Ludovic Lamothe: Fleurs d'Haiti

This was originally past of the last post. After a bit of thought (not that much) I figured that this music was important enough to merit its own posting.

Quite a few years ago I found this five-record album...
It's Fleurs d'Haiti, an album of music composed and played by Haitian pianist Ludovic Lamothe (1882-1953). It seems to have been recorded in the late 1930s sometime. Unfortunately I can't find a lot of information about this set. If it's mentioned at all, it's as a footnote, sometimes with a "(78 rpm?)" postscript.

This seems to be the best page available about Lamothe:
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/lamothe.html

Here are the liner notes...I hope you parlez francais.


Here's one of the labels as well. The usual patent information around the circumference of the label is in Spanish, although this appears to be an American pressing. Perhaps it was pressed for export.

And here's the complete list of the sides:

83065-A 1. Feuillet D'Album

---------B 2. Sous La Tonnelle

83066-A 3. Loco

---------B 4. Sobo

83067-A 5. Valse Romantique

---------B 6. Habanera

83068 A 7. Valse De Concert En La Bemol Majeur

---------B 8. Libellules

83069 A 9. Gavotte Dans Le Style Ancien

---------B 10. Tango

And you can download the album here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F1E204W4

This album was a bit under-recorded on a piano that sounds like it could have been tuned a bit better. But the music is quite interesting...it sounds like Chopin with a touch of voodoo thrown in.

Oh...did I mention that I'll be selling it? I'm digitizing and liquidating some of the records I seldom listen to. This is one of them. I'll post the eBay link once it's up.

It's up! It's here! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150376068320&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

This post was cited in the fine AfriClassical blog: http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2009/09/zorchs-inner-sanctum-ludovic-lamothe.html

Thanks for the plug, Bill...hope you and your readers enjoy this rare treat!