Kalimba Magic NEWS
Volume 3, Number 4
April 28, 2008
In This Issue:
Tucson Folk Festival, May 3,4
Kalimba Community
African CD: Ayub Ogada
What's New at Kalimba Magic
A Little Sale at Kalimba Magic
About once a month, we send this newsletter out to the world to
show you what kalimba enthusiasts are doing with their instruments,
to educate you about what you could be doing with your kalimba,
and to let you know about special sales or other offers from
Kalimba Magic to you. However, this edition of newsletter is
only two weeks after the last one, so it will be very short.
The big reason for sending one out so soon is that Kalimba player
Kevin Spears has a cool performance coming
up that is going to be available to you via web streaming. ALSO,
if you are into chanting, pay special attention to the
WAVE 1 article below.
Enjoy! - Mark
Tucson Folk Festival, May 3, 4
If you are in the area, I invite you to come on down and experience Tucson's biggest free music party - the Tucson Folk Festival. On Saturday, I'll play with Mandophilia and WomanSong, back to back at 12:30 and 1:00 at the Old Town Artisans stage. Then at 3:00 I'll be doing a workshop, "Jamming on the Kalimba." Bring your kalimba, a guitar, a drum, whatever! On Sunday, I play at noon with Lindianne Sarno as The Native Earthlings, with Chet Gardner at 1:30, with Mitzi Cowell at 2:30, and with Ice-9 at 6:30, so I'll be running around having a year's worth of fun. Hope you have a year's worth of fun too! You can get the complete Tucson Folk Festival Schedule and decide for yourself which groups or stages to visit. Enjoy!
The Kalimba Community
Kevin Spears at a High Profile Electronic Music Event
Kevin Spears writes:
Hey Mark, I'm being featured among a group of nationally known
electronic music artists on May 2nd at 7pm. Be sure and let the
kalimba community know that it will be streamed live on the internet.
My set will consist of some solo work as well as Live Looping
with some cutting edge kalimba techniques and effects,
all live, nothing prerecorded. I appreciate your support
as well as the members of the kalimba community around the world.
If there are any questions or comments, they can reach me at
my Myspace page.
Thank You,
Kevin
Jomo Vibes, Kalimba Veteran
The Toronto Kalimba Summit
OK, it has already happened - March 28 - sorry, we just found out about this - we would have announced it in advance if the people putting it on had let us know (hint hint) - but this is COOL! Folks up in Toronto put on a big multi-player kalimba concert with Kahil El'Zabar, Laura Barrett, Njacko Backo, and Matt Smith. As the kalimba becomes more and more popular, look for more events such as this one!Wave 1 Global Chanting for World Healing
I've been sitting in with a Global Chant group most weeks. The idea is to take chants and simple songs from many spiritual traditions from around the world, add some drums, guitars, shakers, KALIMBAS, and lots of voices. Repeat until a trance-like state is induced. Afterwards, everyone looks around at each other with a renewed sense of energy, thankfulness and belongingness. My take: how can anyone be hurtful or violent after such an experience? If everyone did things like this, how could we NOT all sit down and work on our problems together? How could we drop bombs and shoot guns at each other?
The people who have been running the weekly chants are putting on a truly global event. Go to Act on Wisdom to learn more about this global chant, called Wave 1. The event is held across the world on June 18 from 7pm - 8pm local time. Wherever you are July 18, get together with your local chanters and make some good healing energy. But before you DO that, why not contact the people at Wave 1 and let them know where/when you are doing that, so that other people in your area can find out about it? Or, perhaps there is already a Wave 1 Global Chant group in your area holding a healing chant, and you can find out about them!
Congratulations to Kalimarimba in Chile
You may know
Piny Levalle
from the kalimba community - some of you may be familiar with his music, or
his new band, Kalimarimba. Piny recently informed me that Kalimarimba
has won a major music industry award in Chile. Says Piny:
Sorry about my English. I have the opportunity to inform you that our
grouping, Kalimarimba, that combines South American song with kalimbas,
has been recognized between the three better musical groups of Chile.
It is important that you in the world-wide community of kalimba know this
news, because we have characterized ourselves to propose a different sound
in ambient musica.
Kevin Nathaniel Hylton makes and plays the Karimba
Kevin Nathaniel calls the instrument the Nyungwe Nyungwe Mbira, but it is nearly the same instrument as the Hugh Tracey African-tuned karimba. (By the way, B. Michael Williams says of the Hugh Tracey instrument: "I love this instrument. It has a great sound and feel, and I love being able to plug it in!")
Back to Kevin, though: Kevin is quite accomplished, and has provided karimba music for some high profile productions, but most notably Kevin also offers workshops for building the various kalimbas. We'll be featuring Kevin's music in the future.
You can reach Kevin at kevinmbira("at")hotmail.com
Vibrato on Board-mounted kalimbas
Matthew matthew.nechvatal("at")marquette.edu writes:
Thank you very much for sending me this beautiful craftsmanship. I have been trying to get one for years (had an order in with Latin Percussion and they stopped selling them and kept my money, until I personally had to ask for it back!). I picked it up at the post office here in Milwaukee and began playing it once I got back to my car.
I remember a recording you had where you used a djembe to help with resonance. I too have numerous percussion instruments so I decided to take out my djembe to get a bit more sound. Since my 8-note kalimba does not have a sound hole, I am not able to do a vibratto or wah wah effect. By accident I noticed that if you push down numerous time quickly on the wood of the kalimba, it makes the wah wah effect through the djembe, COOL!.
Matt
African Music: Ayub Ogada
Ayub Ogada is, unknown to almost everyone I've spoken with, a member of the AfroCelt Sound System, otherwise known as the AfroCelts (if a confusing band name isn't confusing enough, you can always change it mid career). If you don't know their music, you are in for a treat! BUT, Ayub also has a solo CD that has some wonderful music on it. He plays an 8-stringed Kenyan lyre called the nyatiti, and his voice is just like honey or sunshine on a spring morning. This is a cool CD to be turned on to because Ayub's 8-stringed lyre is simpler than most kalimbas, yet between the lyre and his voice, he achieves a great deal of musical depth and complexity.
So, this is a good place for kalimba players to study - if Ayub can make beautiful music on 8 notes, so can kalimba players. And that is something that can help us lean towards Africa - we don't need 17 notes or 2 octaves or 5 octaves - we only need a few notes, just the right ones. Next time you play kalimba, simplify your instrument - pick out 4 or 6 notes, and restrict yourself to those notes. If you can't do anything with those notes, try changing the notes around and try again.
Ayub tends to tune his lyre in A major and A minor, both of which are keys that are easily accessible to the Hugh Tracey African-tuned karimba.
You can purchase Ayub Ogada's beautiful CD from Amazon.com.
What's New at Kalimba Magic?
A Little Sale
Due to an error (I can't exactly say who's error) I have a lot of Hugh Tracey 17-Note Celeste Treble kalimbas without pickups, and I'd like to clear some of that inventory out. So, I am offering them for the next 10 days or so at $77 and no shipping charge (i.e., $10 off of the regular price, and $10 off the shipping, for a total savings of $20).
This is not our best selling kalimba, but it is a nice one. The solid body gives this kalimba a softer sound, and the tone is more uniform across the spectrum of notes than the box models. So it sounds a lot like a little music box - very sweet. The solid wood body makes this one more rugged - i.e., a good gift for a musically advanced child ("advanced" because the 17 notes makes this a musically complex instrument), and a good travel kalimba because this one is robust in your back pack. Its a good second kalimba to have - or if you are "financially challenged", maybe now is a good time for you to purchase your first kalimba!
Speaking of travel: for the first time EVER I had trouble getting through airport security with my kalimbas. Usually the TSA people just ask me to make some music on my kalimba, smile, and then they let me go. I had one client who told me of their experience in an airport: the TSA agent hadn't seen a kalimba for 20 or 30 years, and they were delighted to know that the Hugh Tracey kalimba was still around. But my experience earlier this month: I had two kalimbas in my carry-on backpack, and the x-ray person flagged my backpack. They sent my backpack with three TSA people to "disarm" the suspicious package. They were very uptight, and I think they swiped the different compartments of my backpack five or six times with explosive-detecting wipes, and when they finally found the two kalimbas, they would not let me touch them and kept demanding that I stay back. Then they took the backpack and re-x-rayed the pack and the kalimbas separately. I guess someone must have complained about my music the last time I flew!
KTabS can write chord names too!
If you have taken a look at any of the Hymnals offered by Sharon Eaton of KTabS, you understand that KTabS has a field to the right of each played note in the tablature for typing in the lyric that goes with that note. It is a bit odd to see the words running UP the page, but it makes perfect sense with KTabS.
Another use for that text field is to write the names of the chords next to the notes. For example, I have written out some of the chords to Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, one of the more difficult pieces in the Christmas Book for Alto and Treble Kalimbas.
And yet another use for that text field in KTabS is for explanatory notes. For example, here is something I wrote for a student of the Catania 12 note kalimba. They had trouble with the the time, so I wrote in the standard way people count complex rhythms. And here is a lesson with explanations of the chord types and usage. So, that text field can be really useful. All this from a computer program that might cost less than your dinner tonight.
A big welcome to Goshen Kalimbas
For me, Goshen Kalimbas have almost been legendary. I first heard of them about 10 years ago - a little art school in West Virginia that made delightful kalimbas. I first played one about 5 years ago. I first owned one very recently.
I am happy to say that I am carrying the 11-note box model Goshen Kalimba with African Paduak wood face. These kalimbas are beautiful to look at and to play. They make wonderful gifts for musicians or non-musicians. They are not robust kalimbas for the road or for work with children - the wood is sturdy, but the tines can get all messed up if you are rough with them. However, this is the kalimba I have at the side of my bed, the one I play to refresh my soul at the end of the day, to remind me of who I am and why I am doing the things I do. This is a personal instrument of peace.
And that wraps up our newsletter.
Take care!
-Mark
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