Re: gear schmear, music is best

[improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)]

>Ok, how about this :)
>
>Anyone familiar with African M'bira music?  A friend of mine
>just introduced it to me. Very nice ostinato-based. The notes
>are in patterns of 3, but the accompanying shaker beat is
>in 2.
>
>Jim
Ohh yeah, I played in a marimba band for 3 years that played music derived
from the Zimbabwean M'bira tradition. really fascinating stuff. Actually
there are 2 main shaker, called "hosho", patterns in the Zimbabwean styles,
one is 2 against 3, the other is in 2. But there are some really deep 2
against 3 and 3 against 4 polyrhythms in that stuff, and some wild
interacting parts. We played some gigs with Ephat Mujuru, a Zimbabwean
master M'bira player, and one of the most transcendental people I've ever
known.

There's a good ethnomusicological study on theis music, called "Soul of the
M'bira", sorry, but I can't remember the author right now, that goes deeply
into the music and it's cultural/spiritual meanings. Very interesting
stuff!

I've got a M'bira from Zimbabwe, with a cheap electrostatic pickup. Makes
great looping fodder...

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Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
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