DIASPORA PERCUSSION WILL LAUNCH THEIR OWN AND NEW LINE OF CAJONES IN DECEMBER 2010!
Gon Bops, formerly owned by DW (Drum Workshop) is now in the hands of Sabian, and due to Sabian's recent exclusivity deal with A Tempo - the Peruvian manufacturer of Gon Bops's Cajon line -, the A Tempo brand and it's products will not be sold outside of Peru. All products manufactured by A Tempo sold outside Peru will be sold exclusively under the brand Gon Bops, and through Sabian's own distribution channels.
Diaspora Percussion will sell out it's stock of A Tempo Cajones at astonishing prices, and soon release it's own line of Cajones under the brand Diaspora Percussion (DP). Stay tuned.

We are excited to be represented at Germany's first and most comprehensive Cajon Store. Check it out:

http://www.cajon-shop.de/

Diaspora Percussion's a Tempo Cajones finally made it to Cajonmania's astounding Cajon database of over 100 Cajones. We're proud to be there.

This not so HD Cam version of a Spanish TV program is nevertheless worth seing.
For those who understand spanish, the spoken parts will clearly explain the difference in techniques that I commented about on the three previous videos.

Here Rafael and Guillermo address that specific difference in playing technique and show their hands briefly to give clear examples.Notice that Rafael is using a Cajon without snare, while Guillermo and Victor Monge are using Cajones with snare.

This video is particularly important, because this fundamental difference in playing techniques (fingers or palm) is as such acknowledged by Rafael and Guille. This is a meaningful insight on this topic, as well as on the difference between the Cajones that include a snare mechanism and the ones that don't.

While the original Afro-Peruvian Cajon does not include any snare mechanism, the Flamenco variation of the Cajon is dependent on a snare. One important reason for which the Cajon developed two different variations, is the fact that the musical function, as well as the musical aesthetics are completely different in Afro-Peruvian music and Flamenco.

The Cajon plays a primordial role in almost all the musical sub-genres and rhythms that it is part of inn Afro-Peruvian music, while it has traditionally a more limited accompany role in Flamenco, as Guillermo points out in the video. In Afro-Peruvian music, and generally in African music that include the use of drums, the bass has an important function. In Flamenco we find almost the opposite. The Cajon is devoted to mark accents and accompany the guitar and the dancers, in which function it doesn't require to have a deep reverberant bass, while it, nevertheless, can make good use of a snare. The bass does not have the same crucial function in the Flamenco genre as it does in Afro-Peruvian music.

In more contemporary Flamenco, we find many different musical and aesthetical tendencies which explore fusion and crossover projects with other genres incorporating thus new instruments. Today we find highly innovative Flamenco percussionists such as Tino di Geraldo, who has incorporated the use of Tabla, Udu, Djembe and Framedrums to his playing. Throughout all the experimentation with musical and acoustic aesthetics, percussion found a privileged and interesting spot in Flamenco, and the deep bass sounds of many instruments, auch as the Cajon, have found their musical function in Flamenco.

It is perhaps impossible to reconstruct the history of the use and incorporation of specific sounds and playing techniques in particular music genres. But we still count on the primordial fact that the Afro-Peruvian Cajon never developed a snare, and the fact that the Cajon developed a snare for the first time in Flamenco.

Many musical instruments that have migrated to other countries and stayed, without preserving a steady relationship with the tradition of its origin, have suffered similar fates. Today, thanks to a global music industry and the internet, the original instruments, playing techniques and rhythms somehow meet their distant brothers and cousins, who have developed different accents and learned to speak foreign languages. This sounds tragic to anyone who holds tradition dear, but on the contrary, it can also enrich the instruments and music beyond our expectations.

Today we have two Cajones, the Afro-Peruvian and the Flamenco... and the ones that are starting to develop in other musical genres we didn't even suspect would adopt the Cajon. What we however can't ignore, is the fact that the Afro-Peruvian Cajon is by far the most developed and sophisticated Cajon, that needs to be taught and learned to enrich its newer and distant relatives. Not for nothing it already counts with over 160 years of history and knowledge ready to be absorbed.

Just to insist on the fingers versus palm technique, look at this well known video of Alex Acuña. It serves very well the purpose of showing his hands on the Cajon, which has no snare at all.
Don't believe the installed snare mechanisms will do the job for you, the sound comes from what your hands are doing on the instrument. It is your job to pull out all the crisp and clear sounds of an instrument.

Watch and learn! Thats the lesson.

And the music goes on! Check out the second part.
Afro-Peruavian Zapateo (tap dance), a dazzling Buleria by Ernesto Hermoza and Efrain, and a gran Festejo finale featuring Alex Acuna on timbales

After the Zapateo section, Efrain Toro (cajon) and Ernesto Hermoza (guitar) play a quick Buleria. Efrain is the only Cajonero using a Cajon with snare, but his technique, though slightly different, is till finger-based rather than palm-based.

The Afro-Peruvian Cajon played by some of Peru's greatest Cajoneros:
Alex Acuna, Marco Oliveros, Leonardo "Gigio" Parodi, Freddy "Huevito" Lobaton, et al. Featuring Efrain Toro from Puerto Rico and Guitar virtuoso Ernesto Hermoza.

With this video I want to draw your attention to the hands of the Cajoneros, as well as to start a little discussion on the different playing techniques we encounter in the Afro-Peruvian Cajon and the Flamenco Cajon. Specially regarding the use of the clapcorners and the upper part of the Cajon.

What you can see clearly in this video, is that the Peruvian and Afro-Peruvian Cajoneros are using their fingers and not their palm to play on the clapcorners and the upper region of the Cajon. The snare is completely absent (with the exception of Efrain's Cajon), and all the crisp sounds obtained by playing the clapcorners and upper part of the Cajon are played with the fingers rather than with the palm.

The original Afro-Peruvian Cajon does not use nor require a snare mechanism to sound the way it does. What it does require is the use of the fingers while striking the clapcorners and the surface. The problem of using a snare is that it almost always contaminate the bass, and that it will not easily give you these more controlled slap sounds, as well as the entire range of subtle variations that you can achieve with the strokes that use your fingers.

To find out more details about Diaspora Percussion, visit our Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Diaspora-Percussion/122756291986?v=info&ref...

This is an invitation to view and read some more at our website. More updates and Cajones will soon appear.

http://www.diasporapercussion.com/