BOXING HAITI:

Haiti's Hidden Treasures (WILL FRIEDWALD, 2/04/10, WSJ)

Decades before last month's tragic earthquake, Haiti was in the news because of an upheaval of an entirely different kind. The republic had been occupied by American troops for 19 years. But after a series of bloody massacres and insurrections, the U.S. Marines were withdrawn in 1934. Two years later, an American named Alan Lomax landed in Haiti not with weapons but with a portable recording device. He'd been commissioned by the Library of Congress to document Haiti's ethnomusic traditions.

Encouraged by the writer Zora Neale Hurston (who sings on three tracks), Lomax recorded local music in Haiti for four months. During that period, the 21-year-old scholar and historian captured roughly 50 hours of sound recordings that were then buried in a U.S. government vault for more than seven decades, never seeing the light of day. Until now. "Alan Lomax in Haiti," 10 discs and a copiously illustrated and annotated booklet, have recently been released by Harte Recordings in conjunction with the Lomax Estate and the Library of Congress. (The price of the box set has just been reduced, with a portion of sales going directly to local disaster-relief organizations in Haiti. For more details go to thehaitibox.blogspot.com)