Historical Museum
of Southern Florida
|
Historical Museum
of Southern Florida |
|
Eddie Osborne - Percussion and String Instruments
Osborne was born in Griffin, Georgia, in 1946. “In my family, there was always an awareness of African ancestry,” he notes. “My interest in things African started with language. Because learning of the African origins of words that I grew up hearing in Georgia led to wanting to explore other connections, including musical instruments.” At Friday night fish fries and other social occasions, he encountered hand-made instruments, such as glasses of water struck with spoons and drums made by stretching animal skins over nail kegs. From his father he learned about the one-string diddly bow of Mississippi and the one-string gut-bucket bass that used to be played in Griffin and other communities. Eventually, he fashioned a single-string lute from a cigar box and began to make keg drums himself. Over the years Osborne became increasingly interested in the African antecedents of such instruments. A particularly important experience was a trip to Spain in 1970, which offered him the opportunity to meet musicians from several African countries. In 1971 he settled in Miami and, by the end of the decade, began making instruments on a regular basis. Childhood memories, books and conversations with other musicians have all provided him with models for instruments. He states: “I oftentimes will see an instrument and, because I’m familiar with something that’s similar to it and can make that, I will transfer that knowledge to a new instrument.” In his home workshop, Osborne continues to experiment with a wide array of instrument materials and designs. He makes a gut-bucket bass by attaching a flexible stick to an inverted wash tub and running a string from the top of the stick to the center of the tub. His diddly bow consists of a banjo string nailed to the ends of a small board, with a spool or other object serving as a bridge. An akam, based on models from Senegal and Cameroon, has a body made from a goat skin stretched over a wooden bowl and a neck consisting of four curved sticks. Kite strings provide the primary tones, while a secondary buzzing sound is produced by a piece of a Vienna sausage can with metal rings. A Central African style marimba has hardwood keys of different lengths, suspended on foam rubber above a plywood sound box. In addition to making these and numerous other instruments for musicians and collectors, Osborne uses them in educational workshops on African cultural heritage. “My whole desire,” he states, “is to show that we didn’t just stop being African at some point in this country.” - Stephen Stuempfle www.historical-museum.org
|
The rooms of Eddie Osborne’s home in Miami contain musical instruments
from throughout the African world. Shelves and corners are filled with
assorted West African drums and lutes, Central African marimbas, and one-string
instruments from Brazil and the American South. All of the instruments
are made by Osborne and represent years of study of transatlantic cultural
connections.
