Homer Alaska - Arts

Watch out Homer, there's a band of 12- and 13-year-old seventh graders running around town sporting tie-dyed T-shirts, mallets in hand, banging out a hypnotizing, intoxicating beat on large, loud, wooden marimbas.

Brandon Beachy, Axel Gillam, Anthony Jones, Patrick Latimer, Jonas Noomah and John Shank make up Homer's fifth and newest Marimba group, Rufaro.

"Rufaro" means "happiness and joy" in the Shona language of Zimbabwe and was created by a group of local youths wanting to perform a kid's marimba piece in the January 2009 McNeil Canyon Elementary School annual talent show.

"The idea was simply to play one song in the talent show," said Janette Latimer, logistics coordinator for the group.

Kirk Olsen, one of the group's teachers said, "The kids had a lot of fun performing at McNeil. Later that spring they had the opportunity to perform at Jubilee, Homer's annual spring arts fundraiser event that highlights youth talent and supports youth scholarship programs. When asked if they wanted to continue to play, the kids said yes and the group continued to grow together from there. Rufaro definitely wasn't planned. The group coming together just happened."

"We didn't want to stop playing after the talent show. It was so much fun," said 12-year-old Beachy.

Three adults, all members of one of Homer's adult marimba groups, Zuva, work as a team to teach the kids. Janette Latimer is a parent of Rufaro's Patrick Latimer and has played with Zuva for three years. Kirk and Lisa Olsen teach and host the kids' weekly practice sessions and have both played marimba for 12 years.

"We see our work with Rufaro as a form of volunteering and giving back to the community," Olsen said. "We watch these kids go from being shy to growing in their self esteem in only a few months. They've just gotten out of elementary school and are making a lot of decisions about who they are and what they want to do. It is very rewarding for us to watch them grow."

Parent Tom Latimer said, "Some of them were so nervous at first and now they're confident and excited. Nobody's telling them to play. They're just doing it and they love it."

The adult marimba group members each have instruments at home that they practice on, and they have weekly practice sessions. This is not the case with the Rufaro group members.

"These kids are playing on the same instruments that the adults use, but they don't take them home. They meet just once a week to practice and the fact that they have access to these instruments only one time a week and yet play as well as they do is a huge testament to their dedication. What they are doing, working with these polyrhythms, is a very challenging thing. Each week, Lisa and I introduce a little new material and each week the band gets a little better," Olsen said.

Olsen continued, "In Zimbabwean music, precise rhythm is essential and integral. Even a slow piece has a tightness and an urgency about it. Without that, it's no longer Zimbabwean music. Band members must not only know their own parts well, but they also have to understand at all times, just exactly how they fit in with every other player in the room. The challenge the Rufaro kids work with is to hear and feel these precise, interlocking rhythms, and play them in a loose and relaxed way. Within that paradox is where the magic of this music lies."

There are currently no other youth marimba groups in Alaska. In fact, Homer is home to the only African marimba groups in the entire state.

"Youth marimba groups are becoming more and more popular in the United States and Canada. Kids are really taking to this form of music," Olsen said.

Marimba music originated in Zimbabwe, with influence from South Africa. The African marimba is a handmade, wooden, percussion instrument, played with mallets, similar to an extremely large, extremely boisterous xylophone.

A typical marimba group would consist of a lead soprano, soprano 1 and soprano 2, tenor 1 and tenor 2, bass and baritone, as well as hosho, a pair of dried gourds filled with seeds that are played like shakers.

"We all love to play the 'Engine Room': the bass, baritone and hosho. They're loud and fun to play," said Patrick Latimer, 12.

At the moment, Rufaro is an active, all male "Testostertones" group, as dubbed by Olsen. This happened accidentally, however, and will change when one of the two founding female members, Irene Pellegrini, returns this summer.

To date, Rufaro has performed in Homer in 2009 at the McNeil Canyon Elementary School talent show in January, at Jubilee in April, at the Street Fair in August and just last week, at the Homer Council on the Arts fundraiser at Alice's, where they were the opening Marimba group, performing ahead of Shamwari and Tamba Hadzi.

The Alice's performance was Jones and Noomah's first public performance, having joined the group last fall. Latimer, Gillam, Beachy and Shank have been members since Rufaro formed in January 2009. All six youth play other instruments, including the guitar, piano, drums and saxophone, to name a few. Latimer, just 12 years old, has played with the adult group Zuva for the past two and a half years.

"After the Alice's performance, we're going to add complexity to the pieces they've learned. Any of these songs can be done in a simple or more complex arrangement. We're going to work on enhancing the arrangements so that the pieces they just performed are going to become more involved to be fuller, more expanded arrangements, Olsen said.

Future plans for Rufaro include performances at a McNeil Canyon Elementary School fundraiser in the spring as well as performances throughout the spring, summer and fall at the Homer Farmer's Market.

Marimba has definitely found a home in Homer and Homer youth appear to have found a home in it as well.

With a huge grin, 12-year-old Jones sums up the entire group's sentiments of their passion for Rufaro: "Marimba rules!"

Christina Whiting is a freelance writer who lives in Homer.