Jamaican marumba - is the marumba a Jamaican marimbula?

[davidpenalosa]

Hello,
Today I was watching an MSNBC show I had recorded earlier. I usually fast-forward through the commercials, but this time I spaced out as a Liberty Travel commercial promoting Jamaica played. For one fleeting second I saw what I took to be a marimbula flash on the screen. I jumped up, rewound the recording and freeze-framed the instrument. Sure enough, it was a five-key Cuban marimbula, nearly identical to the one in my own home. The instrument was painted in garish Caribbean colors with these words: "sitting bass, marumba". I know that there is considerable trade within the Caribbean, but I am wondering if anybody has heard of a traditional Jamaican instrument known as the marumba? If so, what genre is it found in? I’m skeptical that this is anything more than a transplanted Cuban marimbula, but perhaps somebody out there has some knowledge of this instrument?

-David

[Bataboom]

Is this what your refering to? This is a west african thumb piano sometimes called marimba. A real marimba is this like a vibe.

another west african percussion instrument its called by africans as a balafon or marimba.


These instruments are played in West African places like Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast made with wood roasted keys shaved and tuned with gourds under each key for the amplification of each key.

If neither of these is what your talking about scratch this whole stinkin thread LOL



Edited By Bataboom on 1137810591

[davidpenalosa]

Cuban marimbula:
http://www.salsablanca.com/ethno/instruments/marimbula

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... ula_th.jpg

[davidpenalosa]

The marimbula is the original bass of the old form of son called changui. It is a lamellaphone of Congolese origin. The mbira and kalimba (or "thumb piano") are also lamellaphones. The balafon, marimba and vibraphone are all xylophones.

Thanks for those photos Bataboom.

-David



Edited By davidpenalosa on 1137828440

[davidpenalosa]

Here's what Willie in the Yahoo Latinjazz e-group posted in response to my querry:

The Marimbula
by
Michael Sisson, Ph.D.
© 2000 Michael D. Sisson
All Rights Reserved
I. History

Origins
The marimbula, sometimes called the bass kalimba, is a folk instrument
of the Caribbean, the creation of African slaves and their descendants.
It comes originally from rural Oriente province, at the eastern end of
the island of Cuba, and was first observed being played there in the
mid-nineteenth century. By the 1930s it had made its way to Haiti, the
Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands, to
Mexico and as far away as New York City. The Cubans call it marímbula
(pronounced mah-REAM-boo-lah), and most of the other Caribbean countries
have adopted this name or some variant of it–marimba, malimba, manimba,
marimbol. In English-speaking Jamaica, however, it’s called a "rumba-box."
Musicologists refer to the instrument as a "large-box lamellaphone." The
word lamellaphone comes from the Latin root lamella, or lamina, meaning
"a thin plate or layer" (as in the English word "laminate"), and the
Greek phone, meaning "sound." The lamellaphones are a family of musical
instruments that produce sound when the player presses and releases the
free ends of its lamellae, its "tongues" or keys. The classic
lamellaphones are indigenous to Africa, where they take a variety of
forms, known by such names as sanza, kisanji, likembe, mbira, mbila,
marimba, malimba, and kalimba. In general these instruments are small
enough to be held in the hands and played with the thumbs, hence their
colloquial name, "thumb-piano."
The true African kalimba and other members of the lamellaphone family
have been around for centuries. The earliest written record of their
existence is from 1586, but they are certainly much older than that. It
is thought that they may have originated as portable versions of marimbas
or xylophones. The latter were probably brought to Africa in ancient
times from south-east Asia, where similar instruments are found today in
the gamelan orchestras of Java and Bali. So although the marimbula of the
West Indies is of relatively recent vintage (only 150 years or so old),
its origins extend into the distant past, and quite possibly half-way
around the world to the East Indies.
While the marimbula is clearly descended from the African lamellaphones,
it is set apart from its progenitors by both its size and the way in
which it is played. A few large-box types may be found in Africa (the
Smithsonian in Washington has one from Nigeria that measures 13 x 7 x 8
inches), but even these are not as large as the typical Caribbean model.
And because of its larger size, the marimbula is not played with the
thumbs, in the African manner, but with the index and middle fingers
together.
More significant than the matter of thumbs vs. fingers is the fact that
the original African lamellaphones are melodic and contrapuntal
instruments, used singly or in ensembles with other lamellaphones to play
a complex, polyphonic music, while the Caribbean marimbula plays only the
relatively simple bass lines that provide a rhythmic and harmonic
accompaniment to the diverse instruments of a folk or commercial dance
band. In this way its function corresponds to that of the bass in
European music. So although its ancestry is unquestionably African, the
marimbula is a product of mestizaje, the mixing of African and Western
elements that characterizes much of Caribbean culture.

Early Marimbulas
When the people who first created the marimbula were uprooted from their
homelands in Africa and transported across the ocean, they could not
carry their musical instruments with them. Unlike European immigrants
with their fiddles and their guitars, the Africans brought only their
traditions, only what they could carry in their heads. Once they arrived,
they began to recreate their musical traditions, using instruments made
from whatever local materials were available to them in their new
environment. An example is the cajón, literally "large box," an
improvised Afro-Cuban drum made from a discarded wooden packing case. The
cajón is a kind of cousin to the marimbula, which in its earliest days
was also made from nothing more elaborate than an old wooden box.
The most common form of the marimbula consists of a rectangular box the
size and shape of a small suitcase (some even have a luggage-type handle
on top), with a sound hole and a row of keys on one of its sides. The
player (called the marimbulero) places the instrument on the ground with
the keys pointing upward, and sits on its top edge, reaching down to
press the keys. The latter can be of metal, wood or bamboo; for many
years the preferred material was discarded springs from old wind-up
Victrola phonographs, but old clock springs and knife or saw blades have
been used, as well as steel strapping from lumber shipments and, in
Jamaica, hoops from rum casks. In New York’s Spanish Harlem in the 1930s,
marimbulas are said to have been made from orange crates and bed springs.
There have been many variations on this basic design. On some
instruments, hearkening back to their African ancestors, the wooden box
is replaced by a large calabash gourd, with a circular slab of wood for a
sound board. Other models are designed to rest on the lap, or to hang by
straps from the neck, so that the player can stand or walk around while
playing (these are used in Carnaval and other types of parades). In
Puerto Rico, the box is sometimes made in the shape of a truncated string
bass body.
The number of keys also varies from place to place: ten or more in Cuba
and Puerto Rico, but only three or four in Haiti and Dominican Republic.
Experimental models have been built with over sixty. Where the number of
keys is small, the player typically plays them all with one hand, using
the other hand to beat out a rhythm on the side of the box, and this
percussive rhythm can be as important as the notes produced by the keys.
Even when the fingers of both hands are occupied with the keys, the
thumbs are sometime used to drum on the top of the instrument.

The Marimbula in Afro-Cuban Music
In its native Cuba, the marimbula is associated with a type of music
called son (rhymes with "tone"). Son was originally a country dance-song
from rural eastern Cuba, performed by singers with an ensemble of string
and percussion instruments that normally included the marimbula. The son
came to the capital city of Havana in the early 1900s, and by the early
1920s it had become a major dance craze. Son is what you hear on the CD
Buena Vista Social Club (and in the documentary film of the same name).
It is to Latin music what the blues is to North American music: just as
the blues became the basis for the later development of jazz and rock and
roll, so the son was the precursor to the salsa style of the late 1960s
and beyond.
The earliest and most basic son ensemble was the terceto, consisting of:
marimbula, bongó drums, and tres (a Cuban guitar with three sets of
double strings). When the country son moved to the city, maracas, guitar,
and claves (hardwood rhythm sticks) were added, creating the sexteto, the
classic son group of the early to mid 1920s. (In some of these groups,
instead of a marimbula, there was a botija or botijuela, a wind
instrument made from an empty earthenware olive oil jar that was played
much like the "jug" in American jug bands.) With commercial success,
however, came changes in this line-up. Beginning around 1925, the
marimbula was replaced by the string bass, and a cornet or trumpet was
added to the group, transforming the sexteto into the septeto. It is the
septeto sound, with string bass and trumpet, that you hear on Buena Vista
Social Club.
The string bass came to be preferred over the marimbula because of its
greater volume, range and versatility, its superior ability to provide a
harmonic accompaniment to the increasingly complex music that was
beginning to be played at that time. Along with these advantages,
however, came considerable disadvantages, including the much greater
expense required to purchase and maintain a string bass, and its much
larger size, which makes it so difficult to transport and vulnerable to
accidents. And so the easily portable, inexpensive, and hardy marimbula
continued to be played in rural communities and the less prosperous
sections of the cities. Sturdy and manageable, it was still the most
practical choice for street music and parades (comparsas). For these
reasons it has been called the "poor man’s string bass."

Beyond the Son
The marimbula spread out from Cuba along with the son. In part this came
about thanks to migrant workers from other parts of the Caribbean, who
were exposed to the instrument while working on the Cuban sugar
plantations, and then created their own versions of it on returning to
their home islands. More significant were the professional touring
ensembles from Havana, who introduced the son to other Caribbean
countries and Mexico, Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 30s.
The music that became so popular in the U.S. during that time under the
name of "rumba" was in fact not rumba at all, but son.
Outside of Cuba, the marimbula has been used to play both Cuban-style
dance music and the local dance musics of the countries in which it has
made its home. In the Dominican Republic it plays merengue in a type of
ensemble called the conjunto típico, which also includes accordion, drum
and güira (scraper). In Haiti it is used to accompany the dance called
méringue, and in Puerto Rico it often appears among the musicians who
join in Christmastime parrandas or asaltos, roving neighborhood parties
that go from house to house playing and singing, eating and drinking. In
Jamaica it is sometimes used in Rastafarian ceremonies.
The marimbula experienced a revival In the 1970s, when the folk music
movement known as Nueva Canción or Nueva Trova ("new song") was sweeping
through Latin America. Renewed interest led some Instrument makers to
experiment with techniques used in constructing other instruments, such
as the internal bracing found in guitars, in an effort to build a better
marímbula. In recent decades the marimbula has appeared on recordings by
musicians ranging from the Cuban roots music group Sierra Maestra to jazz
great Herbie Hancock (on his Head Hunters album), from Martin Denny’s
Exotica to the Seattle Latin jazz combo Sonando.

II. Learning to Play the Marimbula

It’s amazingly easy to get the basic sound out of the marimbula. There
is no special technique involved: the player simply sits or stands with
the free ends of the keys pointed toward him or her, and presses them
down with his or her fingers—normally the index and middle fingers
together. You can also play rhythm on it like a drum. That is really all
there is to it. The trick is knowing which notes to play, and when to
play them.
The marimbula is not, like its African progenitors, a melodic
instrument. While it is certainly possible play simple melodies on the
marimbula, its traditional role (and a very important role at that) is to
provide a harmonic and rhythmic basis for the group. Harmony is what
tells you which notes to play, and rhythm determines when you will play
them. Let’s begin by looking at each of these two components separately,
and then we’ll talk about how they interact to produce a good-sounding
bass line.

Basic Harmony
The simplest kind of bass line consists of playing just the root note of
the each of the chords in the tune you are accompanying. If the chord is
C, you play a C; if the chord is G, you play G, and so on. Though this
approach is elementary in the extreme, it is actually quite effective for
playing tunes where the chords change frequently, as when there are
consistently two or more chords per measure.
If, however, you are playing a tune in which the same chord is held for
a whole measure, or for two or more measures, then rather than repeat the
root of the chord over and over, you should alternate the root with its
fifth, i.e. the note five notes above (or four notes below, which is the
same thing). The most basic kind of chord, called a triad, has three
notes: the root, third, and fifth. In a C triad, the root is C, the third
is E, and the fifth is G. To play an extended C chord, the marimbula
would play C G | C G etc. for as long as the chord is held. If the chord
then changes from C to G, you can simply switch to alternating the root
and fifth of the G chord, and play G D | G D. Using roots and fifths
only, you don’t have to be concerned about major vs. minor triads, since
the root and fifth are the same for both (it’s the third that makes the
difference).
A problem that can arise with the marimbula, because of its limited
number of keys, is needing to play a chord for which you lack the root or
the fifth, or both. To this special marimbula problem, there is a
traditional marimbula solution: substitute a neighboring note for the
missing one. For example, if you are called on to play a B chord, the
root will be B and the fifth F#. If you do not have an F#, but you have
an F, you can use the latter in its place. This is because for most
people the low bass notes are hard to distinguish clearly, and the
marimbula in particular has a tone that tends to be somewhat indistinct
with regard to pitch. As a result, the ear will usually accept the
substitution without complaint.
In fact, on many of the early recordings of Cuban son groups, the
marimbulero plays a stripped-down version of the harmony that does not
strictly adhere to the chord changes played by the guitar. In some cases
the marimbula merely repeats the notes of a single chord (the tonic)
throughout the entire performance. At such times the harmonic function of
the bass line is abandoned, and the marimbula becomes a pure rhythm
instrument.

Rhythms
There are two fundamental rhythms that form the basis for virtually all
the bass lines played by the marimbula. The first is a steady half-notes
pulse, with two notes to the bar falling on beats 1 and 3 (in standard
4/4 time)–what jazz bassists call "two-feel." This is how the marimbula
is played in Dominican merengue, and it will work for most types of North
American folk music. To relieve the monotony of the continuous half
notes, you can add an occasional quarter note on beat 4 of the measure (1
rest 3 4); this is especially effective just before a chord change, as we
shall see. (This two-note pattern also works for tunes in 6/8, such as
jigs; to adapt it for tunes in 3/4 (waltz time), play a half note on the
first beat of each measure, and a shorter quarter note on beat 3: 1 rest
3.)
The other basic rhythm for the marimbula is the clave. This is the
rhythm of the bass line in the Cuban son, and in many other forms of
Latin music. It is in some New Orleans music too, and through that route
it has entered rock and roll–the "Bo Diddley" guitar riff is based on it.
Because of this, we in the U.S. tend to associate the sound of the clave
with commercial pop music, but it is in fact a traditional rhythm from
Africa.
Clave is a bouncy, syncopated alternative to the "four-square" feel of
straight half notes. Bass instruments (marimbula, string bass, etc.)
normally play what is known as the "3-side" of the clave, meaning that
there are three notes to the bar, falling on beat 1, the "and" of 2, and
4–a pattern that is often written as two dotted quarter notes followed by
an ordinary quarter note. A common variant, often heard in son, is called
"anticipated bass," in which the note on beat 1 is omitted.
The best way to understand the clave rhythm is to listen to people
playing it. This is relatively easy to do, since virtually any recording
of salsa music will have examples of bass lines based on the clave
(usually being played on an electric bass). For a more "rootsy" (or in
Spanish, típico) sound, listen to the string bass of Orlando "Cachaíto"
López on the Buena Vista Social Club, or any of the recordings by
Cachaíto’s uncle Israel "Cachao" López (Master Sessions volumes I and II
are excellent).
If you want to hear authentic marimbula as it was played in the early
days, you can look for reissues of vintage Cuban recordings, such as the
CD Hot Music from Cuba: 1907-1939 (on the Harlequin label), or early
recordings of the Sexteto Habanero. Unfortunately, the recording
technology of the 1920s and 30s did not reproduce the bass register very
well, and the marimbula is often hard to hear. One exception is the 1925
recording of the son "El cangrejito" by the group Terceto Yoyó, which can
be heard on the Hot Music CD. Listening to this and other early
recordings of the marimbula, what you will find in general is a more
rudimentary, somewhat simplified version of the same kinds of bass lines
you can hear more clearly on the Buena Vista Social Club and other more
recent recordings.

Building Bass Lines
You can play a perfectly acceptable bass line by simply alternating
roots and fifths, as described above, but this can begin to sound (and
feel) rather mechanical. A better bass line is one that flows smoothly
from one chord change to the next, one that forms a kind of
counter-melody running along underneath the melody and harmony of the
other instruments. The idea is to play a line that is a little more
melodic, a sort of "bass song," while still fulfilling your basic
rhythmic and harmonic duties. One way to accomplish this is by modifying
one or more of the notes leading up to a chord change, so that the bass
line moves smoothly to the root of the new chord.
To see how this works, let’s take as an example a chord progression from
C to G, then back to C. This is called a I-V-I progression, and it is
very common in folk music. To start with, here is the simple
roots-and-fifths bass line for this progression:
C G C
(1) C G | C G | G D | G D | C G | C G
There is nothing wrong with this, but it would sound better if instead
you played:
C G C
(2) C G | C D | G D | G D | C G | C G
The D in the second measure does a better job of moving the bass line
along because it is the fifth of the following G chord, and the fifth has
a natural tendency to go to the root. But, you might object, the chord in
the second measure is still C, and that D is not the root or the fifth of
the C chord–in fact, it’s not in the C chord at all. This is true: in
relation to the C chord, D is the second (often called the ninth, which
is the same thing an octave higher), and while D is not one of the three
chord-tones of the C triad, it doesn’t clash with them either. D makes a
good choice for a transitional note because it works in both contexts,
that of the old chord © and that of the new chord (G).
Now let’s look at the second chord change in this progression, from G
back to C (V-I). In example 2 above, the last note before the change is
D, which as we have just seen is both the fifth of G and the second of C.
D and C are adjacent tones in the scale, a single step apart, and moving
from D to C is an example of what is called step-wise motion. Step-wise
motion to the new root is another good way of making your bass line flow
more smoothly. It’s not as strong a cadence as the fifth-to-root motion
described above, but it can be very effective none the less.
Suppose, though, that you want to give more drive to the return from G
to C. You can add an extra G (the fifth of C) as a quarter note on beat
4, between the D and the C:
(3) C G | C D | G D | G DG | C G | C G
I’ve written DG together in this way to indicate that these two are
played as quarter notes, i.e. twice as fast as the other notes. The
rhythm in the fourth measure of example (3) goes: 1 rest 3 4. Putting in
the extra note (G) adds impetus to the harmonic movement, while keeping
up the pattern of alternating roots and fifths–you don’t have to play the
G twice in one measure to get a strong cadence. And having two quarter
notes in place of the usual half note also adds rhythmic variety.
Another common chord progression is I-IV-V-I, or, in the key of C, C F G
C. Here is a bass line:
C F G C
(4) C G | C GC | F C | F D | G D | G DG | C G | C G
There are a couple of things to notice about this bass line. One is the D
at the end of measure 4, which is the fifth of the G in the next measure.
In relation to the F chord, D is the sixth, and the sixth is like the
second (ninth) in that it is not a chord tone, but neither it is it
dissonant with the chord, so it makes a good transition note. The other
thing to notice is that the notes used in the I-IV progression follow the
same pattern as those used for V-I, and the converse is also true, that
the notes for IV-I follow the same pattern as I-V. This is because the
distance between the roots of the chords is the same. Going from G to C
is a V-I progression in the key of C, and at the same time I-IV in the
key of G. The basic patterns you use for one kind of progression can
often be recycled for use in other harmonic contexts.

Some Guidelines for Constructing Bass Lines:
&Mac183; Start with the root of each chord, and alternate that with the fifth.
If you are playing a rhythm that requires three notes per measure, such
as the clave, use the root, fifth and octave (or repeat the root again,
if your instrument’s range doesn’t include the octave).
&Mac183; Avoid repeating the same note twice in a row. This is not a hard and
fast rule, but alternating different notes will generally give you better
results.
&Mac183; When moving from one chord to another, think of the last note of the
old chord as a transitional note that helps make a smooth progression to
the new chord.
&Mac183; The transition note can be either the fifth or the second of the new
chord (the one towards which you are moving). In relation to the old
chord (the one you are about to leave) it can be any one of the chord
tones (root, fifth, or third), or the second or the sixth.
&Mac183; Keep in mind that the marimbula is a simple instrument, and it sounds
best when played in a simple manner. Your role is to be there for the
group with the right note at precisely the right time.
All this may seem rather complicated and technical, especially if you
have not played a bass instrument before. When you are starting to learn
the marimbula, it will help to sit down and write out the bass line to a
tune in advance, working out the various relationships between chord and
non-chord tones on paper before you actually try to play it.
After you have done this for a while, you will probably find that it
starts to come automatically, and you won't have to think too hard about
it. You'll just hear the sound in your head and play it. Once you have
mastered the basics, experiment with different patterns of notes and
different rhythms. Listen to bass lines played by other instruments, and
try to copy them. Use your ear to decide what kind of sound you like, and
begin to develop your own personal style based on what sounds good to you.

Sample Bass Lines for the Marimbula
Below are some suggested bass lines for the most common harmonic
progressions. They are written out in four common keys, but you can
transpose the patterns into other keys too. Try playing them in different
rhythms, in 4/4, 3/4, and clave. For the Latin-style "anticipated bass,"
play the root of the new chord one beat ahead of where it would normally
be, on beat 4 of the measure before the change.
Remember that portions of these bass lines can be recycled for use with
other chord progressions. For instance, the pattern suggested for moving
from IV to V in the I-IV-V-I progression can be used for any pair of
chords that are one step apart, e.g. the I-flat VII-I progression found
in many "modal" fiddle tunes. Finally, there is nothing "carved in stone"
about any of these bass lines–they are merely offered as suggestions to
help you get started playing the marimbula.

I-V-I
C (C G C) C G | C D | G D | G DG | C G | C G
G (G D G) G D | G A | D A | D AD | G D | G D
D (D A D) D A | D E | A E | A EA | D A | D A
A (A E A) A E | A B | E B | E BE | A E | A E

I-IV-I
C (C F C) C G | C GC | F C | F G | C G | C G
G (G C G) G D | G DG | C G | C D | G D | G D
D (D G D) D A | D AD | G D | G A | D A | D A
A (A D A) A E | A EA | D A | D E | A E | A E

I-IV-V-I
C (C F G C) C G | C GC | F C | F D | G D | G DG | C G | C G
G (G C D G) G D | G DG | C G | C A | D A | D AD | G D | G D
D (D G A D) D A | D AD | G D | G E | A E | A EA | D A | D A
A (A D E A) A E | A EA | D A | D B | E B | E BE | A E | A E

I-flat VII-I
G (G F G) G D | G DG | F C | F D | G D | G D
D (D C D) D A | D AD | C G | C A | D A | D A
A (A G A) A E | A EA | G D | G E | A E | A E
E (E D E) E B | E BE | D A | D B | E B | E B

I-VI-I
C (C A C) C G | C E | A E | A G | C G | C G
G (G E G) G D | G B | E B | E D | G D | G D
D (D B D) D A | D F# | B F# | B A | D A | D A *
A (A F# A) A E | A C#| F# C# | F# E | A E | A E *

I-VI-II-V-I (circle of fifths)
F (F D C G F) F C | F A | D A | D A | G D | G D | C G | C G | F C | F C
C (C A D G C) C G | C E | A E | A E | D A | D A | G D | G D | C G | C G
G (G E A D G) G D | G B | E B | E B | A E | A E | D A | D A | G D | G D
D (D B E A D) D A | D F# | B F# | B F# | E B | E B | A E | A E | D A | D
A *
or
F (F D C G F) F C | F A | D A | D AD | G D | G DG | C G | C GC | F C | F C
C (C A D G C) C G | C E | A E | A EA | D A | D AD | G D | G DG | C G | C G
G (G E A D G) G D | G B | E B | E BE | A E | A EA | D A | D AD | G D | G D
D (D B E A D) D A | D F# | B F# | B F#B | E B | E BE | A E | A EA | D A *
* If your instrument doesn’t have F# or C#, try substituting F and C.

Further Reading

Berliner, Paul. The Soul of Mbira. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1978.
Courlander, Harold. "Musical Instruments of Cuba." Musical Quarterly 28
(1942): 227-40.
------------. "Musical Instruments of Haiti." Musical Quarterly 28.3
(1941): 380-81.
Del Puerto, Carlos and Silvio Vergara. The True Cuban Bass. Petaluma, CA:
Sher Music, 1994.
Dufrasne, José Emanuel. "Los instrumentos musicales afroboricuas." In La
tercera raíz. Presencia africana en Puerto Rico. N.p.: Centro de Estudios
de la Realidad Puertorriqueña, 1992.
Gansemans, Jos. "Le marimbula, un lamellaphone Africain aux Antilles
Neerlandaises." Cahiers de musiques traditionelles 2 (1989): 125-32.
Gerard, Charley and Marty Sheller. Salsa: The Rhythm of Latin Music.
Crown Point, IN: White Cliffs Media, 1989.
Kauffman, Robert et al. "Lamellaphone." The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, 1980.
Manuel, Peter. Caribbean Currents. From Rumba to Reggae. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1995.
Ortiz, Fernando. Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana. Madrid:
Editorial Musicamundana Maqueda, 1996.
Roberts, Robert Storm. The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American
Music on the United States. Oxford University Press, 1979.
Thomson, Donald. "The Marímbula, an Afro-Caribbean Sanza." Yearbook for
Inter-American Musical Research 7 (1971): 103-116.

[Berimbau]

Dear David,
Back in the early 1990's I did some fieldwork in Jamaica and subsequently published an article on the "giant" lamellophones of the Caribbean in a journal called Experimental Musical Instruments. After the Katrina debacle, I know longer have a copy, but am trying to contact my editor there, Bart Hopkin, in hopes of obtaining a new copy of it. I would be most glad to share it with you when it arrives. Until then, I much enjoyed Dr. Sisson's article, which I find both informative and accurate.
I would like to add a few observations of my own, however. The ancient origins of lamellophones are likely to be found in the so-called raffia belt (the original building materials of these instruments?) of Central Africa stretching in a region from Zaire and Angola to the Zambesi Valley in the East. I do NOT agree think lamellaphones originated in Java or Bali. One might make a case for the zeze or other instruments, but NOT lamellaphones! Although the late Rev. A.M. Jones spent much time and ink on the historical connections and musical relationship between Africa and Indonesia, in the end his case is really NOT that compelling, and I remain open-minded, yet unconvinced.
What IS known is that as a cultural consequence of the Central-African slave trade a variety of lamellaphones reappeared in Brasil and the Caribbean. These box, board, and gourd resonated instruments are unique to African and African-derived music, and are UNKNOWN in European and Asian cultures. Lamellaphones became extremely popular in the New World, especially in Brasil, as evidenced by numerous historical depictions and descriptions. In Brasil lamellaphones subsequently disapeared as they were supplanted by European instruments such as the guitar. A parallell case could also be observed in 20th century Zaire. In the Caribbean, the instrument survived in a new form and a new musical context as a bass-voiced instrument in small ensembles of string and percussion instruments, especially in Cuba. The Caribbean terms for these giant lamellaphones, "rumba box" and "marimbula" are both, of course, Bantu-derived, and give us strong evidence as to the instruments' ultimate African provenience. Another interesting diagnostic marker is the playing attitude assumed by many Caribbean marimbula players with one arm passing underneath the musician's leg, exactly as in Central and East African performance practices. Compare Gerhard Kubik's photos of the late Angolan likembe player, Kufuna Kandonga in his Theory of African Music (1994:389) with one published by Ned Sublette in Cuba and It's Music (2004:340) of a Marimbula player in Baracoa. Many of the players I interviewed in Jamaica played their rumba boxes in this exact manner.
I'm relatively certain that Cuba was the epicenter for this organological transformation and that the giant lamellaphones then diffused with the inter-Caribbean migration of sailors and laborers. This was later culturally reinforced outside of Cuba through the international popularization of the Son via touring groups, records, and films.
However, in many other aspects the Marimbula's playing techniques are QUITE a departure from the traditional Central African use of only the thumbs and/or index fingers. Kubik has an excellent study of this (including cultural comprehention tests!!) in his 1979 Angolan Traits book. This important new orientation reflects both the physical challenges of the VERTICAL layout of the Marimbula's keys as opposed to the horizontal arrangement of Central African lamellaphones, as well as the transculturative influences of West African and European musical concepts that were doubtless projected onto this instrument.
Kubik contends that these giant lamellaphones then went BACK to West Africa, where they are presently used in a variety of neo-traditional musics. As of yet, no one is able to trace these giant West African lamellaphones history past the late 19th century, and the mistaken assumption was that they came from Nigeria to Cuba!!!
In the end there is still so much more to uncover about these instruments, but what is most revealing here is the resourcefulness and ingenuity of Afro-Cubans in creating one of the Earth's most unique and innovative cultures.



Saludos,




Berimbau

[Berimbau]

Please note that my spellcheck (and brain?) was definately OFF!! All appologies hereby tendered.


Saludos,


Berimbau

[davidpenalosa]

Berimbau,
Thanks so much for your input. I would very much like to read your article if you are able to get a copy again. Today I downloaded some Jamaican mento music which features marumba, guitar and hand drum. Very interesting stuff.

Below is a list of articles provided to the Latinjazz e-group by Dr. Ben Lapidus (of Sonido Isleño fame), including his own excellent article on changui in the Journal of Ethomusicology.
-David

McLeod, Marc C. "Undesirable Aliens: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
in the Comparison of Haitian and British West Indian Immigrant Workers
in Cuba." Journal of Social History 31, no. 3 (1998): 599-623.

Pérez de la Riva, Juan. "Cuba y la migración antillana 1900-1931." In
Anuario de Estudios Cubanos, No. 2, pp. 5-75. La Habana: Editorial de
Ciencias Sociales, 1979.

Thompson, Donald. "A New World Mbira: The Caribbean Marímbula."
African Music Society Journal, 5, no. 4 (1975): 140-148.

Vinueza González, María Elena. "Marímbula." In Instrumentos de la
música folclórico-popular cubana, vol. 1, pp. 170-178. La Habana:
Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1997.

Fernando Ortiz, Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana, vol. 2
(1952; reprint, Madrid, Spain: Editorial Música Mundana Maqueda; La
Habana, Cuba: Fundación Fernando Ortiz, 1996), 327-341.

Lapidus, Benjamin. "The Changüí Genre of Guantánamo, Cuba," in
Ethomusicology 49(1) January 2005.

[JohnnyConga]

Dayum! we got some very informed people here!..allright David...BTW have u heard a group out of Kinshasha called "Congotronics"..they use "electronic" mbiras with distortion and other home made instruments, and create a form of what I would call "Jungle Trance" music......very different stuff.....great history on the maribula and mbira...."JC" Johnny Conga....

[davidpenalosa]

Thanks for turning me onto "Congotronics" Johnny. I downloaded them off of itunjes today. Love it!

-David

[Zeno]

Hi Richard, David, and Johnny, et al,

Thanks David for encouraging me to check out this forum. Very nice format here and being able to post photos and smiley faces a definite bonus. :p

oops, I hope that was the correct smiley for the occasion....please no flame wars over smiley faces......

So, jumping right in...

I did find this discussion of the marimbula quite interesting. Richard's
"I'm relatively certain that Cuba was the epicenter for this organological transformation ...." seems to suggest to me (eg. my own speculation) that perhaps the giant lamellaphone was not something "needed" (musically) in prior African music to produce this "bass" register and that the instrument (the marimbula) came about from a musical role that was necessitated in the evolution of this New World synthesis, the "son" (changui) in Cuba. Which incidentally brings up another question having to do with other instruments used for the "bass" in changui. I know the bottle (botija etc.) was used in early Son, but was this also true for early Changui?

Another dimension to these speculations generally might be the availability of materials. Victrola main springs or their equivalent (grandfather clock springs) may not have been something readily available in ancient Africa, but, bamboo is another matter of course. But the overriding question might be whether they even needed or desired this sound for their preferred musical expressions at that point in history.

Was the "bass kalimba" or "bass mbira" something utilized in older African music or is this a relatively recent development? These traditions are still alive and evolving, with new craftspeople and musicians, so a distinction must be made when discussing early origins.

I did notice in Ortiz's "Instrumentos...." an illustration of a "marimbula de quira" and I have here myself an appropriate large "bowl" calabash gourd that I was planning to use along with (finally found) the main spring from an old Victrola wind-up player. I had been searching for one of these springs ever since Dr. Joseph Howard of Los Angeles told me that it was a typical (preferred) source (when I visited him back in the late 60s) when he showed me a room full of Cuban instruments he had already collected (now, since his passing, owned by the Smithsonian).

Unfortunately there is only a drawing in the Ortiz not a photograph of an actual gourd marimbula. Needless to say, one would not play it while sitting on it.

Zeno

[davidpenalosa]

Welcome Zeno,
I am not aware of any bass mbira in Africa. Some of those bass keys on standard mbiras go pretty low, but not as low as a Cuban marimbula.

Besides the calabash bowl resonator, in that illustration of a "marimbula de quira", can you see the actual marimbula? I wish you could scan and post that drawing. If you can see it, does it look like a giant mbira? Is there any chance that the picture could be that of a standard African mbira, used to show the roots of the Cuban marimbula?
-David ???

[Zeno]

Hi David,

Here are some scans from the pages in Ortiz. I will try my hand at posting these images.

Zeno

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... bula_4.jpg

[Zeno]

Here are the next couple of pages:

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... bula_3.jpg

[Zeno]

oops, upside down...now I discover this forum format does not apparently have an "edit" mode, or does it? In any case here are the next pages:

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... bula_1.jpg