Kalimba Community

Eric Freeman's New Bass Kalimba: He's Taking Orders!

Eric Freeman has been purchasing the dud kalimbas from me, i.e., the ones that I would otherwise send back to Africa because they have bad pickups or cracks, and he has started turning them into his monster bass kalimbas.

Check out the video linked to the photo at right. This bass has monster sound. (Your laptop speakers won't cut it, you need something bigger to hear what this bass kalimba has to offer.) He is taking orders for them now. I don't know what the final price will be - let's say around $300 so if it is less you'll be surprised in the right way. Anyway, a good bass sound usually requires a large instrument to resonate at that low frequency, which implies difficulty in moving the instrument around and a high price tag. I think that the pickups, which are located right under the bridge, are getting the fundamental vibrations the tines are making and sending that signal right to the amplifier (or the effects boxes, in Eric's case) - so the box is not really a resonant structure as far as this instrument is concerned - rather the box is a nice way to hold the instrument and to mount the tines on.

I am picking up one of these kalimbas, and I imagine several other folks will also be interested in getting one. To contact Eric, send email to efreeman45("at")gmail.com - replace the ("at") with the right character.

Vintage Carribean Rhumba Box for Sale

Hi Mark,

You might remember me, I had asked you a long time ago if you might be interested in one of my mahogany Jamaican bass kalimbas or if you knew someone who could be, I don't need them any more and am trying to sell them. Here is a picture of the big one.

This looks like the real deal. The first Calypso music to come out of Jamaica in the 1950s used instruments like this one instead of upright or electric bass. These instruments were derived from kalimba technology which Africans brought with them when they were brought to the Carribean as slaves. You can reach Dave at davewilki("at")juno.com - replace the ("at") with the right character.

A Percussionist Discovers Melodic Expression through the Kalimba

Jeff is a technically masterful percussionist, and The Gathering Mist is his debut solo project. This purely-instrumental album features many percussion instruments, including drum set, jembe, doumbek, frame drums, Emin & Dmin HAPI Drums, Catania 12-note Kalimba, various shakers and small percussion, and a homemade PVC drum in Dmin. Guest artists are featured on bass, guitars, flute, fujara (Slovakian bass overtone flute), cello, and alto saxophone.

On using the kalimba in his compositions, Jeff writes: The kalimba was a great addition to the album because it was the first melodic percussion instrument I was introduced to, and forced me to think melodically as well as rhythmically whenever I used it in a piece. I actually bought my kalimba at a Native American store in South Dakota despite its African roots, and saw it as doing them a favor by taking it off of their hands and making it a more authentic store, haha. The kalimba came pre-tuned to Cmaj (G-D), and I play it in Amin and D dorian often. The album has a lot of layering, and from its origins and intended purpose, the kalimba really lends itself to that style of playing very well. There are already a few tracks in the works for a follow up album, in which the kalimba is a prominent feature.

To listen to Jeff's music, go to Jeff's Myspace page.

Rick Tarquinio's New Release:
Leaning on Air

This music is a combination of the fast but not frenetic motions of thumbs, the slow movement of the envelope of each song, and the harmonically unchanging element of the scale which is recurrent through most of the songs.

If you could play the sparse ethereal punch of haiku poetry on a kalimba, you might get something like Rick Tarquinio (aka Tark and ReturnToSound) on this soft-copy-only CD. Played on a single pentatonic sanza with effects (digital delay), this music is solid yet washes over your soul like peaceful ocean waves on a sunny beach. If you don't understand what I mean, you probably need to take a nice slow listen. It is worth a listen, or a hundred, as your mind slowly tries to unravel the little package that Tark has wrapped up for us. Especially recommended if you are having a bad day or are experiencing emotional distress, I imagine this music could smooth out just about anything.

Sharon Eaton Shares "All Creatures of Our God and King"

For Easter, Sharon has made her own arrangement of the Christian hymn "All Creatures of Our God and King", which is available in PDF format and also, of course, in KTabS format.

Sharon Eaton has been playing kalimba for over four years. Living on top of the San Bernardino Mountains, she very rarely gets a chance to play kalimba with someone else. She is a lone, self taught kalimba musician, who has become a valuable contributor to the kalimba community. I have learned a lot from her, and she has learned a lot from me and Kalimba Magic.

About a year after I invented the kalimba tablature, about six months after I started Kalimba Magic, Sharon bought a kalimba book from me, and very soon after she opened the book, she said something to Randy, her programming genius husband, along the lines of, "There should be a computer program that does this tablature so people all over the world could write songs on their computers and share them." Programmer husband and kalimba player wife went to work and, in the course of several weeks, KTabS, the Kalimba Tablature Software, was born.

In the summer and fall of 2006, Sharon and I both had a new toy. We wanted to explore what we could do with KTabS. We quickly wrote arrangements for 20 different classical melodies, and modified the arrangements for both the Alto and the Treble. KTabS was a perfect platform for our collaboration. We could input the notes into the computer and fire off an email with a tiny KTabS file attached. We could check each other's work, we could add to each other's work. Together, we created some truly beautiful things. A mere four years ago, Sharon was pretty much a stranger to the kalimba and usually when she wrote something down, there were errors and problems, which I would correct or make suggestions for improvement. But when I listen to KTabS playing Sharon's arrangement of "All Creatures...," there isn't a single thing I would change.

When I see something as solid, consistent, complex yet simple, and as lovely as Sharon's arrangement of All Creatures of our God and King, I am thrilled. This arrangement is SO kalimba—I love it!

Some Cool Kalimba Videos

There are some amazing things happening in the kalimba world. Some of them are beginnings. Some are coming to fruition. It is exciting to watch this evolution.

• Duncan Sickler's Somewhere Over the Rainbow
  You may remember Duncan from our Kalimba Magic Interview a few years back.
• The Artist SaReGaMa is a prolific karimba writer, player, experimenter - well worth a watch.
• Another Christmas Medley
  Bryan, the player, said, It starts out basic, but gets more complex. It isn't as as good as your medley [which, in a way, my whole 23 years of kalimba playing leads up to], but I thought the world might be interested in knowing what can be achieved on the kalimba in only 6 months.
• A New Kalimba made by Thomas Boethe
  This is amazing, you really should watch this! (Ignore the title about Wofgang, Thomas' brother who actually sent me the kalimba in the mail. He wrote of his brother's invention, I think this is the most charismatic of all kalimbas. It took me about 2 days for me to begin agreeing with him.
• Learn more about Thomas Boethe and the island he lived on while he built exotic kalimbas.
• Stephanie Abels is a long time mbira player who livs in Bisbee, AZ. She gives mbira lessons and lectures on the history of the mbira, and we will have her come up to Tucson to give us a presentation on the mbira some time. Don't be fooled by the slow start in this mbira piece, it is all so beautiful, and I just keep playing it over and over again.
• Joel Laviolette has online mbira lessons. With love and gratitude, he writes.

Great New Mbira Website

I would like to let you know about a new mbira website I have begun creating at Tinotenda.org

This site is aimed at those new to mbira or interested in learning about mbira, rather than most of you who already know about kutsinhiras and hosho and mavembe tuning..., but I hope you will take a look and see if this is a useful addition to mbira on the internet (and something you would refer interested people to).

While I have "written" some of this site's content, it also brings together materials from Solomon Murungu, Paul Berliner, Erica Azim, N. Scott Robinson and many others. While I don't think there's much new here, I am hoping that by bringing together and organizing existing materials from many sources and, most importantly, adding audio and video, this site will begin to tell a more comprehensive story of mbira for those new to the music and tradition.

It is certainly a work in progress. There is much to add, including a page on mbira in the West (and now East) - an essential part of the story of mbira but one I'm not sure I know enough about to tell yet anyway.

I welcome your comments, suggestions, and corrections -- there is a Contact button on every page. I will probably add a blog which could be a forum for discussing how this site is presenting mbira.

Tinotenda,
Stuart

Kalimba Provides Connection to Mother Africa

Please know that your labor is not in vain! Be very encouraged to forge ahead, for there are others out here like me who are waiting to have a personal encounter with this wonderful, magical instrument, but they just don't know it yet. My kalimba is MORE than a mere wooden box with tines on it...it IS my connection with thousands of years of history. You didn't know this, but I'm in the midst of studying the ancient origins of my heritage as a black person, and owning this kalimba is a HUGE part of that. You have assisted me in another connection with WHO and WHAT I am and I have to thank you for that as well. This precious instrument IS Mother Africa to me. I told my son last night that if anything happens to me, this kalimba is to be and to remain a family heirloom. It will be his and I told him to pass it on to his own children when it's time for them to come along.

—Gina

My Parting Words

I am so filled with emotion for the music that I am hearing and for the people who are being moved by our work. I am convinced we are headed in a good direction. We don't know the future of the world, but I have faith that as we turn people on in a good way... it will all work out.

—Mark Holdaway, Kalimba Magic