Page 2 of 3
Posted:
Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:08 pmby guarachon63
Very funny, Berimbau!
Thomas,
Although I really admire your musical research I'm not sure I can get on board 100% with your etymological theories. 
I thought you may have meant "hoedown" there. I always associate the word "hoedown" not with England but with an American hillbilly party or a jig-like dance, so I find it's appearance in the article a bit strange.
"Tumbar" however, means in Spanish simply "to knock down" or "to lie down" - it doesn't really imply the use of any particular tool.
(Anyway, cane is "knocked down" with a machete, is it not?)
To me it seems that since the terms "tumbadora" and "timba" are usually applied generically to conga drums that we can be reasonably sure they do fall into that family of african-derived musical terms sharing an "mba" phoneme, such as rumba, samba, mbira, bomba, etc.
I think the fact that "tumbao" can also mean "laying down" and in English we say one "lays down a beat" is just a coincidence.
But these are all very trivial points compared to the rest of your article. Look forward to hearing a recording some day of a yambu with them.
BTW, OLSONGO, yours looks nice too!
saludos
Guarachón
Edited By guarachon63 on 1156367397
Posted:
Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:14 pmby Thomas Altmann
Thank you for your comment, Guarachon. It is well received.
My interpretation is probably a bit shaky, and I think I should just omit this passage in my article.
Please let me shortly explain how I came to my idea.
While the word "tumba" (like in the Tumba Francesa) is certainly one African word for a drum (like bongo / bonko, too), the ending "-dor" or "-dora", like in "tumbadora", hints to a Spanish word, describing someone or something that executes a particular action. This action is mentioned in the root of the word, in this case "tumbar". Now, if you want to "knock down" sugar cane with a machete, or chop down a tree, you are doing this with a striking motion, like beating a drum (sorry, musicians!); or like handling a hoe. So I was just trying to make sense of an apparently Spanish word and looking for an English example of how a "hoeing-down" action eventually became the name of a folk dance, and an agricultural term can become a musical term.
Greetings,
Thomas
Edited By Thomas Altmann on 1156508187
Posted:
Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:16 amby Berimbau
Actually the etymology of tumba seems to have a dual Spanish/ Bantu genesis. The presence of two similar words from two different cultures in a single geographic area often lends towards a cultural reinforcement of the term as well as to all kinds of folkloric epistomolgies. Phonetical similarities of this type do occur in the African Diaspora cf. Kubik's discussion of the term "berimbau" (my nom de plume) for an Angolan-derived instrument in Brasil.
Saludos,
Berimbau
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:29 pmby Thomas
Just finished my first Cajon built with Thomas' plans (just made some small modifications.
By the way, thanks Thomas!
Here are some pics:
Edited By Thomas on 1157999789
Attachment:
http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... ajon_1.jpg
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:33 pmby Thomas
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:38 pmby Thomas
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:40 pmby Thomas
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:43 pmby Thomas
...my wife painting the logo of my main project....
Edited By Thomas on 1158000210
Attachment:
http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... ajon_7.jpg
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:45 pmby Thomas
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:47 pmby Thomas
...finished Cajon, back side....!!
Hope you enjoyed the pics!
All the best,
Tom
Attachment:
http://mycongaplace.com/forum/eng/uploa ... ajon_9.jpg
Posted:
Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:09 pmby Berimbau
I'm going back to Thomas' original post in this thread regarding thickness of head and the desired sound for a Cuban cajon. Even worse than being redundant, I really can't offer a definitive answer!!
My understanding was always that on the Cuban cajon the wooden head was supposed to be strongly adhered to the shell to give purer bass and tone sounds closer to those from a conga drum. Flamenco and Peruvian cajons were made to be a bit less refined, loose screws, added snares, inshort, far more funk and noise.
But is this asessment accurate? I do know that old drawers would be used in the Habana solars for yambu, and those things had to sound REAL funky. Ditto any codfish or candel boxes. I think that the Cuban aesthetic may be actually fairly wide here. Check out this recent addition to the Fat Congas® website:
"Fat Congas® Cuban style quinto cajones were designed upon request, for the Munequitos de Matansas during their visit to our shop. The CJST slaptop quinto has a screwed on head which creates a "buzz" effect on the slap tones. The side wings help to stabilize the cajon between the player's knees. This cajon was designed with traditional players in mind."
Now the quinto they sold me two years ago was always a bit too polite (White) sounding for me, so I pulled the head off and loosely screwed on a thin door skin - Now I got the noise and intense boxeyness I wanted!!!
Saludos,
Berimbau
Posted:
Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:46 amby ABAKUA
Thats one big a s s cajon! Looks good! 
Posted:
Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:10 pmby ralph
very nice looking cajon, i especially like the artwork...hope it sounds as good as it looks...
Berimbau, i second that notion, i have strayed from buying a fat congas cajon, simply because thats not the sound i want...i have made my own, some to my liking other not, but cajon characteristics vary with taste...i especially like the cajones used on the Clave Y Guaguanco album--songs and dances...
Ralph
Posted:
Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:41 pmby Thomas
Thanks for the nice comments, really appreciate that.
I'm not 100% satisfied with the sound, I think because of the maybe too thick batter head, it sounds a little bit too "slappy", if you know what I mean.....open tone is missing!
All the best,
Tom!
Posted:
Wed Sep 13, 2006 4:15 pmby guarachon63
I'm not 100% satisfied with the sound, I think because of the maybe too thick batter head, it sounds a little bit too "slappy", if you know what I mean.....open tone is missing!
I felt the same way about a big caja that I made once. Not "boomy" enough. But if the wood is too thin then the sound gets kind of soft. Whenever I took mine to rumbas I always tried to position it with the sound hole in a corner, which helped to project the sound alot. But still would have been nice to have a "go anywhere" caja.
Señor Altmann, how satisfied are you with the sound of yours?
PS: Sound aside, it is a beautiful box, but I have to admit I raised my eyebrows at the insertion of the snares in the bass cajon. Of course we all have our tastes, but my experience has been that the snare sound on the caja is not typical of the Cuban cajon sound but rather more common in Peruvian and Flamenco.
