KalimbaMania

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2008-01-01

Label: Freedonia Music

Recorded in 1988 and '89
at Premier Film and Sound St. Louis
Digital remastering: Jay Zelenka 2007

KalimbaMania was first released in 1989 on the Esfoma Recordings label. This new compilation is digitally remastered from the original studio tapes and includes 21 minutes of additional recording from that era. All 10 compositions are live duet improvisations as are the overdub tracks in Global Dance. Electronic pitch transform programs (Yamaha SPX-90) are responsible for the altered voices in several pieces: In Les Sons De Bali electronic sounds suggest the dark gongs and silvery metallophones of Balinese Gamelan music. Shamani introduces an acoustic grand piano (Mills), pitch-transposed and paired with two kalimbas (Zelenka), also pitch-transposed, to create harmony and bass voices in a rhythmically dramatic piece evoking the mood of Indian jugalbundi. Raga Siva and Old World Raga use an organ and piano to create a drone filling the role traditionally taken by tamboura in Indian music. Tuned snare drums, bottom skin removed, serve as resonators to enhance volume and overtones. In traditional African playing, kalimbas are braced within large gourds for this purpose. Basing the individual improvisations on a variety of tunings, tempos, rhythms, & moods as well as using kalimbas of varied design adds further diversity.

1. Global Dance* B major mixolydian
2. Shamani F# major
3. The Upper Room* F# harmonic minor
4. Les Sons De Bali unknown tuning
5. Joy* G major
6. Raga Siva* F# Indian natural minor
7. Rio Gango F# major
8. Oriental Garden* A-flat melodic minor—altered
9. Akool* C major
10. Old World Raga G locrian—altered

* from the original 1989 release