have heard spilling out into the street? A good example of what you would hear is on these two CDs.
Of course, The Memphis Jug Band would not be too far away. 1927 and things were going well for the band. A few months ago they had been auditioned by the highly respected A & R man, Ralph Peer who had been very impressed by the band. As a result he had booked them to record for the Victor record company during its first field recording trip to Memphis. The records were selling very well. "Sun Brimmer's Blues", "Lindberg Hop" and the brooding "Newport News Blues" were captured during the record company's first and return trip. Three members of the band took the opportunity to make records under their own names; Will Weldon, Vol Stevens and Will Shade and it would be interesting to see if these band members came to the front of the band, as they played in the bars and clubs, and headed renditions of "Turpentine Blues", "Baby Got The Rickets" and the chilling "She Stabbed Me With An Ice Pick". Hattie Hart can be heard as she pleads "Won't You Be Kind To Me" and it's an irresistible invitation with Milton Roby playing alley fiddle and it sounds as if that could be Jab Jones on piano. 
Perhaps Minnie Wallace and her friends from the Memphis Jug Band, Will Shade, and Charlie Burse can be heard whipping it up with "Dirty Butter" and the "The Old Folks Started It". Or is she there with Will, Little Son Joe and Robert Wilkins?
Jed Davenport and his Beale Street Jug Band may well be holding court, providing energy and excitement to the proceedings with "Beale Street Breakdown", "The Dirty Dozen, "Move Out Of Town" and "Save Me Some". Then there's the unmistakable figure of Little Buddy Doyle. You may have seen him earlier, playing in Handy Park. Now as the evening draws on he can be found in one of the bars, or maybe on the sidewalk, playing his guitar and singing some the most poetic blues to have come out of Memphis. And who's that on harmonica with him? Is it Hammie Nixon or a very young Walter Horton? What a night, what a great couple of albums, with 46 tracks in total, full discographies and booklet notes written by Bob Groom.  Back In Stock At only £5.21 (ex vat)
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Special Offers!!! Only £3.99 each
Gospel / Guitar Evangelists / Spirituals / Choirs / Jubilee Singers / Preachers with their Congregations / Vocal Groups  Above shows just a handful of the many CDs on offer
Tammy Floo's Christmas Gift Tips. 
As Blind Blake might have said "These Blues Posters look absolutely Fab!... err, according to Charlie Jackson"
Post Cards and Calendars Books Barrelhouse Blues Location Recording and the Early Traditions of The Blues Paul Oliver
NOTE: Document Records will be following up the publication of this book by releasing a three CD album of the same name in the new year. Back to top Delta Blues The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music Ted Gioia
Back to top Blues T shirts Black & Blues T Shirts from Bluesyworld
Gearink  Including Robert Johnson, T Bone Walker and a very nice Elmore James design from Gearink. Essential Hill Billy... stuff
Back to top Magazines Subscriptions to a magazine or periodical make a great gift too. Here are some of our favorites
Blues and Rhythm
Living Blues
Dirty Linen
Oxford American
Record Collector
Downbeat
No Depression
Politics & Satire Private Eye  Click here for more DoomDaily
The Huffington Post
Other Interest New Scientist
More Books The Failing Logic of Money by Duane Mullin
The Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Cricket On The Heath by Charles Dickens
Christmas Miscellany Eat Drink and be Merry Christmas Drink Christmas Merriment
Knitting!! (Knitting?)
We were taken aback at how a great many of you took part in our "Spot The Rotter" competition, which app reared in the last Document news letter. Many thanks to all of those that took part. The response told us a couple of things. One was that, judging by them and the wonderful comments that accompanied many of them, it would seem that we share the same quirky, off beat humor and it is nice to be able to splash it about in and amongst a subject that often runs the danger of becoming too teeth grit tingly serious.
The second was that a great many of you appear to have the amazing stamina to read all of what we write without the need to take gas and air from the Docky paramedics who stand by just in case you collapse whilst on your way to the bottom of the page! Because of the overwhelming amount of entries for the competition we have decided to take four winners out of the hat. So, without further a-do, the winners for the "Spot The Rotter" competition are;
In the meantime, until the next competition, here is a little something a little more sobering to tax the brain...
Which place is second to this appalling statistic from Haiti? (Swaziland has the lowest in the world of 39.6 yrs)
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to over 1,000 blues, gospel, jazz and old timey CDs and over 25,000 tracks 
Thinking of diving into the Document Catalogue?
It can be a daunting experience plunging yourself into the depths of a catalogue as huge as Document's. It might be that you know exactly what you want and how to find it. Even so, there's a lot of treasure down there. As you can see on the left, Reginald Herringbone's wife, Penelope, helps her intrepid husband with the final checks before he descends into the depths of the catalogues index. Yet, even though he is weighted down with charts, note books, maps and oops there goes the catalogue itself, will he be able to find what he's looking for? It's been the same for Mrs Herringbone every weekend, ever since Reginald came out and admitted that he gone overboard for Document's CDs seven years ago. On this occasion he was on the search for a track which he had heard on the radio but "blast" he didn't get the name of the artist! All that he caught was the title "Dusting The Frets" and that it might be by a jug band. Reginald had been up five nights, tossing and turning like a ship on the deep, blue sea. ‘"Frets" means strings not jugs’, he kept thinking. It was something that he just could not fathom. If only he had know about the extensive search facility on Document's web site. The mystery would have been solved in a trice. If he had clicked on the search button he would have been given two ways of finding what he wanted. Either by putting in the title or just a key word into the "Search - Anything or Everything" box or the "Search for track by Keyword" box, he would have found it. He would have struck gold even if he had only put in the word "Dusting"! Another way would have been to put in the words Jug Band into the "Search - Anything or Everything" box which would have given him ten results to investigate. Very quickly Reginald would have discovered that his elusive track was "Dusting The Frets" by Carl Davis & Dallas Jamboree Jug Band" on DOCD-5162 Texas: Black Country Dance Music. He could have ordered it on line there and then and Mrs Herringbone could have had a good nights sleep. Back to top
Now then, now then, now then. Cigar, cigar, joowlry, joowlry, uha, uha. Here I am sat, in the Top Of The Pops studios spinning the platters that matter and it’s December, 1963 . Marvelous!
As you can see, Cliff’s at number twelve with “Don’t Talk To Him”, The Stones are at thirteen with “I Wanna Be Your Man” and John, Paul George and Ringo are at number fourteen with their second album “With The Beatles”. Fab, Rolls Royce, Duchess, Duchess. I’m just breaking off, so that I can let you all you guys and gals out there in Docky Land what latest Top Of The Docks are, uha, uha, Pan’s People dancers, hot pants, my word, gorgeous…
Note: For those of you who haven’t the faintest idea of what Jimmy Saville is saying, please click here and watch the sixties and seventies 'Top of The Pops' dj in action. Marvelous.
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will begin airing on WNYC this week.
(October 2009 issue); Son House Book
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(Some Alternative Links)
Father Christmas School
1959 film of the Document Office's and warehouse when it was a creamery.
Andy Cobb "Was I hired to stand in the way of Health Care...?"
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Lonnie Donegan
James Booker
Edison Lateral Cut Recordings
Edison Country Music of the 1920s
Ada Jones First Lady Of The Phonograph Edison Edison Early Wax Cylinders "Holiday Greetings from the Bunch at Orange!" Eva Taylor - Edison Edison Hit of the Week Recordings
(The Voice of Truth)
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