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A Brush With The Squashbox


Dirge

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An erstwhile South African came to the house on business the other day; I got chatting to him and he suddenly noticed my concertina. 'Ooh, a squashbox,' he said, 'How the blacks used to love them!'

 

He said it had been a common sight to see a black S African walking down the road, going somewhere at great speed, playing their concertina continuously. He described it as 'playing the same tune over and over again' but I think what he meant was that the walker had a chord pressed and just went in and out as he marched, just 2 chords. Driving along, you would hear the squashbox before you noticed the player and it would still be audible when he was receding into the distance.

 

He didn't have any particular musical interest but 'squashboxes' were apparently common enough to be a strong reminder of old days in S Africa for him.

 

So I had this mildly interesting anecdote to share with you and before typing it went and looked at Jody Kruskal's website, and there in among assorting interesting stuff and some slick music I found a picture of exactly what my S African acquaintance had been describing:-For which, thank you Jody. This is captioned 'Going Home From The Mines' (Jody has a nice gallery of 'box related pics of which this is just one.)

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A while back I saw an interview with South African musician Johnny Clegg. He seized a concertina and began marching around the room playing a fistful of chords with his left hand,while just riffing over the top with his right. He said that it was a custom when walking, especially in a group to "keep the cadence with a squashbox, to help the walking go along. "

 

Very cheerful and a pleasant way to keep up thespirits on a long hike.

 

Cheers

Rob

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FOLKS: for those interested in the concertina in SA. . . .you might look at harry scurfield's little essay in volume 2 of PICA. . . .it's online..........allan

Harry also gave a talk about the squashbox at the Michaelstein Symposium, one section of which was about "the concertina as a means of transport". :blink:

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Harry had his Bastari squashbox with him at the Swaledale Squeeze last weekend, and played it very briefly after his "interesting concertina recordings" session. I had a quick go on it, and hadn't realised how alien the keyboard layout feels, especially for a diatonic instrument - couldn't get anything sensible out of it at all!

Edited by stuart estell
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at the Swaledale Squeeze - couldn't get anything sensible out of it at all!

Maybe you should've tried walking "from [t]here to Skipton, ten mile o' clarty lane" with it? ;)

 

But seriously, the squashbox started off as a 20-key German concertina with a couple of its long reedplates inverted, though now almost all of them are made in Italy (so much so that "Bastari" has become a zulu name for the instrument), and playing it you need to think more in terms of an mbira ("thumb piano") than a concertina as such. :huh:

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  • 1 month later...

powerful, yes. can i feel, dare i say, cajun, or maybe zydeco? there. i just upset someone. not in the same breath.

 

 

listen again. The Moon kisses the Sun.

Pygmies speak with the Trees.

Large Reptiles move, just ever so

slightly, then to bed and dream I go.

Push pull, the Squash Box! :P

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