Mbira and kalimba: classic or dud? Search + destroy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mbira_players

about as classic as it gets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbpZVKvDkFk

ramsey lewis trio — "uhuru" (1969)

yes, that's maurice white with the feature\m/

what say you? share other kalimba jams, please.

not exactly a mbira but i believe philip cohran “frankiphone blues” and “unity” might scratch yr itch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2OlXso5xGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AAFiXrGI8M

and thank you very much for that!

checking out some more traditional stuff by stella chiweshe this morning. very warm music.

My favorite EWF kalimba jam is “evil”

Definitely classic, and good fun to play. Can't think of any jams to share rn though, so appreciate these contributions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxyFWe6g05U

also recommend reading paul F berliner's "the soul of mbira"

can't find it on youtube, but Codona - Hey Ba Da Doom is another good one. in fact i'm sure there's all kinds of mbira over don cherry's disco that i'm not recalling rn

x-post---yes to Stella Chiweshe

Berliner is the Nonesuch Explorer record? If so, that is very good.

yes, but i was actually recommending his book of the same name:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3644709.html

Came here to say "The Soul of Mbira" as well, available in full on YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10DOfsLEX7I
Chiwoniso Maraire - Zvichapera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HU4VLZeccg
Dumisani Maraire & Ephat Mujuru - Chemutengure

there's really only kalimba at the beginning but this is some great 70s city pop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07SblTgJnNo

YES, Francis Bebey's "Akwaaba" is one of the best albums ever and Philip Cohran's amplified kalimba ("frankiphone") playing is always great- make sure you check out "Window" off Armageddon which is absolutely fucking terrifying. Both excellent suggestions.

Kinda surprised nobody posted Laraaji yet.

xp - Didn’t know Berliner wrote a book too. Will have to check it out

Jazz drummer Chad Taylor incorporates mbira into a lot of his stuff, particularly with the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, etc.

I really recommend this LP from Nadi Qamar that Folkways released in 1975--it's pure kalimba (or specifically this collection of them that Qamar called the Mama-Likembi). The album is just about 30 minutes long and has some different approaches so even though it's based around just this one instrument, it works very nicely as a complete statement:

https://nadiqamar.bandcamp.com/album/the-nuru-taa-african-musical-idiom-played-on-the-mama-likembi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgZDFwSMwVI

^very nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-4Ah88fPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzOG_v0ituY

fuck yeah, that one’s up there in my footwork top five

hesitated to post some lamellophone-sampling house tracks but the percussionist tom burford aka “contours”, because he’s not exactly playing the instrument in the track, but you might have opened the floodgate!

bring it :D

well maybe instead i just point out that it’s quite prominent in the various trip hop type “beat music” produced by carlos nino (ammoncontact etc) and i think in that context usually played live by noted chicago percussionist adam rudolph

por ejemplo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmp_bS8UhdI

nadi qamar — ooh ... now this is some high quality kalimba!

also sorry to be that guy but can we pretty please type out artist and track names when posting videos? or at least a link to the discogs or rym page or something? i'm kinda sorta using this as a queue of things to check out later and that really streamlines.

tyvm to all. amazing and satisfying as hell recommendations so far.

also i don't care if it's not "REAL" kalimba being played. emulations/homages are fine by me. all time periods and styles are of interest.

I am traveling but will definitely add a bunch to this thread next week!

Oh man, I actually searched my HD for Adam Rudolph's kalimba earlier and came up with mostly jazz ensemble stuff where it's not too prominent- One 2008 performance with him, Yusef Lateef, Roscoe Mitchell and Douglas Ewart had lits of instrument swapping with all of them on percussion and I can't even tell who's playing what half the time.

But Carlos Nino is a wormhole I need to go through for sure

re carlos niño, despite the socal / low end theory connection i really only like hu vibrational and ammoncontact but that’s like solid 5-7 albums worth of kalimba beat tracks there

(Austin I'm assuming you already have the Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby)

xp I'll check those out for sure!

Sorie Kondi / Kondi Band (blind Moira player from Sierra Leone / collaboration with Chief Boima), there are a few albums out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5RvTzlOotA

I made a whole early pandemic album of programmed kalimba music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvDMHL-LfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhgQVTiDUp8

This is a one-off by experimental grime producer Iglew (Hawksworth woods):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sruZG7I4A1o

Laraaji, 'Mbira Dance' & 'Kalimba' (doesn't get much more literal than that)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGX-X5PoQ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w1EdaHYbbM

(Austin I'm assuming you already have the Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby)

you are assuming correctly!

imo it's her best album. youtube playlist of the whole thing. discogs entry. highly recommended, even if it's not explicitly a kalimba album.

it's my favorite album of hers, too. there was a time when i listened to it a lot, but it's been years. In my memory it was pretty evenly split between harp, koto and kalimba but there's less kalimba than i thought- it's just the intro to one song and solos on 2 others.

Yeah, thanks for all the recommendations everyone, I am adding them to my evergrowing bandcamp wishlist to listen to at some point soon....

Berliner is the Nonesuch Explorer record? If so, that is very good.

― sknybrg, Friday, July 29, 2022 9:27 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

for clarity, are you referring to this?

it's being recommended by me either way, ftr. the more traditional style (i've just learned, tyvm) is called shona. love the chants. they hit such unusual harmonies sometimes. really just a different shade of beaut. love love love.

*beauty

sorry, just very enthusiastic rn.

all of those nonesuch smithsonian reissues are worth a listen. i snapped up most of them on cd ~15 years ago when tower records were having their huge going out of business sales. the balinese gamelan and caribbean steel pan one worth a listen if you’re into mbira. there’s another one from that set called “zimbabwe: the african mbira : music of the shona people” which is just as good

https://www.nonesuch.com/albums/zimbabwe-african-mbira-music-shona-people

i guess there’s also third one (with a mbira and someone’s hands playing it on the cover) with a similar title that i haven’t ever heard. assume they’re all from the same big set of field recordings …

https://www.discogs.com/release/3980389-Shona-Africa-Zimbabwe-Shona-Mbira-Music

https://www.nonesuch.com/albums/zimbabwe-african-mbira-music-shona-people

i guess there’s also third one (with a mbira and someone’s hands playing it on the cover) with a similar title that i haven’t ever heard. assume they’re all from the same big set of field recordings …

https://www.discogs.com/release/3980389-Shona-Africa-Zimbabwe-Shona-Mbira-Music

yeah, i know the soul of mbira wth the hands and mbira cover.
i seem to remember that nonesuch issued the explorer series titles in the 90’s with similar black and white covers. that was the disc i had a one point.
don’t think i’ve heard the others. anyway, this is a great thread and i am also making a list from the recommendations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J538b-OLRU

This has kalimba, no?

Jim Infantino's song "Gangway" has a kalimba solo in the middle.

And if I could find it on YouTube, I'd post the link, but I can't, so I won't.

Jazz drummer Chad Taylor incorporates mbira into a lot of his stuff, particularly with the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, etc.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, July 29, 2022 9:56 AM

thank you for this mention. i am aware of him because of his past collaborations with people from the sea and cake. looked into and this is the most recent such thing. gave it a quick preview and sounds good. will definitely revisit. also wow, had no clue he was involved in so many different things.

also back to pop songs that incorporate it-

mount kimbie, duh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjSKEyR2vDo

"marilyn" featuring micachu (2017)