Kalimba Magic NEWS

Kalimba Community News

Woodburn Kalimbas

Eric Freeman's friend Rajuli took this Alto apart (the bridge and half-round backstop are not glued on, so it is actually easy to do - see here to learn how), and made a beautiful wood burn design in it. This one is destined to become one of Eric's famous bass kalimbas. The light colored stripe going across the wood near the metal pressure bar is where the bridge used to sit. The wood color darkens due to exposure to sunlight and from body oils or shea butter, and this strip of wood under the bridge was protected from those elements.

I have seen some vintage art on old Hugh Tracey kalimbas... I like to imagine these were made by someone in the 1960s or 1970s while camping out in a mountain meadow, or traveling to a Dead show in a VW bus... However, this is the most beautiful kalimba art I have seen.

An Assortment of Kalimba Videos

• Laila Smith is a high school student who was inspired to learn to play kalimba by Youn Sun Nah singing "My Favorite Things", which we featured in last month's video section. Recently Laila got some kalimbas and performed My Favorite Things herself (music starts at 0:37). Says her father: "The student showcase concert was at an entrance to the main concert hall before the Manhattan Transfer/Victor Wooten concert later that evening. A crowd of around 500 people had gathered waiting to go in, and thoroughly enjoyed the student vocal soloists that were performing in their showcase concert. You could hear a pin drop during Laila's unique rendition. It was a magical moment."
  All you folks interested in singing and playing kalimba together, this is a nice approach.
• Nick in Italy on Chromatic Kalimba
• Nick in Italy - Chromatic Kalimba Greensleeves
• Will Northlich-Redmond, kalimba (chromatic?) with wild jazz band
• Will Northlich-Redmond, kalimba (chromatic?) with wild jazz band, II
• Marius of Romania - Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre été (acoustic kalimba cover)
• Marius of Romania's home made kalimba, improvised song
• Hello, My name is Tim Dwyer. I am a musician and sound designer from the Boston area. I make kalimba infused electro-acoustic pop music under the name Full-Source. My song, "Leaves Are Gone (audio only)" is about New England autumns. I wrote, recorded, and completed this little track in just under 6 hours. The goal was to produce a track based upon focus and quick decision making. What came out of this experiment is a simple and lovely little musical expression.
• Fernando Rocha - Hyper kalimba improvisation. Don't know what a hyper kalimba is? Better look and see.
• SaReGaMa's Karimba solo (his own tuning) - I love this piece, we are featuring it again!
• Scotty Hayward, Fur Elise, more info at www.kalimbaman.com
• And you can't mention Fur Elise and Kalimba without linking to Sharon Eaton's demo of Fur Elise on the very first chromatic kalimba AMI ever made.