Flapamba Marimba

the flapamba musical instrument in percussion family. consists of tuned wooden bars pinched on 1 side (over node), , mounted on resonator boxes. sliding bars forward or backward affects tuning. unlike marimba or xylophone however, sound not focused tonally, bit more percussive (closer tuned log drums).

part of makes flapamba’s characteristic sound tuning; instance, resonators not tuned bars in other standard keyboard percussion instruments. renowned studio percussionist emil richards bought original flapamba professional drum shop in hollywood in late 1960s or 1970s, , added giant instrument collection, emil richards collection. staff @ store convinced him buy it, told him getting out of percussion rental business since emil dominating of work in town. emil couldn t find info on history or maker of flapamba when purchased it, nevertheless started using on recording sessions, chromatic layout of instrument made easy transition other keyboard mallet instruments. used softest mallets possible or meat of fingers warm, resonant, wooden sound. original flapamba had range middle c (c4), 2 full octaves.

in 2000s, emil decided flapamba have additional lower range, specialty mallet craftsman chris banta made new bars spanning f2 c4, , dubbed bass flapamba . replaced bars on original set maintain continuity of sound between both sets, , changed finish blonde color original set s brown. both sets combined have range f2–c6. emil s flapamba has been heard on countless soundtracks , other recordings, such on television shows lost, daktari, , kung fu.

elmer bernstein used on soundtrack mcq.

the beginning of steely dan track rikki don t lose number features victor feldman playing flapamba, contribution cut original abc single version.