Very excited to announce that we’ve finally finished the amazing solo flute CD of my friend and teacher Lancine Conde from Guinea, West Africa, and that it is now available…well, everywhere! Go check it out at his new website, all sales go directly to supporting Lancine and his family in Guinea. http://lancineconde.com/music

Fulani-style flutes (aka tambin), made by Dave Kobrenski. These flutes are crafted using the traditional wooden flutes of the Fulani and Malinké peoples of West Africa as a model. They are nearly identical in sound and playability, and are fun to make (and play)!

quick study for new painting idea

Updated portfolio of my artwork - http://davekobrenski.com

The Wailers come to Plymouth, NH on March 31, 2012, with Donkilo! Afro Funk opening the show.

Balafons for Sale

Going through my collection of instruments recently, and have a couple of really nice traditional balafons from Guinea, West Africa that I’ve decided to put up for sale, and hope that they find a nice home where they will be played and enjoyed. (I’ve collected a lot of musical instruments from my travels in West Africa, and I’d rather see these getting some use than sitting in my attic - don’t worry, I’m still keeping one bala on hand for myself!)

As mentioned, these are good quality, well constructed, and sound/play great. One of these I even retuned myself (you can see the full collection of photos from the process here). Here’s the specs:

DJELI BALA (BALAFON)
Country of Origin: Guinea
Wood Type: Haré (Khadi)
Width: 19”
Length: 46”
Number of keys: 20
Tuning: traditional (equidistant) scale

Price: $400/each, with mallets.

Inquiries/more info: contact me here.

Display of my paintings currently at Cafe Monte Alto, in Plymouth, NH, for the month of November, 2011 - check it out if you’re in town!

Indy and Abner

Redesign of the BRASBE band website

The recently launched website for Landaya Ensemble, a performance group from NH.

Donkilo! Afro Funk Orkestra - June 24, 2011 at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Flickr.

Donkilo! Afro Funk Orkestra - June, 2011

Donkilo! Afro Funk Orkestra and Jen Kearney and the Lost Onion, performing at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH on June 24, 2011.

Sunday, May 15, 2011: Sayon Camara Drumming Workshop, in Hartland VT

We are pleased to share with you that Guinea, West Africa-born djembefola, Sayon Camara, will be offering an afternoon-long drumming workshop in Hartland, VT on Sunday, May 15, 2011. This is an amazing opportunity to experience and learn the rhythms of West Africa from a gifted teacher and player who comes from the Mandinka drumming tradition.

More info here

The re-branding of BBM, and the all-new Landaya Ensemble

For those of you who have been following the activities of the Black Bear Moon project over any part of the last decade or so, will see some fairly big changes these days. Namely, the performance group that has been the public face of the project for near a decade is being re-branded. The chain of events, conversations, and decisions that have led to settling on the new name are long indeed!

Suffice it to say here that we are extremely excited about the change to Landaya. The group is as alive and well as ever, and looking forward positively to what’s next.

From our latest newsletter:

…as a sign of our continued commitment to learning from and preserving the music and culture of the Mande peoples of West Africa, the BBM performance troupe is changing its name to “Landaya Ensemble”. Landaya (pronounced lahn-die-ah) is a Malinke word that means ‘confidence’, and to us, the name reminds us that we must each follow our own paths and dreams, confidently.

More info at the new Landaya website: landaya.com

Re-tuning a Balafon - the finished product (by davekobrenski)

(via Landaya Ensemble: Rhythms and Songs from West Africa › Welcome)

The new music project, Donkilo Afro Funk Orkestra. Click on image above to hear demos of some tunes I’ve written and recorded for the new project.

New painting, “Les Batteurs I”, 2013, watercolor and pencil by Dave Kobrenski

Le Maître à Sangbarala - watercolor, 2006

Nungua: Fishing Village - watercolor, 2005

Nungua - watercolor, 2005

Kpanlogo - watercolor, 2004

Jyotidhara - watercolor, 2000

927 Ackerman Ave - oil on canvas, 1999

Carrie in Blue - oil on canvas, 1999

Cheap Smokes at the Res - watercolor, 1996

Slim Baker Foundation

Project: CSS/HTML + PHP/MySQL backend interface

A collaboration with Clay Dingman of Barking Cat Communications Design for the Slim Baker Foundation, a non-profit organization created to oversee the Slim Baker Area for Outdoor Living in Bristol, NH.

The Slim Baker Area is 135-acre tract of conserved land on Little Round Top Mountain in Bristol, New Hampshire, set up in 1953 as a memorial to Everett “Slim” Baker, a dedicated and much-loved local conservation officer with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Slim dreamed of setting up a “school for outdoor living” in the Newfound Lake area, and the Slim Baker Area is the fulfillment of that dream.

More info: slimbaker.org

The California Museum: Health Happens Here

Role: Mobile web application development / HTML5 / CSS3 / jQuery

BBM Designs worked with the Richard Lewis Media Group on developing several key components of the California Museum’s Health Happens Here exhibit. BBM Designs’ role involved primarily the conversion of rich interactive exhibit game experiences to web-based versions using the latest web standards: HTML5, CSS3, and javascript. These web versions were designed to be flexible enough to be compatible on all modern web browsers as well as iOS and Android devices (phones tablets etc).

The California Museum: Health Happens Here

Role: PHP/MySQL database development; web application development with HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript

“Through a series of high-tech games and interactive stations, visitors explore key factors that affect health beyond traditional diet and exercise while earning points that can be donated to 1 of 10 charities to make health happen for all Californians…”

BBM Designs worked with the Richard Lewis Media Group on developing several key components of the California Museum’s Health Happens Here exhibit. BBM Designs’ role involved primarily the conversion of rich interactive exhibit game experiences to web-based versions using the latest web standards: HTML5, CSS3, and javascript. These web versions were designed to be flexible enough to be compatible on all modern web browsers as well as iOS and Android devices (phones tablets etc).

In addition, BBM Designs developed the backend database and related applications for the exhibit that allows for the storage and retrieval of complex data related to the visitor experience.

National Streetcar Mobile Museum (in progress)

Role: iOS web application development / HTML5, CSS3, jQuery

Description: Development of an interactive web application for mobile devices.

This project is still in development with the Richard Lewis Media Group.

Birchtree CMS: web content management system

PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript

Birchtree CMS is an elegant, easy to use, and powerful web-based content management system designed to make the management of complex web sites and web database applications intuitive and flexible. Based on non-proprietary web standards, it was developed to be a lightweight and easily extensible framework that solved the problem of many organizations: most CMS products attempt to be one-size-fits-all solutions and as a result suffer either from feature bloat or are incapable of handling custom requirements. In comparison, every installation of Birchtree CMS is catered to the needs of the organization, and as the organization’s needs change, so too does the framework allow for growth and flexibility while providing an intuitive interface for the management of website or application data.

Currently, Birchtree CMS is in use by organizations across the country, including museums, schools, online businesses, festivals, town municipalities and more.

Contact us for more information about how a website or database application driven by Birchtree CMS may be of benefit to you.

Richard Lewis Media Group

Role: web development, graphic design

The Richard Lewis Media Group (RLMG) specializes in the planning, design and production of media exhibits and applications for museums and institutions in North America and around the world.

Smithsonian: National Museum of Natural History

Role: lead design

Smithsonian’s Human Origin project. Interface and graphic design project. The Human Origins Initiative Web Site for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is dedicated to bringing the user the excitement, latest findings, and profound implications of the scientific exploration of human origins. Worked with the Chedd-Angier-Lewis Production Company to oversee design and development of this site, as well as produce graphics, and interface design for many of the rich media elements including videos and interactive games.

Granite State Music Festival

Role: design, visual identity, programming and implementation

The Granite State Music Festival is a two day, non camping, non-profit festival held in Concord, New Hampshire June 23-24, 2012. All proceeds from the festival go to benefit the Concord Community Music School, the largest employer of musicians in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC

Role: Web database application development (PHP/MySQL)

BBM Designs developed the backend database application and administrative user interface for managing an interactive exhibit that allowed visitors to take pictures of found objects and and them to the museum’s digital collection. With the backend user interface for museum administrators, the digital collection can be searched, filtered, approved etc.

Institute for Contemporary Art: Custom web application

Role: Web application design, database development, PHP, MySQL and Javascript programming, HTML and CSS.

The Mediatheque was created for the ICA’s grand re-opening, in its new building on the waterfront in Boston, MA. Working closely with Chedd-Angier- Lewis, the Mediatheque was designed to allow the visitors to the museum interact with the work on display in the museum by browsing through the database of work, view videos of the artists or experts, comment and tag the work, view other visitors’ comments, participate in polls and questionnaires, and more.

Harvard Business School

Role: CSS, HTML, Javascript.

For its centennial in 2008, the Harvard Business School launched a website celebrating its dynamic 100-year history. Chedd-Angier-Lewis produced a rich multimedia investigation into this history around four themed questions: “What makes a profession?”, “How do you educate to transform?”, “What knowledge is useful?”, and “How do we define success?”

Landaya Ensemble

Web development, visual identity, design. CSS / HTML / Javascript.

Landaya is a talented and dedicated group of New Hampshire-based musicians combining their skills to present a unique selection of traditional West African rhythms and songs. Skillfully performing instruments like the djembe, sangban, dununba, and kenkeni drums, as well as the tambin (an African flute, also known as the Fula flute), kamalen’goni (10-string African harp), the krin (log drum), and more, Landaya weaves together an evening of music that audience members talk about long after the show.

Donkilo! Afro Funk Orkestra

Web development, visual identity, design. CSS / HTML / Javascript.

A distinct and unique new fusion of funk, jazz, Afro-beat, and West African rhythms, combining traditional instruments like the Fula flute, 10-string kamalen’goni and djembe, with drums, guitar, bass, sax and more. Donkilo! creates a sound that is fresh and daring, with live performances that transport audiences to previously unchartered musical territories.

(below is an excerpt from a work in progress by Dave Kobrenski)

About the Fulani Flute: History and Construction

Although it has existed for ages in West Africa, the tambin, the three-holed wooden flute of the Fulani people, has been a little-known instrument throughout the rest of the world. In recent years, however, it has begun to gain attention for its characteristic rich sound and unique voice. Musicians like Mamady Mansare III (the father) first brought attention to the instrument through his playing with the Guinea national dance companies, Les Ballets Africains and Ballet Djoliba. The international group Fula Flute demonstrated the versatility of the instrument with their virtuoso performances of traditional songs for the flute. A growing number of contemporary African musicians, like Dramane Dembélé, Oumou Sangare, Issa Bagayogo, and several others have featured the tambin in their recordings. My own groups, Landaya and Donkilo! Afro Funk Orkestra feature the tambin heavily.

In West Africa, the tambin is normally constructed out of a thick, woody vine that grows along the banks of parts of the Niger River. The vine has sturdy outer walls and is entirely hollow, making it the perfect material for a flute. I have also seen tambin flutes in West Africa constructed out of metal pipe and pvc tubing, and these flutes sound remarkably similar to the wooden flutes (and in fact it is nearly impossible to tell the difference based on sound, especially given the great variety of “voices” that can be created due to the natural variances of the wooden vine itself).

A transverse (or side blown) flute, the tambin consists of only three holes, but has a range of two and a half octaves, achieved by overblowing, and has four distinct “registers”. The embouchure is formed out of a special substance knows as bee cerumin (a natural blend of beeswax and propolis made by tiny, stingless bees) that is a black color and can be easily shaped to help direct the passage of air into the hole. The cerumin, sticky when heated, dries to a hard consistency (due to the high level of propolis); that said, when playing the tambin for long durations on hot summer days, the embouchure can soften somewhat, so care must be taken!

Tuning

Traditionally, the tambin is tuned to what would be called an equidistant heptatonic scale – that is, a seven note scale where all intervals are roughly equal. I say roughly because the tuning depends on the ear of the flute maker, who, without modern tuning devices, creates the flutes to produce the traditional songs and melodies of his particular region; variances from region to region in how these musical intervals are heard can certainly be found. The equidistant scale is an ancient scale indeed, and while it is tempting for the Western musician to characterize this scale as being “out of tune”, it is important to note that this tuning is quite deliberate and actually quite precise: the traditional songs of the Fulani and Malinké played with a Western scale would not be the same songs at all.

The tambin flutes are most commonly found in Ab and G (approximately, because of the equidistant nature of the scales). Since the flute is often played with the balafon, the two “sizes” of flutes are relevant to whether you are playing music with a large balafon or a smaller balafon, which would also be tuned accordingly (many other turnings for the balafon exist and I don’t mean to generalize here; I’m speaking specifically of Malinké instruments that would be found in the Kouroussa region of Guinea). Further, I have seen two models of the Ab flute: a smaller one beginning on the pitch of C, and a slightly larger one beginning on Bb. While they play the same scale (just shifting the range), the determination of which starting note is used is likely decided by the size of the vine itself. While I haven’t encountered flutes tuned otherwise in this region of Guinea, I have met other players, from Burkina Faso, for example, who also have a larger flute tuned to F (and starting on the pitch of A) that is quite beautiful.

Dave Kobrenski
January, 2013

Conakry, Guinea / February 2007.

The heat in the tiny room was stifling. The thick iron door, hinged securely to the frame that formed the doorway to the tiny mud and brick house where we sat, was firmly closed. Thick curtains were pulled tight over the barred windows. Any chance of what little breeze there was outside reaching us in the tiny room had been obliterated by our efforts to shut out the sounds of busy everyday life in the courtyard just outside our door. Not that the temperature outside was much cooler; it was the midst of the dry season here in West Africa, and by midday, with the sun at its relentless peak, the heat was soaring to 100 degrees. With sweat running freely down my brow, stinging my eyes, shirt quickly becoming soaked, I hoped that today’s recording session in our makeshift studio in a friend’s one-room home in the suburbs of Conakry would go smoothly. I had an ominous feeling that the opportunity to record this music wouldn’t present itself again soon.

Lanciné was ready. Sitting in a wooden chair across from me, his flutes, the traditional tambin he had constructed himself from the woody vine that grows along the banks of the Niger River, were laid out before him. My recorder and microphone were set on a chair next to us, and I hoped they would not fail me – the last few months of heat, sand, dust and abuse from traveling through the countryside and villages of Guinea, making field recordings of the traditional music here, had taken its toll on the devices; buttons and gears that were once silent and smooth were now tired and strained. We waited another moment before starting, as a short staccato burst of gunfire, this time from far off, rang out. Our recording session, I feared, would have to be done in small sections, hoping that a musical moment would not be interrupted by the increasingly frequent sounds of gun shots that had characterized a country in turmoil as of late. Luck would have to be on our side today, just as it would have to be for the people of Guinea as they strived to gain freedom from the tyranny of an aging dictator unwilling to relinquish his grip on a country that ever spilled into poverty and hunger.

This day had been relatively quiet though. For the last several weeks, we had been confined to our compound at Famoudou Konate’s house in Simbaya, on the outskirts of Conakry, while the nationwide strikes continued. Violence had erupted in Conakry and nearby Coza as the military had split into opposing factions, and whatever semblance of police control that remained were attempting to control the rioting and looting that was now commonplace. Nightly radio addresses, streaming out from small radios as groups of people crowded around them expectantly in the darkness, reported on the state of the country and progress of diplomatic negotiations that were still ongoing. Talks were scheduled for today, and it was the fading but hopeful optimism in the diplomacy of the country’s leaders that had brought about the relative calm that had briefly fallen over the peninsula — affording us this opportunity to record Lanciné’s music. We had but a small window of time.

In the faint light of our small room, I armed my recorder and hoped for the best. Lanciné began to play. As his music flowed forth, our surroundings quickly became irrelevant. Beautiful and intricate phrases streaming effortlessly from his flutes, it seemed the very walls of the small house would dissipate. With the rise and fall of his notes, at times slow and tranquil, at others agitated and impassioned, this humble and kind man transported us: eyes closed, we now sat on the banks of the Djoliba, the wide and winding Niger River, beneath the shade of a great baobab tree, the breeze cool and clear. The troubles of the world were now far away, lost in the sandstorm of time that only music could transcend. In the great open expanse of the river that had unfolded before us in melody and time, stories were told, ages recounted, great leaders of old were praised, and the hopes and sorrows of a people were put to music.

I do not know how long this went on. It didn’t matter. When we were finished, we left the small room and walked together in the open air, silently and unhurried, sharing a bottle of water as the sun sank lower in the sky, bathing the landscape in an orange glow.

That was now many years ago. Life progressed as it does, mine and his, and I do not remember how these recordings became lost, or why they resurfaced when they did. But I am happy. May you also be transported; I will look for you sitting quietly across the banks of that river and know.

Dave Kobrenski
January, 2013
davekobrenski.com