Monday, November 28, 2016

withep kanthima: dieow sueng



artist: วิเทพ กันธิมา (withep kanthima)
album: เดี่ยวซึง (dieow sueng)
tracklist:
01. น้อยใจยา (noi chai ya)
02. ลาวเดินดง (lao doen dong)
03. ซอล่องน่าน (so long nan)
04. ปราสาทไหว (prasat wai)
05. ล่องแม่ปิง (long mae ping)
06. เพลงอื่อ (phleng uea)
07. ฤษีหลงถ้ำ (ruesi long tham)
08. ระบำซอ (rabam so)
09. พม่า (phama)
10. เชียงใหม่ (จะปุ-ละม้าย) (chiang mai (cha pu-la mai))

this week's post marks the fourth in a series of cassettes gifted to us by educator cliff sloane. a former professor of ethnomusicology and founder of asianclassicalmp3.org, a major influence behind this blog.

our fourth tape from cliff features the talents of lanna artist withep kanthima. born in 1954, withep trained from a young age with his father in the local music of northeast thailand, studying a range of folk instruments and performance styles. aside from this paternal instruction, withep was also a student of chao sunthon na chiang mai, our previously featured performer from cliff's collection. like his teacher, withep made his name hand-crafting local instruments and instructing young musicians at the chiang mai college of dramatic arts, marking that institution's first hire of a folk musician, according to cliff. he passed away in 2006 at the age of 54[1]. this cassette features a performance on the sueng, a plucked fretted lute, running through solo improvisations on a selection of favorite regional tunes. enjoy!

preview: