Carnaval En Margarita by Lionel Belasco

Lionel Belasco

I thought I'd share this recording Laura and I made earlier this evening of Carnaval En Margarita by Lionel Belasco.  That's me on tenor banjo and Laura on baritone uke.  We got the tune from the Etcetera String Band, who did a whole album of early Creole/Caribbean dance music called Bonne Humeur.

According to the liner notes in Bonne Humeur, Lionel "Lanky" Belasco was probably born in Caracas, Venezuela in about 1882 and grew up in Venezuela and Trinidad.  He was classically trained, but preferred playing indigenous music.

He formed a string band which played Venezuelan waltzes, joropos, paseos and danzas, many of which he composed himself.  Carnaval En Margarita is a paseo that Belasco wrote.  Margarita is an island off the Venezuelan coast which Belasco visited.



More to come soon!  Maybe even a rag or two.

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