Information/Write-up
A number of people listened to tape-recorded music selections featuring Inuit performers to choose a leading northern musician to appear on a nation- wide television broadcast marking Canada Day. They kept returning to performances by Tumasi Quissa. Some of them arranged to go up to Povungnituk, Quebec, to meet him and his brother Henry and confirm in personal observation what had been deduced from the recordings. Tumasi is a natural performer whose vitality and spirit are probably unmatched. This recording provides evidence of Tumasi’s range of ideas and expressions. He assumes the character of the person he sings about. These characters range from the old man, old woman, young son dialogue about the hospital pills to the macabre yet comic rendition of his song about the talking skull.
Listeners will recognize that the selection “Angiyuliruma Attatagogani”, is a traditional song from France called “Chevaliers de la table ronde”, transformed into Inuktitut — the language of the Inuit — to describe the thrill of the hunt.
Tumasi Quissa is not only a gifted singer, impressionist musician composer but a carver as well. He is now resident in Akudlivik, Northern Quebec where, in addition to performing in village music activities, he may be found with the tools of the carver shaping soapstone figures of seal, walrus and bird.
Some of the selections on this album were heard by nationwide television audiences when Tumasi and Henry Quissa performed with great success on Canada’s national day. It is fitting that they be among the first selections available on recording.
Jopi Arnaituk of Wakeham Bay, northern Quebec also appears with Tumasi. Jopi was among the first of the Inuit performers to be featured in radio broadcasts of the CBC northern radio service in renditions that provide insight into the sense of strangeness with which first the South is viewed by the Inuit away from their home settlements. Jopi Arnaituk and Tumasi Quissa often sing each other’s compositions to their mutual enrichment and to that of their listeners.
Northern conditions for the Inuit are undergoing great change. For some it is dramatic; for others, it is seen as bringing many problems. But there are aspects of change that for Tumasi Quissa indicate Better Times, the theme piece of this album.
The Hudson’s Bay Company and Boot Records Limited feel that the artistry of Canadian Inuit and Indian people expressed in music merits a wider audience. The commercial release of this material has been made possible by their joint initiatives. All music on this album was produced by the Northern Service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and derives from CBC Northern Service Broadcast Recordings.
Tumasi Quissa: guitar,vocals
Other musicians: Henry Quissa, Joanasi Qaqutu, Jopi Arnaituk
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