march 15th extract-voodoo ceremony in haiti

Voodoo Ceremony in Haiti-Olympic LP, 1974

First off-just so there is a flavour of what this is all about- here is the track listing of this record:

1. Voodoo Drums (5:26)
2. Nibo Rhythms (1:19)
3. Prayer to Shango (1:56)
4. Petro Rhythms (0:47)
5. Nago Rhythms (2:40)

Side Two

1. Invocation to Papa Legba (5:59)
2. Dahomey Rhythms “The Paul’L” - Maize Rhythm - Diouba Rhythm “Cousin Zaca” (6:06)

It doesn’t really help much. Maybe the titles of the tracks should assist-but as I have no idea who Papa Legba is or who or what a Shango is I’m stumped. It does give an indication, a feeling. You get a sense that it was recorded in a slightly threatening atmosphere. Maybe it’s just my imagination and I’m falling into a stereotypical cultural trap but there’s a definite impression of chickens being slaughtered, bones being rattled and shrunken skulls used for percussion. I’m sure that there are goats in the mix as well. It’s a generally disquieting record and leaves a sense of unease.

It’s one of the few compilation albums I have where I’ve no idea who the artists are. What else do I know about this record? It was recorded in Haiti, sometime before 1974, on less than sparkling equipment. Like many of these types of recordings, it wasn’t made in a studio but is termed as a field recording. I don’t think it was made in gentle rolling green hills though but in the backstreets of Port-Au-Prince, probably in the middle of the night. (The back of the sleeve states “Recorded on location”). I have a feeling that it was recorded by some bloke cowering behind a wall, holding a microphone and crapping himself. It sounds as if the tracks are being played a fair old distance way and every so often you can hear a woman’s voice, speaking French and sounding very scary. No wonder the album is relatively short-I’ll bet that he hightailed it out of there as soon as he could.

The album was released in 1974 on Olympic, which was a French record label and although it’s now probably available as mp3’s this was ripped from the original album as the references to side one and side two attest.

I did think that this was the only record I have of actual voodoo music. It is the only one on the iPod but somewhere in the house I do have a compilation of field recordings made by Alan Lomax in the 50’s which has a whole CD of voodoo music from Haiti. I think I’ve only listened to it once and I remember it being even more scary than this record.

I’d like to have a massive sound system in my little car. The next time some scally stops next to me at the traffic lights  in his Subaru blasting out some generic r & b, I’d slap on this album, turn the volume as high as it would go, and put the fear of God into him. Unless of course, I was driving round Port-Au Prince where this stuff is probably the equivalent of listening to Songs of Praise.