Zambezi Marimba Band
Founded in 1992, The Zambezi Marimba Band plays marimba music from Zimbabwe and Ghana. The word “marimba” comes from the Bantu languages of Central Africa where it means “the wood that sings.” African slaves recreated marimba once they arrived in the Americas beginning in the 1600’s.
Today, marimbas derived from these instruments are played all over the world, including the marimbas and xylophones of European classical music, the vibraphone, the Mexican and Guatemalan marimbas, and many other mallet instruments. Ernest Brown designed a set of chromatic Zimbabwean-style marimbas that allow The Zambezi Marimba Band to play Zimbabwean songs and jazz tunes.In the western United States, there are dozens of Zimbabwean-style marimba bands, which are an outgrowth of the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington. However, The Zambezi Marimba Band is the only group playing Zimbabwean marimbas on the East Coast of the United States of America. In 1998 the Zambezi Marimba Band acquired a set of Ghanaian marimbas, which are called “gyil” in the Dagara language of northern Ghana. The gyil has a pentatonic tuning and a completely different playing technique from the Zimbabwean instruments. The Zambezi Marimba Band has also acquired a repertoire of traditional Mbira (finger xylophone) music, taught by Erica Azim, Fradereck Mujuru, Robert Michelin ‘03 and other Masters.
Over the years, the Zambezi Marimba Band has learned from residencies with a number of outstanding musicians, including:
- Marimba Magic
- Alport Mhlanga
- Titos Sompa
- Bernard Woma