Putumayo World Music is a New York City-based record label, now specializing in compilations of music from various nations, regions, or musical styles which may be classified as world music.
In 1991, on his way home from Bali, Dan Storper stopped in San Francisco, California. In Golden Gate Park, he heard the Nigerian band Kotoja. He was impressed by the music and the way it gathered many different people. He made a compilation of music he had gathered on his journeys and gathered a positive response. This led him to give out his first release in 1993. Storper took the name of his record label, Putumayo, from Colombia’s Putumayo Department where he travelled in 1974, which subsequently came from the name of Putumayo River. The word is said to be the name of a bird (heron).
Every release features the art of Nicola Heindl. Her art is both folky and modern, and, according to the Putumayo website, “represents one of Putumayo’s goals: to connect the traditional to the contemporary.”
Typically a Putumayo World Music compilation is presented as a theme under the title “Putumayo Presents:” The themes can be regional (South Africa, Caribbean, Asia), music types (reggae, folk, Latin, jazz) and other themes (lounge, groove, party).
The Putumayo Kids division was created in 2002. Since the release of the World Playground CD in 1999, Putumayo Kids has achieved honors from Parents’ Choice Awards and the National Parenting Publications Association, and has grown to be one of the more important children’s record labels.
Putumayo launched the Putumayo World Music Hour in 2000, a commercially-syndicated world music radio show. Rosalie Howarth of KFOG hosts the Music Hour. The weekly show is heard internationally on over 150 commercial and non-commercial stations.
Putumayo has ten offices worldwide. Their products are sold at a network of more than 3,000 book, gift, clothing, coffee and other specialty retailers in the US. The label claims to distribute their CDs in more than 80 countries around the world. (by wikipedia)
This is a charming, if ultimately fairly inconsequential, collection of recordings from 1950s and 1960s Italy, along with a handful of songs by a few modern artists whose stylistic roots go back to the postwar era as well. The overall sound may come across as a bit kitschy to American ears — there are lots of accordions and crooning, emotive vocals — but if you spend some time with these recordings most of them will grow on you. Highlights include the quirky Vinicio Capossela’s “Che Cossè l’Amor,” Quadro Nuevo’s jazzy instrumental “Tu Vuo’ Fa’ l’Americano,” and Quartetto Cetra’s slightly cute but really very engaging “Un Bacio a Mezzanotte.” On the slightly less compelling side are Gianmaria Testa’s contributions, the willfully goofy “Dentro al Cinema” and the self-consciously intense (and ultimately self-parodying) “La Traiettorie delle Mongolfiere,” but the high points outweigh the low ones on this ultimately charming collection. Recommended. (by Rick Anderson)
This review is not correct: Most of the recordings are NOT from the 50´s, … and in the reat booklet you can read, that Quadro Nuevo are from Austria … this is wrong .. Quadro Nueva are from Bavaria (Southern Germany) … but … much more important …
… more recordings from this great label will come !
Tracklist:
01. Fred Buscaglione: Juke Box (1958) (Beretta/Malgoni) 2.23
02. Quartetto Cetra: Un Bacio A Mezzanotte (1952) (Kramer/Garinei) 2.14
03. Giorgio Conte: Cannelloni (2003) (Conte) 2.55
04. Vinicio Capossela: Che Cossè L’Amor (1994) (Capossela) 4.14
05. Maria Pierantoni Giua: Petali e Mirto (2004) (Martinell/Giua) 3.25
06. Giorgio Conte: Gnè Gnè (2003) (Conte) 3.28
07. Renato Carosone: Piccolissima Serenata (2001) (Carosone/Nisa) 3.23
08. Gianmaria Testa: Dentro Al Cinema (2003) (Testa) 3.43
09. Daniele Silvestri: Le Cose In Camune (1995) (Micelli/Silvestri) 4.16
10. Quadro Nuevo: Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano (2002) (Carosone) 3.57
11. Gianmaria Testa: La Traiettorie Delle Mongolfiere (1995) (Testa/Bertone) 3.29
12. Nicola Arigliano: Carina (2001) (Testa/Poes) 3.17
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