RE: Vibraphone/xylophone/marimba in Klezmer music

[Gifford, Paul <pgifford...>]

Dick Rosenberg wrote:

>I've noticed that, especially when I listen to vintage Klezmer
recordings, >that there is a malleted instrument that is a
Vibraphone/xylophone/marimba, >probably a marimba.

>I don't recall a discussion of the use of the marimba in Klezmer band
>around the turn of the last century. The sound makes it seems like it
is an >attempt to recreate the sound of the tsimbl with contemporary
instruments.

Most likely not marimba----this Central American instrument just
started to
appear on American stages in the 1910s or so.  Groups like Hurtado
Brothers were popularizing on record at that time.  However, the
xylophone was a popular vaudeville instrument.

I once met a man (and I wish I had gotten more details) who told me of
his uncle, named Sam, who was originally from around Kiev.  He played
"dulcimer," as he called it, in a vaudeville act which was called
"Uncle Sam and His Singing Strings."  The dulcimer was inside a prop
that looked like a piano.  He would start out playing the first three
notes of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and the prop would collapse.  He
then would play the dulcimer.  This Sam also played the xylophone.  He
was probably active in the 1910s, and he traveled all over, including
to Australia.

Paul Gifford

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