Harold Courlander is an important figure in the history of Folkways. Well known in some circles for winning the case against Alex Haley, whose novel Roots plagiarized from Courlander’s novel The African, I think of Courlander as the early guiding spirit for what he and my father called the Ethnic series, which is the vast catalogue of what we now call world music. This time, I thought we’d feature an album Courlander put together in 1956 that documents the sensibilities he brought to this work in the immediate post-War period. Called World of Man: Volume 1, His Work, a title that situates it in the non-inclusive language of that time, the album is nonetheless a wonderful worldwide journey through the world of human labour. We’ll add other work songs from around the world in the show.
