François Kokelaere
Berimbau
The Art of Berimbau
(Brazilian musical bow)
1997
Tracks:
01. Guarda - 1:22
02. Santos - 4:07
03. Grand Teles - 6:30
04. Babunda Song - 3:52
05. Indianafrika - 10:49
06. Tarantella - 4:27
07. L'ombre L'a Dit - 29:29
08. Sur Un Fil - 4:25
François Kokelaere: Berimbau
John Boswell: Tabla (track 05)
Maitre Sombra: Berimbau (track 07)
♫☆`*♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫☆`*♥¸¸.•*¨*•☆♫
.ღ•:*´♥`*:•ღ.
♫☆`*♥¸¸.•*¨*•☆♫`*♥¸¸.•*¨*•☆♫
Masterful Work of Skill
Even though the berimbau is not a well known cultural instrument, it has its deep cultural roots. This single steel bowed instrument is largely connected with the Brazilian fight dance, Capoeria, and is primarily considered a percussion instrument. Francois Kokelaere creates wonderful rhythms and textural tones with the hash sounding instrument. Whether it is the culturally rooted "Santos", the riveting "Babunda Song" or the extended masterpiece, "L'ombre L'a Dit" where he plays with Master 'Sombra'; Kokelaere creates a wonderful album highlighting the great berimbau. Even though those who aren't used to berimbau or cultural music may find "The Art of Berimbau" strange at first, listen carefully and you will hear the art and wonder of the strong instrument. As a player myself, I respect the skill needed to play such an instrument well and with the clear and concise program notes about the composer and the instrument this album is definately a tribute to the strong cultural berimbau.
By Adam
François Kokelaere
a étudié le berimbau (arc musical) au Brésil avec le maître Sombra de l’Académie de Capoeira Senzala de Santos et le tambour djembé en Guinée avec le chef-tambour du Ballet National Djoliba, Koungbanan Condé. Il est titulaire duDiplôme d’État de professeur de musique et fut membre de jury pour le Certificat d’Aptitude en Musiques Tradionnelles auprès du Ministère de la Culture.
A joué avec le groupe Magma de Christian Vander et joue actuellement avec le saxophoniste Julien Soro, le tubiste François Thuillier, la guitariste Fabienne Magnant, le trio Mandingo World Project avec le joueur de kora Prince Diabaté.
Fondateur et directeur artistique de l’Ensemble National des Percussions de Guinée en 1987 à la demande du gouvernement guinéen jusqu’en 1995 et du groupe Wofa tournées internationales (amérique du nord, asie, europe).
Directeur musical du groupe de Momo Wandel Soumah – “Matchowé” (Buda Musique) et de “l’anthologie du balafon Mandingue en trois volumes” de El Hadj Djéli Sory Kouyaté (Diapason d’Or musique traditionnelle).
Conseiller artistique du projet Korongo Jam d’Erik Aliana à Yaoundé et de la chanteuse camerounaise Kareyce Fotso – « Kwegne » (Label Contre-Jour).
Directeur artistique de la Compagnie L’Heure du Thé et des « Rencontres Touzazimuts » autour des expressions artistiques contemporaines.
Coordinateur de la venue de 115 artistes guinéens pour”La Marseillaise “ de Jean-Paul Goude sur les Champs-Elysées de Paris le 14 Juillet 1989.
Compositeur pour les pièces chorégraphiques de la Cie l’Arbre-Voyageur – Doriane Larcher.
Création en 2005 du spectacle Jeune Public “Chemins de paille” et en 2007 du spectacle « Le voyage de Monsieur Tambour » enla collaboration du plasticien JCh Fischer.
The Brazilian berimbau de barriga, or simply berimbau, is a gourd-resonated, braced musical bow of African origin. The instrument consists of a 4'–5' (1.2 m–1.5 m) branch of biriba, bamboo, oak or other wood bent into an arc. The bow is strung with a single metal string, usually recycled from an industrial use.
Attached to the convex back of the bow with a small loop of string is a gourd resonator, although coconut, calabash or a tin can is occasionally substituted for a gourd. The string loop also serves as a bridge, dividing the metal string into two sections. The little finger of the musician’s left hand (assuming a right-handed player) passes underneath the string loop to hold the berimbau.
The string is struck with a thin stick called a vaquita or vareta, which is held in the player’s right hand along with a small basket rattle called caxixi. A small coin (dobrão) or stone (pedra) held between the musician’s left thumb and index finger is pressed to the string, resulting in a pitch change of about a minor or major second above the berimbau’s fundamental tone.
The berimbau originated in an early nineteenth-century Brazilian slave culture. Several historical notices and depictions from this period demonstrate the continued presence of a variety of central African musical bows (Koster 1816, 122; Graham 1824, 199; Walsh 1830, 175-176; Debret 1834, 39; Wetherell 1860, 106-107). Popular among African-Brazilian vendors and street musicians, these musical bows were known by African names such as urucungu, madimba lungungo, mbulumbumba, and hungu (Shaffer 1976, 14; Kubik 1979, 30). As a result of pan-African technology-sharing, organological traits of these various musical bows were fused to create a single African-Brazilian instrument (Graham 1991, 6).
Sometime in the late nineteenth century, this new musical bow received a Lusophone name—berimbau de barriga, or "jaw harp of the stomach"—and entered a new cultural context, the African-Brazilian martial art form known as capoeira (Kubik 1979, 30-33). Beginning at least as early as the eighteenth century, capoeira was fought to the music of an African-derived hand drum or to simple handclapping. Capoeira is now fought to the toques (rhythms) of the berimbau, which accompany the songs known in Brazil as cantigas de capoeira.
The musical ensemble employed in contemporary capoeira features one to three berimbaus, an atabaque (conical hand drum), a pandeiro (tambourine) and an agogô (double bell). Where multiple berimbaus are employed in an ensemble, they are often tuned to separate pitches. In Salvador de Bahia, the cultural epicenter of capoeira, different names are used for berimbaus of various sizes, including viola (small), medio (medium) and gunga (large) (Lewis 1992, 137). From the 1940s, a number of capoeira schools in Bahia began to paint their berimbaus with colorful stripes and other decorations, reflecting their pride in their individual academias (traditional capoeira schools) (Shaffer 1976, 26).
Richard P. Graham
Asheville, North Carolina
read it all here:
♥
.jfif)
+Front.jpg)
