Copyright ©
2005-2008
Mark Holdaway
2005-2008
Mark Holdaway
Copyright ©
2005, 2006
Mark Holdaway
2005, 2006
Mark Holdaway
Peck Allmond is an accomplished NY-based jazz horm player who just happens to be a kalimba-wiz on the side. Or it seems he makes his living playing horns, but in a lot of ways his life is about kalimba: "The kalimba is for me one of the most beautiful, intimate and soothing sounds there is. One of the most interesting too - every kalimba sounds so different from all the rest and can be tuned in so many ways that the sonic possibilities are endless. Part harp, part drum, part something else all its own." Kalimba Magic will be carrying his kalimba CD's soon.
Laura Barrett is a young kalimba player, singer and songwriter living in Toronto. Pictured here with bass player Richard Carnegie, her compositions are making a splash. Expect her first full length CD out in a few months.
David Bellinger is a kalimba builder who has done some pioneering work with installing electronic pickups on his kalimbas. He has made some "build-to-design" work for N. Scott Robinson, who was quite happy with the results. He has some great ideas, such as organic tremolo and the graphic buzzalizer.
Patti Broussard is a relatively new kalimba player - she teaches children how to play the 8-Note kalimba, does puppet work, and is the new rising star in the world of the array mbira.
Check out the Kalimba Magic interview with Patti.
R.P. Collier is a creator of unusual, artistic, and beautifully bizarre kalimbas and experimental kalimba music. I imagine it would be pretty interesting to spend an afternoon with this guy.
Luc Decock is a kalimba craftsman in Belgium. Apparently he has no address, and
no references on the web, but he makes some amazing kalimbas.
The Earthlings (Andy Robinson, Richard Matthew, and Bill Birney) make peaceful and spacing kalimba music, and have become something of a hit in the myspace community. Don't miss Any's interview in the September Kalimba Magic Newsletter!
Randy and Sharon Eaton are the creators of KTabS, the Kalimba Tablature Software. This is a great resource to anyone who is learning the kalimba or writing music with set parts. A lot of kalimba music now exist in KTabS format, and KTabS templates exist for many different kalimbas. Randy is the software engineer and Sharon is the kalimba player. They live in a California in a place that is still beautiful.
Decio Gioielliis a multi-instrumentalist percussionist living in Brazil, and a favorite of the people at AMI. He has two CDs of music featuring the kalimba, and has recorded extensively with other musicians. Decio's playing is precise and light. His compositions bridge the ocean and speak of both African and Brazilian musical traditions.
You can purchase Decio's CD's Kalimba and Neu Nenem at The Kalimba Shop
Scotty Hayward makes his own kalimbas. In fact, when someone approaches him and asks him to be their teacher, his first assignment is for the student to build a kalimba. Here are two songs from Scotty's most recent CD, Kalimba A La Carte:
Mark Holdaway is Kalimba Magic. While Mark plays a dozen different instruments at the performance level, the kalimba is the one that touches people’s hearts most deeply. In addition to writing an extensive series of kalimba instructional books and recording several CDs of kalimba music, Mark plays with several folk and world music groups in Arizona and directs the Kalimba Club.
Kalimarimba is an exciting Chilean band led by kalimba master Piny Levalle.
Chandra Lacombe is a Brazillian kalimba master who integrates his spirituality with his kalimba and percussion music. His main kalimba is a beautiful copy of the Hugh Tracey Alto in G tuning.
Piny Levalle recorded a CD of kalimba music in Chile in 1999 called, ALMA Minimal. He plays a kalimba similar to the Hugh Tracey Alto kalimba, but typically tuned to E major instead of G. He has a new band.
Andrew Masters is an artist and a builder of kalimbas. He uses recycled materials, and adds a touch of his own art to his highly original kalimbas. I found his sardine can treble kalimba to be quite good. I recommend the 11-note bass kalimba, but I did not like the 15-note bass kalimba as well.
Here is a short annimation Andrew made with his kalimba music in the background.
Michael Mironov is making some great music looping his kalimbas and adding drums and other goodies. That's Michael to the right of the tree sculpture.
Percy Mwana is a kalimba player living in New Orleans. He plays wild, shimmering, twirling sorts of electric kalimba riffs, often set straight by simple electronic percusion tracks. He sent me a cassette tape of his playing which is of archival interest, and may make it into digital form. Though there are many tape problems, the beauty and intensity and genius of the playing come through. Percy uses some pretty hip tunings, such as one with a 4th, a flat 5th, and a 5th (very bluesy). Beautiful textures. This music should be on a CD. He can be reached at mwana@netzero.net.
Percy's wrote a great article about his experience with getting a good electric kalimba sound, covering all aspects ranging from pickup, preamp or EQ, effects, and amplifier.
Andy Robinsonis a multi-instrumentalist and veteran kalimba player living in San Diego. He also works for Taylor guitars. His instrumental compositions include guitar, mountain dulcimer, and kalimba, and he is a master at working with the electric kalimba. Andy has a great interview in the Kalimba Magic September Newsletter, and you can purchase his CD Exotic America from the Kalimba Shop. Andy wrote a nice kalimba article for the San Diego Troubadour.
N. Scott Robinson is a versatile and talented multi-instrumentalist ethnic percussionist who is a fantastic kalimba player and has a great mbira site, which includes kalimba. Quite worth your while. For more info, check out his site.
Samiteis a refugee musician from Uganda, who now lives in upstate New York and is a Windham Hill recording artist. When I saw him twelve years ago in Socorro, New Mexico, I decided he is the Master of the Riff. Of course, having a beautiful and rich voice and a wonderful spirit don't hurt either.
Kevin Spearsis a new age / jazz / kalimba artist from Atlanta Georgia. His 2003 release Soothing Sounds of Kalimba has a peaceful, exploratory feel that mixes environmental sound with emotive and expressive kalimba playing. His kalimba has lower notes than the Hugh Tracey, and he plays with some interesting tunings. Some of the tracks are solo Kalimba, but my favorites are the ones with percusion or drum tracks.
Tom Spicer is Kalimbass! I thought this was a gimmick untill I went to Tom's web site and listened to every one of his songs. This is amazing! When you think about it, the kalimba is all about getting the left and right hands to work together in a new way. Tom just takes it to an extreme. Wonderful compositions, but what about those shoes, Tom? We'll be hearing more from Tom in the future!
Spirits in the Rocks is a world music - funky reggea group from Hawaii headed by kalimba/guitar player Gregorio McCluer and his wife/drummer/singer Joy. In addition to laying down the groove, Gregorio is also one of the world's authorities on tunings, and you have a chance to study at his feet by reading the Kalimba Magic interview with Gregorio.
Devin St. Clair has an amazing artistic sense, and has a rather nice web site on which he writes of the charms of the kalimba and provides some links of interest to the kalimba world. He's writing and recording some neat tunes with kalimba and voice.
Steven Swartz has been performing on the kalimba in the US and in Europe for decades. He has a sweet folksy-gypsy style to his kalimba playing. Listen for yourself to Stephen's music.
Paul Tracey is the son of Hugh Tracey. He has worked in the AMI factory in Africa, was a co-writer of the Broadway musical Wait a Minim, and has recorded a kalimba instructional tape. He currently makes his living as a singer-songwriter, giving musical and cultural presentations such as Your Character Counts.
You've probably never heard of Greg Trimble. There is no mention of him up to now on the internet, but Peck Allmond has turned me onto him. He is a master kalimba maker/artist living in rural California, and while I have never played one of his instruments, I have just looked through photos of about 30 of the finest looking kalimbas I have ever seen. I can't wait to play one! You can get in touch with Greg by phone at (707) 876-9603, or mail him at Greg Trimble, PO Box 803, Pengrove CA 94951. Hey, if you have one of these kalimbas, please send me a report on your gem of an instrument.
Michael Williams was inspired to play mbira when he studied with Paul Berliner (Soul of the Mbira) in Chicago in 1977, and played mbira with the Paul Winter Consort. He is a professor of percussion at Winthrop University in South Carolina, and is the author of what I understand to be the best introdution to the mbira, Learning Mbira: A Beginning. He has a great CD that blends mbira with Michael Spiro's bata rhythms.
Bernie Wire is an artist who also plays a unique style of kalimba - he gets two Hugh Tracey alto kalimbas side by side and plays with his fingers! Listen to his version of Jingle Bells.
Roland P Young plays wild groove-based classification-denying jazz. In his new CD release Isophonic Nation, he also plays new-age electronica with ancient instruments such as the Native American Flute and the kalimba, sometimes live and sometimes looped and sampled. He had a kalimba hit in 1980 with Isophonic Boogie Woogie, which has recently been re-released.
Roland's CD's are available at CDBaby.