November 27, 2008
Kalimba Magic NEWS
Kalimba Magic at PASIC
Introduction
PASIC is the Percussive Arts Society's International Conference, which was held in Austin the first week of November. Each year this event attracts between 5000 and 10,000 students, semi-professional and professional percussionists from around the world. PASIC is made up of a few dozen interlocking communities of drummers and percussionists. World music? Yes! Mbira, karimba, kalimba? Yes! Traditional and new and evolving compositions? Yes! Late at night, fantastic drum circles led by world experts were held on the top floor of the eerily lit Austin Convention Center. Ascending the escalator, it sort of seemed that the whole building could come crashing down around us, but it didn't.
But the coolest things that I saw at PASIC were the people that I never would have seen, had I not been there. There is a whole culture of high school and college percussion competitions. These kids, mostly young males, tend to dress in black and look like gun slingers. They play such hot licks, but the kicker is the way they twirl their drum sticks or even throw them up and catch them while doing a one-handed drum roll with their other hand.
And the universe of marimba players and marimba builders just seems to be so much bigger than I ever would have imagined. But in the "small world" category, we saw the Na'rimbo Ensemble, a marimba band from Chiapas that was at the Grahamstown Arts Festival, when we visited AMI and ILAM in South Africa. Apparently, they were very taken with the AMI paduak and sneezwood marimbas.
Glen Davis, who came to PASIC with Kalimba Magic, could have spent the entire time looking for and finding really interesting rhythmic toys and instruments that might not even have been invented when PASIC was held in Columbus, Ohio in 2007. I walked past all the same displays, but it was Glen who spotted these amazing new instruments, many of which went home to Tucson with us.
The original plan was to put this newsletter out BEFORE PASIC to help people experience what we were doing there, but it is a bit late for that. So, instead I'll let you know about what went down there.
The Kalimba Magic Listening Station
Kalimba Magic's 10x10 booth at PASIC.
When you go into the PASIC exhibit hall, you are immediately assaulted by a din of hundreds of people talking and walking and banging on drums. They give you a pair of earplugs just in case it's all too much for you. But Kalimba Magic is in the "quiet zone", where people can each hear each other talk, and you can even hear yourself play kalimba.
Almost all of the kalimbas we sold at PASIC had electronic pickups on them, and the pickups were indeed a sales driver. Customers were able to demo the electric kalimbas, while respecting the volume constraints in the quiet zone by utilizing the Kalimba Magic Listening Station—a 12-channel headphone amplifier and a digital effects processor and a bank of headphones.
It's true, when you and your pal are demoing a kalimba, you only need two headphones. But the idea here is that we can give concerts on the electric kalimba, at least to twelve people, even in the "quiet zone."
B. Michael Williams took advantage of the Listening Station when he came by the Kalimba Magic booth and shared several songs on the Hugh Tracey electric karimba. (We'll have an interview with BMW in the next Kalimba Magic Newsletter.) We also had hoped to have Kevin Spears performing at the Kalimba Magic booth, but we dropped the ball. Anyway, we hope to have a number of such performances on the electric kalimba at next year's PASIC in Indianapolis. (Hint: if you are a player who is going to be at PASIC next year, drop us a line and we'll see what we can arrange!)
The AMI Amadinda
N. Scott Robinson teaches us a song on the AMI Amadinda.
We also had N. Scott Robinson drop by and show us how to play a traditional tune on the amadinda, an equal-tempered pentatonic tuned xylophone from Uganda. Apparently, there is a lot of music notated for this instrument, and I can see a way to notate for this instrument in the KTabS program.
The amadinda is played by two or three people, and at least one of them will be on "the other side" of the instrument. In other words, for one player the notes will increase in pitch as you go to the right, but for the other player the notes will increase in pitch as you go to the left. These two players play interlocking parts, each player playing in the spaces the other one leaves. There has been much speculation that the kalimba is a portable xylophone, but with the two opposing players occupying the left and right sides of the one kalimba player.
We have just started to sell the AMI amadinda in both African and western tunings.
Joel Laviolette and the Mbira
Joel playing mbira at PASIC.
One of the cool presentations I was able to catch was Joel Laviolette's talk and demonstration on the mbira and matepe.
Joel's marimba band, Rattletree Marimba, also performed at PASIC as well as at a nearby Austin nightclub. The marimba band is in the style of the West Coast marimba bands inspired by Dumi, a student of Jege Tapera of the Kwanongoma Music School in Zimbabwe. (To learn more about this, read the Andrew Tracey interview.)
If you are curious about the connection between mbira and marimba, you need to read B. Michael Williams' article on this subject.
You can learn more about Joel by visiting Joel's MySpace page.
What Sold at PASIC?
PASIC is one of the cutting edges of the percussion world—the attendees are many of the movers and shakers, so to speak. They come here to share new ideas, new compositions, new instruments, and also to discover those new things. These percussionists go out into their communities armed with their new toys, and so the influence of PASIC goes well beyond the convention hall doors.
So, it may be of interest to you what was of interest at PASIC. Lots of people enjoyed playing on the amadinda, but what really amazed me was that the sneezewood western-tuned xylophone disappeared after only one hour on the floor. Sneezewood is a slow growing exotic African hardwood which is so rare that it cannot be logged, and only old stock can be used in new instruments, which makes it very pricey. However, the great pure sound and long sustain make sneezewood very desirable. And it was desired right out the door! You can read more about sneezewood in our interview with Christian Carver.
As far as kalimbas go, the Hugh Tracey alto kalimba was the big seller, then the Hugh Tracey African karimba, and then the new Hugh Tracey Chromatic kalimba. Also attracting interest were the AMI shakers - we sold out of them!
But the most interesting sales story is about the Anklang Musicwelt kalimba, which N. Scott Robinson brought over to the Kalimba Magic booth for me to sell for him. Anklang makes a lot of frame drums and other high quality percussion instruments, and their pentatonic kalimba was very sweet. Deb, Glen, and I each decided we wanted one. When Glen was out buying barbeque sandwiches from Stubbs about 12 blocks away, he borrowed the Anklang kalimba to play as he walked, and a woman walking ahead of him heard and saw that he was playing the kalimba that she had played and fallen in love with only 30 minutes earlier at the Kalimba Magic booth. When Glen got back with lunch for me and Deb, he set the kalimba down on the display table, and the Anklang kalimba's woman-friend came back delighted to see that it was still for sale. She bought it out from under our noses. These are going to be a bit pricey (think Sansula), but we will be offering the Anklang Musicwelt kalimbas on a limited basis—at least because Deb, Glen, and I all want one!
And those cool sorts of coincidences just kept happening to us there in Austin, right down to getting tickets to see one of our favorite Tucson bands, Calexico, performing at Anton's. Opening for Calexico was The Acorn from Up North, and I dare say they were almost better than Calexico.
Discover the world of kalimbas at http://www.kalimbamagic.com
Shop for kalimbas and accessories at the Kalimba Magic Shop