Snippet No.4 – Habib & Polyphon

The earliest recordings of Maltese music were made in the early years of the 1930s. The very first session were organized by an individual referred to as Dr. Fortunato Habib. Habib was a respected member of the jewish community in Malta and hailed from Tripoli. After he married a jewish woman from Tunis he settled in Malta and owned a number of shops around Zachary street Valletta, including Aux Galeries La Fayettes, for which he’ d bought the franchise. Early in 1931 he organized for the first group of musicians to sail from Valletta to Tunis to record the very first records of Maltese music on the German Polyphon label. Amongst the visiting party were folk singers is-semenza and Ix-xudi, who were accompanied by G.Prato, Watty Cachia and A.Teuma Castelletti. These 15 titles were then sold locally as well as to the Maltese community in Tunis through a shop called Bembaron and Cie.

Malta’s Lost Voices is a project initiated by Andrew Alamango, and supported by the National Archives and the Ministry of Education, Employment and the Family, as part of the National Memory Project. It aims to gather and catalogue these early records, documenting and preserving them for research and posterity. For further info visit the blog-  www.filflarecords.com

Snippet No.3 The early recordings- Malta 1931-32

1931. The year when the major record companies decided it was in their interest merge and come together under one name to form Electrical and Musical industries (EMI). Using the highest technology available, recording engineers would capture the music and artistry of musicians worldwide, including Malta. The playback machines or gramophones had already been made accessible to the local population that was consuming shellac 78rpm records of foreign music including Italian opera. Musicians and composers were alive and well in a healthy and thriving musical scene that fed its Valletta audiences through the Royal Opera House, the Manoel Theatre and the regular dance-orchestras at Café Premier and elsewhere. Recorded music was becoming a new and fashionable good which was now accessible in retail outlets, and which encouraged local entrepreneurs to record Maltese music.

For further info visit http://www.filflarecords.com

Snippet 2 – Domenico Busuttil & MOKA cafe

In 1931 a party of local musicians went to the HMV studios in Milan to the record Maltese folk and popular music. Amongst the artistes contracted by Anthony D’Amato was local singer/entertainer Domenico Busuttil, a well known personage at the Royal Opera House and other venues. Domenico recorded on many of the HMV titles in the Milan studios between 1931 and 1932, including one of the well-known ‘parlanti’, Madalena. In 1932, Domenico opened Moka Café in Zachary street, which still stands today. He reputedly brought the first coffee machine to Malta from Milan and served the first local cappuccino in this shop.

For further info visit

http://www.filflarecords.com

Snippet 1- Ix-Xudi , The village troubadour

Guzeppi Xuereb, better known as Ix-Xudi, for reasons that are as yet unkown, was one of the foremost exponents of għana spirtu pront or improvised, folk-singing. This village troubadour was a humorous character who drew large crowds whenever he sang in public, as his fame and wit went beyond the confines of his village and neighbourhood of Santu Rokku, Birkirkara. Along with his friend, Manwel Mercieca is-Semenza, Xudi was involved in the early recording sessions in Tunis between 1931 and 1932. It is documented that he performed on at least one occasion for the Maltese immigrant community residing in Tunis, which at the time was numerous. Xudi claimed 15 gramophone records to his name on Odeon and French Pathe record labels.

www.filflarecords.com

Informative website on the activities of filflarecords and the release of Maltese heritage music

Malta’s Lost Voices & the early recordings (1931-1932)

A forgotten part of local history (like so many other parts), almost erased from local memory is the early recording of folk and popular music from the island nation, Malta. Initiated in early 1931, when the music establishments in the fortress-city, Valletta, were alive and well. Thriving, to say the least, at a time when music and entertainment were the order of the day. As early as February 1931, an individual referred to as Dr. Habib, sent the first group of musicians to Tunis to record the first 78rpms under French Polyphon label. What ensued was a social phenomenon, which took much of society by storm for the next two years. It was a strong political statement for the Maltese language and a tremendous boost for folk music. Musicians could even make a decent living contracted by the agents of Messrs.Carabott of Merchant’s street and Damato of St.John’s street. The latter was agent for HMV, Gramophone Company in Essex. Only recently (1931), the major record labels worldwide had merged to form the conglomerate EMI Records, thus eliminating fierce competition and securing a bigger portion of the market.

Prior to that was a cutthroat race to send recording engineers to every corner of the globe with one-ton equipment to establish markets by recording the artists of the day. This gave rise to what has been referred to as the ‘ethnic series’ recordings as companies realized there was a market for music beyond the palate of the western world. These companies were not interested in the music but in the selling of records, so as to be able to market gramophones worldwide. This resulted in recording the music of many countries worldwide as early as 1906. The songs on these Maltese discs are honest and genuine recordings of local traditional and popular music in the language, dialect and sentiment of the day.

“There is nothing ersatz or commercial about these recordings; they are genuine, archaic examples of traditional music sung in local dialect.” 1

So what happened here? Why was the phenomenon so short-lived?. Maybe because the population then couldn’t afford records and gramophones? Or was it disdain and mockery towards the culture by the upper strata of society? Or simply that the records companies realized there was no market really?

Local artistes were contracted by the sub-agents, locally Damato and Carabott. They were organized in groups, rehearsed, and sent to nearby studios in Tunis,  and in the case of Damato, to the HMV Milan Branch to record. The masters were then sent to the mother companies for pressing, and the records ‘exported’ back, and sold locally under the major labels of the day; Pathe, Polyphon, Zonophone, HMV and Odeon. Apparently thousands were sold…

1 Paul Vernon- ‘The engineers’ Originally published in: Vintage Jazz Mart No. 94 , 1994

This is a project initiated by Andrew Alamango. Funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and endorsed by the National Archives. It aims to gather information, catalogue and document this phenomenon by collecting and digitizing the records with the aim of making them publicly accessible for research and posterity.