Kanga Initialize : Calimbrella Lullabyes  Kangas 01
Channel: inklipMedia / Robert Monk
Date: 2019-03-02

Multi-instrumentalist master instrument-maker Adimu Kuumba launches a newly re-skinned pair of well-worn Gon Bop conga shells and performs the typical magic of introducing a perfected instrument from the past, this time in the form of a pueter (?) umbrella-stand he transformed into a calimba, 50 years ago at the age of 26. I'm calling the goat-headed Gon Bops 'Kangas' to evoke the twang-ringing sound of rim-strikes on the instrument head's circumference - very typical of djembe drums. The unconventional skinning of these shells exhibit a combination of the congas' ballasted-feeling rhythmic attack and the djembe's big, room-filling sound environment that arises from much longer sustains on tone-notes and big, airy bass wafts from a palm strike. The Calimbrella is another order of magic. Pulled from under something in the corner, it required zero tuning after more than a year at rest, and blended a faint hint of metallic ring with the mellowness of common wood box or gourd-chamber calimbas. The 7/8" thick sound/key board on the top features conga ring-lug style tabs pulled to the cylinder of the umbrella stand against a foam gasket. Bottle-cap kashinka-shinks sit under each hand, where the player can mute them at will, during play.

Subscribe to this inklipMedia channel above to keep up to date as tracks add. Current and recent projects include:

- Orchard Drums 2019 with Drum Like a Lady and Orchestra 2001
- Circle of Friends, "Creative Healing Force" sessions (sketches toward mid-April 2019 album wrap-up sessions)