Traditionally percussions stand in as a fancy synonym for drums. Tambuco s repertoire, however, consists of instruments such as gongs from China, cajónes (literally wooden boxes) from Peru, scrapers (called guacharaca) from Colombia, and whistles from around the world.
The Mexican ensemble plays each of these instruments skillfully, and their Egyptian debut performance Monday night was essentially an illustration of their impressive prowess.
Founded in 1993 by four distinguished musicians – Ricardo Gallardo, Alfredo Bringas, Raul Tudon and Miguel Gonzalez – Tambuco has received Grammy nominations for Best Classical Album and Best Small Chamber Ensemble as well as a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Latin Classical Album. The Washington Post described their performances as the epitome of highest artistic quality, a great sense of aesthetic sense and technical virtuosity beyond any doubt.
The band’s two Egyptian performances held at the Cairo Opera and the Roman Theater in Alexandria are part of the celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Mexico and Egypt.
With their unusual assortment of instruments, the band hopes to introduce to its audience the softer side of percussion, Tambuco s artistic director Ricardo Gallardo told Daily News Egypt. Tambuco wishes to challenge the assumption that music comes from an instrument. The essence of music, said Gallardo, is not in the instrument. The essence of music is in the musical imagination.
The best example of this principle, said Gallardo, was the Stone Song, Stone Dance where musicians played the oldest instruments. While one musician used a singing bowl, the other three produced music with a pair of stones each. The piece began with the song where musicians tapped the stones, sometimes rubbing them against each other to produce a sound-vibration like that of the singing bowl. The dance consisted of the musicians adding flamenco-like stomps and shouts of woo to the song.
Being unconventional is a deliberate choice for Tambuco. We are against stereotypes, said Gallardo, We like to offer new things because we believe in the intelligence of people.
The kaleidoscope of sounds that emerges from these four pairs of hands challenges easy categorization. Their music flows with ease and confidence. Thus, when the players drum the cajónes with rapidly reddening hands, the sound feels reminiscent of the equal speed of the trotting of horse-hooves, of the Egyptian tabla (drums), of the tabla in India, of a marching band s steady progression, and of a bombastic celebration. But the music cannot be pinned to a creed or country – the accent escapes you before it can be identified.
I don t believe in nationalities, said Gallardo, I believe in cultures. Lines on a map are more rigid, but they are not formative, whereas cultures account for variety, while still influencing one another.
The cajón is an instrument that embodies this intermingling of cultures. Originating in Peru, the wooden box was later carried into Spain because it complemented the zapateado (tapping) in flamenco. Spain and flamenco had a strong Arab influence which also traveled to Mexico.
We have Arab blood in our veins, Gallardo told the audience while recalling the journey of this instrument that destroys our hands.
The form of Tambuco s work is fluid. The musical performance is also a dance, as with the piece called Musique de Tables where carefully choreographed hands produce rhythmic sounds by swishing, slapping or standing on a table, while also miming turning pages or wiping them.
Birds offered a glimpse into a jungle of sounds, laced with the color of whistles. Some whistles were also replicas of the animals whose sounds they produced. Tambuco welcomed tickling people s imagination, and many of the audience who later approached the stage to join the carnival were not disappointed.
During the song, the artists mimed and played animated bleating of animals and birds. When, at one point, the noises were flailing, Gallardo whipped the remaining three back into animation. At one point, Gallardo bleated a maaaaa into the microphone.
Their sense of humor was evident through Tambuco s performance. At the end of Sabe como eh! a composition played by scraping on guacharacas, the musicians held some instrument-like violins, playing on them silently and with mock self-importance, before pausing for applause.
I think the main goal in life is to be happy, said Gallardo, If you have a message that has meaning and you transmit that meaning happily, then that is great.
Tambuco uses music for the reinforcement of positiveness.
In the finale, Corazón-Sur (Heart of South), musicians began with the cajones facing an inner circle, then moved into marimbas (xylophone-like instruments) and gongs, each facing in a different direction. Finally, the musicians donned a mask, while playing an instrument that resembles a stringed instrument and wandered, strange creatures that they are, off-stage and into the audience, and then out of sight.
