It can be hypnotic to see two hands with four sticks moving over the keys at high speed, so fast that the eyes can no longer register the individual movements. Meanwhile, the ears have trouble distinguishing the notes from each other and contradictory rhythms intertwine. Is this rhythmic melody or melodic rhythm? Or does that difference not exist?
The Saturday evening of the Amsterdam Marimba Weekend in the Bimhuis was packed with three concerts in which the percussion on the marimba family took center stage. The Frenchman Simon Moullier lets the sounds of his vibraphone (with metal keys) make smart, sweet hops in jazz arrangements. His interplay with the Dutch top saxophonist Ben van Gelder is like two old friends who meet again after a long lockdown and catch up softly, but animatedly, barely aware of the audience. Meanwhile, drummer Martijn Vink, another top-class Dutch performer, keeps the beat tense with subtle accents.
Moullier is not the type to show his arts with a lot of theater. Still, when he breaks free and starts dancing behind the instrument, his sticks fly over the keys, then, why not, he plays once with the back of the sticks, or with the fingers, improvising on what is presented to him .
The Youth Percussion Pool still lacks that freedom. That’s not strange, these are young musicians whose career has yet to start. But it is clear that they are under the mentorship of Tatiana Koleva, one of the most renowned marimba players in the world, because what they lack in freedom they make up for with pleasure and dedication. Koleva is the driving force behind the Marimba Weekend. At a certain moment two marimbas (with wooden keys) and two vibraphones are heard in an adaptation of the music of West Side Story written by her. That’s sixteen sticks and lots and lots of keys. The percussionists often change positions, giving it a theatrical quality.
The Kanazoé Orkestra will close the evening with acrobatics on the balafon. It is regarded as the African mother instrument. Instead of organ pipes, gourds hang under the wooden keys. Under the bows of Seydou Diabaté from Burkina Faso there is a metallic resonance from the natural materials. Unfortunately, Kanazoé Orkestra lacks strong songs. The afro soul and jazz sounds like nothing has happened in West African music in twenty years. Diabaté’s solos make up for a lot. Nobody plays faster than him on Saturday night. Melodic rhythms and rhythmic melodies intertwine.