Kalimba Community

Laura Barrett—Sci-fi Folk on the Kalimba

Photo by Alyssa Bistonath

Writes Laura Barret:

Since we last spoke, I've finally released my debut full-length album, Victory Garden. In it, I play both kalimba and piano, combining them with a mini-orchestra that includes instruments as far-flung as the theremin and vibraphone. It's far more richly-textured than my earlier releases, and serves as a kind of dystopian music theatre.

In October and early November, I toured out east in Canada to support it, and in the spring I should be making my way down through the States, on my way to Austin for SXSW. My touring set-up is always different, depending on who of my musician friends is available to join me, but that's a lot of fun, because it keeps the music fresh! I generally accompany myself on a set of bass pedals (now that my former double bassist moved to Saskatoon to join the Symphony Orchestra there), and sometimes I have banjo and glockenspiel backup on the road.

Over the past year, I've met a few fellow kalimba players, both in person and on the Internet (many of them through the Kalimba Magic site). In March, I played a "Kalimba Summit" in Toronto, where I was in the illustrious company of Njacko Backo, Matt Smith and Kahil El'Zabar, all of us playing kalimba in unique styles. It was a great experience and it demonstrated the great flexibility of the instrument.

You can purchase Laura's new CD Victory Garden off-site.

Learn more about Barrett's kalimba music:

• An interview with Laura from Queen's University, 2007
• Laura got some great press for a gig preceding her CD release earlier this year.
• Kalimba Magic's own 2006 interview with Laura Barrett
• Hear Laura Barrett perform on her MySpace page

Kalimarimba's Piny Levalle Wins Chilean Award

Piny Levalle of Kalimarimba.

Piny Levalle writes:

Friendly beloveds of Kalimba Magic, I write because I have been awarded the prize of music for prenatal stimulation. This contest was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Planning, and UNICEF. They will publish 500,000 CDs of my completed production "Place of Peace and Love" - three songs and eight instrumental pieces featuring kalimbas and sansulas. This CD will be given to all children who are born during 2009 and 2010 in Chile. Thank you for spreading this news in this distinguished site and publication!

Congratulations! That is great news, Piny. It will greatly further your career, bring peace and beauty to many, and will literally make "kalimba" a household word for an entire generation in Chile.

Check out Piny Levalle's band Kalimarimba on Myspace.

Maurice White's Kalimba Story

The story of Maurice White's adoption of the Kalimba: "The kalimba represented my link to Africa," he explains. "It was my way of taking part in that culture and spreading it all over the world."

Pekka Rintala Installs Professional Pickups

We met Pekka Rintala at PASIC. He installed high quality pickups on Maurice White's kalimbas years ago, and he offers that service to me and you for $150. I don't have any first hand reviews, so if any reader has a Pekka Pickup on his or her kalimba, please let me know and we will post your review on the Kalimba Community pages.

You can reach pekka at pekka("at")b-bandusa.com - replacing ("at") with the @ sign.

B. Michael Williams Mbira Journey

B. Michael Williams is a music scholar and player of the mbira and karimba. We are pleased to offer his CD Batambira, which blends the Cuban Bata rhythms with the gently floating Shona mbira. Next month we will be publishing our interview with him.

Map of mbira and xylophone names in Africa.

Right now, I can recommend an interesting article on the mbira and xylophone in Africa. Michael explores the possibility that the mbiras were portable versions of the xylophones, largely from a linguistic point of view. While there are dozens of different African names for the kalimba, the names for the kalimbas and the xylophones tend to sound very similar.

There is also a thoughtful video interview with Michael. Here are a couple quotes to tempt you:

• "It's a way for me to tap into... a very powerful spiritual source. I feel very connected through this instrument."
• "The [mbira's] wooden soundboard represents the earth. The keys that you pluck and that vibrate represent all the people and all the living things on the earth. The [buzzers which] vibrate sympathetically, represent the ancestors, who continue to participate in the lives of the living, but in sympathetic vibration."

Eddie Osborne's Article on Kalimba Nomenclature

Eddie Osborne is an African musical instrument enthusiast in southern Florida, and he has an interesting article on kalimba nomenclature on Jomo's kalimba website.

Devin St. Clair's New Web Site

Devin St. Clair has a new website featuring his own kalimba masic as well as links to other kalimba resources.

Devin's first kalimba website is an endorsement of Hugh Tracey kalimbas.

Ken Kolodner on the Hammered Mbira

Ken Kolodner is a famous hammered dulcimer player that I met about 8 years ago at a dulcimer festival. Here, he is playing the Hammered Mbira, a kalimba-like instrument that is laid out the same as a hammered duclimer and played with hammers. I wonder how it would affect his tone if he tried steel pan mallets, like Glen Davis uses?

Marie Sato Performs "XX for Karimba"

Marie Sato is a young and active percussionist in Southern California. She bought a karimba a few years ago, and earlier this year she commissioned a composition from me—which I provocatively titled "XX for Karimba", based on the shape the right thumb traces out in the final section of the piece.

Marie has performed this piece at a recital, and here is her live recording of DosEquis.

After a proprietary period, the piece "XX for Karimba" is available from the Kalimba Shop

8-Note Music from Sharon Eaton

Sharon Eaton writes:

I recently picked up my 8-note kalimba retuned back to C and immediately a pattern began to emerge, as if my hands had been waiting to play it when the tuning was right. A simple but satisfying piece. I now have a more open mind about the C tuning, and will have to try more 8-note tunings in the future. I appreciate this music so much, because I really don't know how the ideas happen or when or if they will come again. I finish creating something and think, "If this is the last one, then that is enough."

Sharon's new 8-note song (you'll need the software KTabS to play it)

I am always amazed about tunings. You change the tuning, and BAM! It's as if a song was waiting for you! Even a subtle change in tuning (such as your change of B-flat to B natural) changes the relationships among the notes, and makes you sit in the instrument in a different way. It is a wonderful way to get out of a rut or to temp fate to help you discover something totally new. Exploring new tunings is one of my favorite things to do. Sharon is moving through tuning space incrementally, changing just a note or two by a bit, but one could also change all of the notes in a less measured fashion. The next newsletter will have a story about how Glen Davis came upon his new tuning.

Gift Recommendation for 4th Graders!

The on-line magazine Education.com has recommended the 8-note kalimba as a great Christmas gift for fourth graders. Of course, I think they are great gifts for almost anyone.

Tornado Strikes Grahamstown, South Africa

Louise Fuller-Sloman, the administrator at African Musical Instruments (AMI), the makers of the Hugh Tracey Kalimbas in South Africa, informed me of a tornado in Grahamstown. Thankfully, nobody died.

I think you will be interested to know that we had a tornado here the day before yesterday. We are all still reeling from the shock a bit. It wasn't very big and only in a very specific area but the damage was extensive. Luckily only a few people were injured—nobody killed—but reports are still coming in. Apparantly there were warnings on the morning news, but nobody I know heard them. Only one person at AMI had damage to his house: Kialetu (one of the marimba makers) lost the roof of one of the houses on his property. The municipality is handing out builder's plastic to those in need and AMI will help him fix the roof. There are 65 families homeless. The community has been amazing—all scurrying around with clothes and food and clearing broken stuff. Jeffrey's school was also hit but, amazingly, in an area where there were no people at the time. Various buildings and sporting venues are trashed and there are reports of roofing hanging up in tall trees. We are all very thankful that the students were in class at the time, and that the wind didn't go into that area. There is also a report of how it was moving towards the playground of one of the township schools and changed direction at the last minute! Christian [Carver, director of AMI] has just phoned to say that he will be late because he is taking somebody from the municipality over to the area, in his microlite, so that they can take pictures.

This captures something good about Grahamstown—this is a real community, when bad things like this happen, everybody pitches in and does what they can, and this community spirit transcends the boundaries of race.

Article on Andrew Tracey in Wikipedia

I have written a Wikipedia Article on Andrew Tracey, an expert on African music, the karimba, mbira, and kalimba; retired director of the International Library of African Music; and son of Hugh Tracey.

Article on Hugh Tracey (in German)

Martin Rzeszuts, a musician and lover of the kalimba, has an article on Hugh Tracey (in German). While my German isn't quite gut enough to get the entire article, it looks like a very good article. (Martin, it looks like YOU should write the Wikipedia article on Hugh Tracey.)

Kalimba Performances!

Kevin KalimbaMan Spears (kalimbaman7("at")yahoo.com - replace ("at") with @) is performing with Col. Bruce Hampton (of Aquarian Rescue Unit fame) this Friday Nov 28th, 7pm @ Variety Playhouse, Atlanta Ga.....Be there!

Mark Holdaway (mark("at")kalimbamagic.com - replace ("at") with @) is performing at Tohono Chul Park's Holiday Nights, Saturday Nov 29 and Friday Dec 5, 5:30 - 8:30pm.