? for David Friedman about marimba

Hi John,

Before I talk about the use of the marimba on this album, let me give you a little background about my relationship with the marimba. When my first drum teacher suggested I start learning a melody instrument back when I was around 14 years old, that was the fist melody instrument I learned. Thinking at the time that I would be the next Buddy Rich, I wasn't really keen on learning the marimba but with time I began to love it. The vibes came much later. I wanted to be a concert performer on the marimba, and, because of a lack of repertoire for the instrument at that time, I played anything I could get my hands on; violin music, Maza duets, Bartok Mikrokosmos, lute and guitar music from the Renaissance and, of course, Bach. For my audition for Juilliard in 1962 I played the Bach violin concerto in A minor accompanied by a a Music Minus One record with orchestra. Saul Goodman and Moe Goldenberg had never heard anything like that before because they weren't familiar with MMO records. Those records were practically all I practiced to. Mozart and Haydn String quartets minus 1st violin: fantastic stuff!
I played all this stuff on the marimba first and then years later on the vibraphone; by the way, a great way to learn phrasing on the vibes!
So, marimba was my first love, although I first played jazz on the vibes. The Double Image duo with Davbe Samuels was the opportunity of a lifetime to use the marimba for it's own sound and not just"generically", as you so aptly put it. To me at the time I thought of the vibes as floating and ethereal and the marimba as the earth, deep and grounded. I knew it would be the perfect instrumental combination, although I'd never heard the two instuments together until David and I played the first piece I wrote for us, 'Nyack'. OK, that's history.

When I heard Dino Saluzzi's Bandoneon, I sensed that marimba and Bandoneon would harmonize perfectly. Plus, I wanted a South American flavor for the record, so marimba was the obvious choice. We didn't talk about it much, I just played it and Dino seemed to like it. I personally think it's a perfect Tango instrument in combination with the Bandoneon even though it's never used in traditional Tango. Although there are several pieces on the CD with as Tango feeling, there are no traditional Tango pieces. Dino didn't want that. First of all traditonal tango players don't improvise and secondly, Dino was against traditional Tango at the time for poliical reasons. During the military Junta, Dino was arrested and put in prison for speaking out against the regime. He didn't talk much about what happened in prison but he did mention that leading personalities in the arts, like Piazolla in particular, didn't speak up for him, which I think he resents to this day. So Dino has distanced himself throughout the years from the traditionalists. Plus he's an improvisor and feels his music goes beyond Tango. I agree totally.
So, to answer your question about whether Dino conceived the tunes as "Tango Nuevo", no, he did not.There were several tunes of mine on the CD, as well as a tune of Anthony's, called 'Jad'. Neither of us are Tango musicians. Also the very 1st tune, 'Los Them' is a kind of free, atmospheric groove piece, based on a rhythmic figure I came up with.

Hope this answers your questions John. Oh, one last thing: You mentioned the woody sound of the marimba. It's a Malletech low E instrument, which, I think because of the extremely thin bars in the lower register, sounds particularly woody. There was also very little reverb used on the marimba, which I objected to at first, but then I later learned to like it in this context.