The recent box set 'Alan Lomax In Haiti' has been nominated for two Grammy awards.
You may not know his name, but the impact of Alan Lomax on popular music is unavoidable. In a career which lasted more than 60 years the ethnomusicologist helped to document traditional music across the globe.
Travelling to every corner of the United States, Alan Lomax helped to preserve a culture which was being rapidly eroded. Flying out to Europe, the ethnomusicologist sat out the Red Scare of the 50s to explore continental culture.
Studying folk music in the UK, the ethnomusicologist then returned to the States for a period. Now renewed focus is falling on his work in Haiti - a unique state formed by freed slaves, the island had been sheltered from much of the technological developments of the early 20th century.
As a result, its indigenous cultures remained strong. Collecting over 1500 field recordings the resulting legacy is a rich and evocative study of life on Haiti, capturing disparate elements of culture on the island.
Collected on the recent box set 'Alan Lomax In Haiti' the study has been given a new poignance by recent events on the island. Nominated for two Grammy awards, the box set has been shortlisted in Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes.
Compilation producers Anna Lomax Wood, Jeffrey A. Greenberg, and David Katznelson and
mastering engineers Warren Russell-Smith and Steve Rosenthal are nominated in the Best Historical Album category. Professor and ethnomusicologist Gage Averill wrote the album notes and received a nomination in the Best Album Notes category.
A ten disc box set, 'Alan Lomax In Haiti' was initially recorded in the 1930s and is a precious document of folk culture on the island. Jacky Lumarque, head of the earthquake damaged Quisqueya University in Haiti told PBS: “Alan Lomax shows that Haitians can have a flashback to their past and see maybe our destiny is not so bad, and maybe a new rendezvous with what we used to be.”
The Grammy Awards take place on February 13th.
