Jamaican marumba - is the marumba a Jamaican marimbula?

[Zeno]

Which book by Dr. Rodriguez? Something other than the two CIDMU vols from ~1997?

btw, what exactly do those Ortiz pages state? Who among us are competent translators?

Zeno

[davidpenalosa]

Bataboom,
I believe that "kalimba" ("karimba") and "thumb piano" are all generic terms for African lamellaphones. Am I correct Berimbau?
-David

[Berimbau]

Dear Zeno & David,
Yes, I quess I did mean the CIDMU books edited by Olavo Rodriguez from 1997. Am I the only one who hasn't read them? Nolan Warden has raved about them. I'll put them on my wish list, hoping that an insurance check might yet magically appear while Theresa and I are still alive!!
Yes, kalimba and "thumb piano" have become generic terms. Thumb piano, or worse still, "bush piano," are terms best relegated to the waste bin. Kalimba is actually a Bantu term for a specific lamellaphone as well as the term used by the late ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey to market a version of these instruments internationally in the 1960's. I believe that his son Paul Tracey performed with it in the Broadway musical, "Wait a Minim." I also recall him playing it for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show during that era.
The Bantu root word "imba" means a single note. Local languages add such variant prefixes as kal or mar or kar to pluralize the term imba into "many notes." This is how the names of such well-known Central African lamellaphones as kalimba, marimba, and karimba were derived. Bantu languages represent a type of linguistic super family that stretches across Central Africa from Zaire to Mozambique. There is, unlike with most Niger languages, a sort of linguistic core of some 200 lexical items that are mutually understandable to speakers of such local languages as Chokwe, TuShona, or KiKongo. Some lamellaphones such as the likimbe, associated with foot travelers and porters in colonial times, are today found in widespread regions across Central Africa. The instrument was a new twist on an old idea, similar to many local models, easy to build and carry, and subsequently diffused with the expansion of the railroad system.
The relative homogeneity of Bantu cultures, coupled with their huge numeric presence throughout New World slave societies, really gave them a leg up over most other African groups. A marked Bantu cultural influence can still be detected today in variety of Brasilian, Cuban, and U.S. musical traditions, including those thought to be dominated by Sudanic or Gold Coast traits. The Cuban marimbula and it's trans-Atlantic progeny is certainly a good example of this.
Now if the term lamellaphone might seem a bit pompous, picayune, or pedantic, it is at least a neutral one and IS the prefered term to describe this unique family of African instruments.




Saludos,




Berimbau

[Joseph]

FWIW
This is a topic that’s a bit old…but I’m a new guy, so I’ll throw in my two cents.
Very informative!
So much info, that I had to scan through, I’ll come back for a more thorough reading.

I also have an interest in marimbulas, after seeing them performed in changui ensembles
…matter of fact, I made one for grins.
It was a prototype..I was feeling my way through the challenge of constructing one.
I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect, so I made it kind of funky.

After completion, I left it with a friend of mine…cause my garage is crowded with a lot of my other drum stuff, and marimbula is kinda delicate.
She is French, but lived in Miami for 14 years, and has a connection with the Haitian community in Miami.
Not too long ago, some of her Haitian musician friends came up to visit her.

One guy named RaRa, saw the marimbula, and wanted it immediately and wondered what on earth it was doing in north Florida (read south Georgia)
He called it a MANOUMBA, and said manoumba was a traditional Haitian instrument....
...though it is a Cuban evolution of an African instrument. Exactly how it found its way into Haitian culture is a subject for the scholars.

The funkiness of construction & crude workmanship of the keys was particularly appealing to him.
Reminded him of those he knew in Haiti
He was shocked to learn it was made by some old white anglo.

Anyway, to make a long story short RaRa now owns and plays the Manoumba.
I’ve since made 2 more…a bit more polished.

RaRa Kuyu is a Haitian artist and musician, who plays music and displays his paintings at
Tap Tap Haitian Restaurant South Beach Miami.

When not using it, I think he leaves the Manoumba propped up in the restaurant/ art gallery as a pseudo-Haitian artifact.

Keys are tuned in circle of fifths

Pic: RaRa in the initial ecstasy of getting his fingers on a Manoumba, in long while

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

[bongosnotbombs]

Since you resurrected this thread I'm posting in it too,

also found out about the marimbula through changui and decided I was gonna make one myself,

just salvaged metal for the keys from one of my building projects constructions sites.

anyways it's amazing how much info there is on the net on how to make on and play one.

I'd appreciate it if you could post photo's of the other's you have made and any building tips.

[Joseph]

Hey BnB

I'd be happy to do that, but although this thread is from a while back, it started and developed into an almost scholarly treatise on Marimbulas....
I mean there is some well researched, well documented, comprehensive info on the the evolution of the marimbula...posted by some of the eminent elders in this forum...and I mean that with awesome respect.
I learned a lot here.

Would it be appropriate to post that here, or would it be seen as....(the nefarious!).... thread hijacking...
...and be more appropriate in the ....
Coming soon!!.....er, ah...possibly.... "Build Your Own Marimbula" thread

You tell me. I'm a new guy here, and I wanna respect the protocols

BTW
I became aware of "Congotronics" today, in reading posts on this thread. I downloaded a CD of it today from Amazon.
WOW! .......Avant-garde, electric African street trance rumba stomp (er, ....have I covered it all?)

Check out the double Marimbula

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

[bongosnotbombs]

Oh yeah, I love Congotronics, been listening to their album Konono No.1 for a while, I haven't heard their second one your showing.

You should watch their vids on youtube.

I don't think anyone would think your jacking the thread, we're still talking about the same instrument. Especially since the last post before yours was back in 2006?

I've read most of this thread too, and most of the stuff online as well. Still it would be good to have a first hand account from someone that built one..

especially regarding the keys and the bridge, the box I think would be easy.

how did you get the metal keys to be in tune? you know things like that.

btw that picture or you friend is excellent!



Edited By bongosnotbombs on 1200092354

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... ula_12.jpg

[bongosnotbombs]

This one is excellent!

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

[Joseph]

wow that second one is a beauty

That's a pro model if ever I saw one
Got some serious bolts clamping the keys on..look like 3/8" bolts
...must've been built according to hurricane building codes. :;):

That photo illustrates the philosophical quandry...
..do you want to build a furniture quality work of craftsmanship?

...or something that works, but is more rustic, a la congotronics:
Make it work with whatever technology you have.

I made 3. Essentially the same model
Second two were better instruments, had better keys, sounded better (to me), had a nicer finish, better bridges.

Needless to say RaRa, my Haitian friend, insisted on having the original.
He wanted rustic funkiness, it reminded him of Haiti.

I just built it that way, because it was easier to be not so exacting.

If I build another, it'll have a congotronics soul.

Anyway, I'll get photos of others with some details on bridge, tuning, keys, etc
Give you more details when I have it all together.
Gotta go

Joseph

[bongosnotbombs]

That photo illustrates the philosophical quandry...
..do you want to build a furniture quality work of craftsmanship?

...or something that works, but is more rustic, a la congotronics:
Make it work with whatever technology you have.

Nothing wrong with having one of each!

One beater for outdoors and parties, and one nice one for other places.

Looking forward to seeing your other marimbulas

[Joseph]

Here is a illustration that I used as a basis for my Manoumba.
I found it on the web. Bottom right corner shows web address.

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... uction.gif

[Joseph]

I changed numerous details

1. I made the bridge clamping mechanism with steel, rather than wood. I didn’t like the idea of a thin piece of wood with so many holes in it and clamped. Steel was just as easy, and stronger. I used steel flat bar ½” wide X 1/8” thick. Standard Home Depot item.
2. I clamped the keys to the bridge with machine screws.
3. The machine screws thread into steel “T-nuts” which are installed on the back side of the wooden bridge. T-nuts allow you to really clamp down on the keys. I didn’t like the screws clamping keys in the drawing, in tuning you must loosen and tighten numerous times in getting them sound “in key”. I was concerned with wood losing its grip after screws worked in and out. Machine screws & Tnuts are a positive clamp, regardless of wood bridge, and are very forgiving in alignment with steel bridge clamp.
4. Bridge assembly (as I made it) with Tnuts must be prefabricated before installation on front face of box, which all must be done before front face is incorporated into box. I glued and screwed front back side of front face.

Tee nuts….inexpensive hardware store item.

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... -tnuts.jpg

[bongosnotbombs]

I got this advice from a guy in Oregon that makes Marimbula's

The wood for the soundboard is 1/4" mahogany ply. I usually use birch, but I got a nice price on this sheet and decided to try it. In retrospect I would recommend birch ply. 1/4" seems to be the perfect thickness- 1/8" is just too thin to resonate well.

Also, the hardest wood you can possibly use for the bridge gives the best tone- the best I've used have been ebony and purpleheart, and the least successful would be mahogany or walnut. Rosewood, ash, or hard eastern maple would be good choices too.

Good luck- send me a picture when you're done!

Josh

PS did you see the other pic's at www.jbhguitars.com under "other instruments"?


His website is excellent and so are his Marimbula's

http://jbhguitars.com/site/?page_id=9

[Joseph]

5. Illustration talks of using metal from “banding strap”…too thin. It does not resonate and tends to bend. I had to go by trial and (mostly) error method on 1st marumba. I bought 3/4” X 1/8” thick Steel strap, cut to length, patiently radius-ed ends and filed edges to make it easy on fingers. Strap was way too thick, and did not resonate AT ALL. I ended up buying a plate of 1/8” steel and hacksawing (with a sawzall) strips for keys. LOTTA work, as ALL edges had to be filed. However, the uneven-ness of the cuts made the keys look interesting and “hand-made”
6. On the next two Marimbulas, I wised up and went to a sheet metal shop and had them chop me off some strips of ¾” & 5/16” 16 gauge steel, and then chop all keys to length…all perfectly uniform, but not nearly the character as the hand cuts. Cost me about 18 bucks for 2 sets of keys, but saved me a lot of time in fabricating them myself. You may notice the slight difference in the width of the keys between the two in other pics. My next one will have narrower keys ½” wide, one gauge thicker to insure they don’t bend

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... 180086.JPG

[Joseph]

7. Putting radius on keys is rather laborious… if you don’t have a way to grind metal off quickly. It is essential that edges are smooth and rounded….when playing, your fingers will know it very quickly if you scrimp on that detail..
8. Box size is not critical. Mine are slightly different dimensions than illustration. I made it LxWxH with the idea of comfort for sitting on….and to make 2 boxes from 1 sheet of plywood.. Having a compressor and finish-nail gun makes gluing/nailing light ply and framework much easier than hand nailing
9. You will notice I arranged my bridge /key /sound holes to be more centered on font face than illustrated model. Sound hole size is not critical…next time I will make a more fanciful, congotronics sound hole.

Attachment: http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... 190093.JPG