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Friday, November 18, 2005
LUKEMBI AND VOICE
Abdul Aziz
Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest
Folkways/Smithsonian : 1992
[Buy It]
KEMAI
unknown player
Kanyok and Luba: Southern Belgian Congo 1952& 1957
SWP Records : 2004
[Buy It]
ABSTRACTION #1
Richard Crandell
Mbira Magic
Tzadik : 2004
[Buy It]
BISSAU
Francis Bebey
Akwaaba
Original Music : 1985
out of print
LUFUALA NDONGA
Konono No.1
Congotronics
Crammed Discs : 2005
[Buy It]
As the Moistworks bureaus through the five boroughs anticipates and celebrates the arrival of Konono No.1 from the African Congo, we present a few pieces of music rendered on mbira and likembe, referred to often as thumb piano.
The pygmies made theirs out of old umbrella tines, and the chants and music they make in the verdure of the Ituri forest remains some of the most astonishing, hypnotic, and joyous music I have ever heard. The recordings Dr. Turnbull did are incredible, but they wilt when compared with the amount of audio documentation Hugh Tracey did in the fifties, when tribes and their culture and music were being altered by modernity; with his trucks and generators, he captured a lost world. His recordings in the southern Belgian Congo documented the introduction of guitars into the music, which would slowly replace the likembe in urban centers. "Kemai," a rather vague title, gets its weird rattling sound from the instrument being set onto a guitar so as to reverberate louder. An obvious precursor to what Konono does with theirs.
Richard Crandell's album of mbira on Tzadik was one of last year's most eloquent discs. A guitar player of the Kottke/Fahey mold, he picked up the instrument from his stint with Thomas Mapfumo and has been crafting mesmeric minimalist music ever since.
Famed author and musicologist Francis Bebey, already a cultural giant in African studies and a mighty fine guitarist, recorded his first album using thumb piano, layering it with percussion and his voice. The part where he overlays his singing to create croaking overtones makes me giddy with its oddness.
posted by beta
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