This compilation traces the genre's early days in the recording studio. It includes a reissue of the Victor Talking Machine Company's first piano ragtime disc in 1916, as well as several performances... more

On August 28th, 1963, more than 250,000 people from across the United States gathered in Washington DC to join in peaceful protest against racial segregation and demand equal rights legislation from... more

What could be the sound of heavy industrial machinery is in fact the noise produced by the famed San Francisco cable cars, a "living sound relic" as Shoshana Wechsler says in the detailed liner... more

In 1957 Vinton Wight recorded and collected the sounds various different Steam Locomotives. He explains that "Stack Music" is "that delightful sound caused by super heated steam, exhausted from the... more

This is the story of three little locomotives and 33 cars climbing Cumbres Pass, on the Colorado-New Mexico border" says Vinton Wight, who recorded this "tale" in 1958. The album focuses on one... more

Recorded in the Tigrai and Shoa Provinces and in the Gura Valley, this collection of Folk Music of Ethiopia actually represents not only Ethiopian music but the music of Eritrea and the Sudan.... more

Produced and recorded by David Blair Stiffler. "The Pipils are descendants of the Aztecs of Mexico and today are the last pure-blooded Indians living in the country of El Salvador. Aside from the... more

The piano got off to a late start in Jazz, notes Frederic Ramsey Jr., but, beginning with Jelly Roll Morton, it made up for lost time. Pianists became important in performance and composition. On... more

This volume is half of a two-recording set that includes recordings not issued on the Vanguard or Elektra Newport compilations. It features folk songs and ballads sung by Irish, Canadian, and... more

When some American Indian medicine men and women were called upon to heal an ailing tribes member, they would fast in order to receive a song in dream or vision instructing them in how to carry out... more

In this 1959 collection, American folklorist Harold Courlander documents a tradition of Palestinian folk song that has previously been known only through oral ritual. The compilation features vocally... more

Recorded in 1966, Music of Morocco gives a snapshot of everyday music, both secular and religious, among various ethnic groups. The Berbers, Aissawa, Gnawa, and Haha sing in Arabic and regional... more

The tracks on this album have been selected from the several hundred recordings that comprise the J.D. Robb collection of southwestern popular and folk music. Most of these were recollected in New... more

The Kashmir Valley, which separates the Himalayan and Pir Panjal mountain ranges, is a meeting point between northwestern India, eastern Pakistan, and Central Asia. The grandeur of this environment... more

RELATED LESSON PLAN "Modern Ritual and Contemporary Play: Music Traditions of the Inuit, Apache and Pacific Northwest Native Americans"

The repertoire of melody patterns in traditional Persian art music is organized into systems or modes. The seven main systems are called dastagh, and the five secondary systems are avaz. Classical... more

This 1964 Folkways release, recorded and produced by Edith Fulton Fowke, is a collection of songs dealing primarily with sailing on the Great Lakes of North America. Fowke's research relies heavily... more

Common wisdom holds that the best musicians left New Orleans after the closing of it's red light district in 1917. This compilation, however, proves that many talented jazz musicians both black and... more

Old-time religion was an entirely different creature in the American South during the 1920s and '30s. White artists and black artists treated the music of the church quite dissimilarly, but all of it... more

This two volume-collection, is a survey of instrumental and vocal music from African cultures as well as from African American musicians in the southern United States. Producer Samuel Charters... more

This album features the religious music of Ethiopian Jews, known as Falashas. While most Falashas-and Ethiopians in general-speak Amharic, the tracks on this album are in Geez. There is no evidence... more