The xylophone is yet another ancient instrument that has sadly fallen into obscurity. Because, y'know, you're only "cool" if you play the electric guitar. Which is a great instrument! But, as I've written before, our musical vocabulary - and, hence, a variety of moods and styles - is stunted if only a few sounds are permitted. So let's get uncool:Apart from it's early use in classical music, "the xylophone was frequently used by early jazz bands in the 1920s and 1930s. It was also a very popular instrument in vaudeville." I admit I only bought this album because it contains a version of Gershon Kingsly's "Popcorn," and the title "Shake - American" looked intriguing (it's a version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say") but I ended up liking the whole thing. The "classical" stuff is sometimes backed by a sleazy electric organ-led lounge combo, not a chamber music group. Everything's played at a frantic energy level as Eingorn pounds away with machine gun-like precision.
Michael Eingorn
5 comments:
great one ... I love the xylophone dearly
This is not the kind of xylophone most of us are familiar. This is a four-row "strohfidel," which is played similar to the cimbalom.
Here is a video of this kinf of xylophone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irP5ph86GXQ&feature=related
And here is what most of us think about xylophones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od6Mq66xvCc&feature=related
Thanks anon, that Roman Lankios guy (the first guy) is great! I checked out his site - he even does some of the same songs that Michael Einhorn does.
Hi, Mr Fab !
Good clear records. Enjoyed much.
Since you collect unusual musics, here is another interesting thing, though not xylophones. It is exclusively a Russian invention - horn capella. Visit this Rus site:
http://www.horncapella.ru/
Unfortunately the eng. version is not ready yet, but hopefully you will manage. There are examples of music and video. And a lot of mp3 tracks of this horn capella can be downloaded (one by one) from another site:
http://music.tonnel.ru/index.php?l=music&alb=54477 (all info is written in Rus though, but let you try, be a pathfinder there)
Supr
please re-up link
thnx!
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