"Kalimba+Bass =Tom Spicer of Dallas"
About
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KALIMBASSTM
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| The
KalimBass: "Delta swamp rhythms spiced with tropical island harmonies” Created and developed by Tom Spicer, bassist. November, 1995. |
Tom Spicer: New Orleans raised and bassist to numerous artists including Zachary Richard / Clarence Gatemouth Brown / Tracy Nelson / Robert Ealey and recently featured artist for Berklee Alumni showcase hosted by Livingston Taylor. | |
| Where to begin? Well, there are at least three, distinctive sounds that I get from my KalimBass. The Obvious two are the Bass notes that I hammer and the high-end percussive attack that my finger nails make as they strike the metal tines and surface of the Kalimba box (I only use the Hugh Tracey Kalimba. Then, there’s the bass/kick drum sound that my r. thumb triggers when it hits the bottom of the Kalimba (because it’s touching the bridge/transducer of my Tacoma Acoustic/electric Bass guitar, get a deep thumpy sound that I use t accent the hammered bass notes. That’s the best I can do. Check out the QuickTime video on my home page too see for yourself. | “KalimBass was an accident” says Spicer. “My two sons, Erik 5 and Max 9, had picked up a Kalimba (African thumb piano) at a flea market for $3. It was pretty much neglected and often found lying on the floor. In fact, I stepped on it in the middle of the night. I put it on my night table and went back to bed. I’ve always had dreams about playing weird songs on bizarre instruments that I was certain didn’t exist. A lot of air guitar dreams, anyway. I awoke early the next morning, it was a Sunday, the boys were still racked out and I saw the kalimba and thought, “this is a beautiful instrument, it deserves some respect” so I started to tune it. | |
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1) KalimBass/T Spicer and Hi-hat/Martin McCall
track 2) KaliimBass/T Spicer and Trumpet/Steve Howard track 3) KalimBass/T Spicer and misc. percussin/Martin McCall track 4) Slide Bass Guitar/T Spicer, Traps/Bobby Breaux, Accordin/Dennis Cavalier.com track 5) same instruments as track 4 track 6) '59 Tyco electric bass guitar/T Spicer and traps/Bobby Breaux track 7) KalimBass/T Spicer track 8) KaliimBass/T Spicer
All of the posted tunes are roughs (un-mixed) I look forward to putting up more tunes, meanwhile I hope you enjoy my KalimBass and songs. |
I didn’t know how a Kalimba was supposed to be tuned, so I picked up one of my bass guitars and attempted it. The bass I used was one of those acoustic/electric, kinda “unplugged” basses you see bass players in magazines posing with. Most of them look cool but nobody ever really uses one because they really love it and it’s what they want to play. I love ‘em and that’s what I play. I have several. Anyway, to begin tuning the kalimba, I laid the acoustic/electric bass on my lap like a slack/slide guitar (that’s not how I play it, though) some how, a chordal matrix tuning took shape and I was able to play some bass lines with cool chord progressions and nice voicings on what I have trademarked as….”KalimBass”tm. Now, I have multiple Kalimbas tuned in different keys, in different ways. They are velcroed behind the tail bridge and tailpiece of my Tacoma Thunder Chief bass, which I love the most. I can’t stop writing for and playing on the KalimBass. | |
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hope you enjoy what has come from my creation thus far. |
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