Hugh Tracey

Probably one of the most prolific ethnomusicologists and field-recording collectors of the African continent: when you see Hugh Tracey credited on a release, you can be assured of good recording quality and detailed footnotes. Tracey was one of the first in his field who wanted to bring music from (mainly) south and middle Africa to western audiences, as opposed to simply documenting its existence. He even went so far as to adapt the classic Shona instrument, the mbira, to western musical modes resulting in the modern kalimba. This genuine passion contrasts quite distinctly with much ethnomusicology of the period, which took a clinical, even psychoanalytical approach (the diagnosis often being a so-called ‘primitivism’).

Tracey also consistently credited individual artists wherever possible, a fairly basic sign of respect, but a convention that took most French and German ethnographic labels several more decades to adopt. On top of all of that, to reiterate, he made good bloody recordings.