1860 Minstrel Group Question

[Mark Lewis]

What is the gentleman on the left holding?

[Silas]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

Picture is rather small, but it looks to me like a tambo. Usually find the percussion instruments like the bones, tambo and triangle on the outside and the strings on the inside.

[Boucher42]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

It is a tambo. A huge tambo. I also believe this is a post war photograph.

[Mark Lewis]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

I didn't realize they were quite that big and sophisticated. I did manage to find some pics of them from the 18th & 19th c. that had head tensioners. I don't see how it could have been played in the manner we normally associate with the tambo. Sorry if it's a post war pic.

[Old Cremona]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

I got to hold an original tambourine at an Early Banjo Gathering. It was part of the Peter Szego collection. The tambo was huge, about the size of the one in the picture. It also had a wooden handle, for manipulation. The handle could be attached inside or outside of the rim.

Scott, what clues tell you this is a post-war image?

[1S_Stephens_1RMVC]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

It is a bodhran, an Irish drum.

[Boucher42]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

I have seen it somewhere before. And I think it was dated. It may be in a book I have somewhere, I am on a mission right now to find it.


Found it. Page 72 of "Americas Instrument, The Banjo In The 19th Century" Labeled Albumen photograph ca. 1860's. It could be Wartime, but the fellows actually being black and obviously on the minstrel stage could make it post war. I don't recall any Minstrel groups (any I have read about)being black in the pre-war era , save the occasional solo circus performer. Others may know more, please chime in. The neck on the banjo looks very narrow. Although it has a scrolled "Boucher" type peg head the heel looks odd and it appears to have 8 brackets. I am guessing because of the way they are positioned.

[1S_Stephens_1RMVC]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

It looks like it is an Irish Bodhran to me. It looks like he is holding the beater in his left hand for display. I am not familiar with the term "Tambo" other than the pejorative use to describe a minstrel of African-American descent. I understand from this thread that a Tambo is a precursor to the tamborine or is it a period term for a Bodhran adapted for use in America? Was it struck with the bare hand? Capable of complex syncopation to accompany bones, banjos and strings? Thanks.

[Old Cremona]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

We can be reasonably sure that the instrument in question is a tambourine. I'm unaware of any documentation of bohdrans in early minstrelsy. And the tambourine is one of the primary minstrel instruments. If it is a bohdran, this will rock the foundations of modern minstrelsy studies!

[Boucher42]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

I am not familiar with the term "Tambo" other than the pejorative use to describe a minstrel of African-American descent.Thanks.

I think you mean "Sambo". Tambo is short/slang for Tambourine also it is usually the end mans nickname as in:
"Say Tambo why didn't you oblong your stay at the Seaside?"
"Well Mr. Bones they charge too much."
"How so?"
"They charged this colored individual with stealing the spoons."
I use it because TAMBOURINE takes longer to type. A bohdran? What would the end man be called then? Body?

[Mark Lewis]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

I have to say it looks a lot like a bodhran. I don't believe there is any documentation to support the use of one in the Minstrel era.

[Hank Trent]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

What about a dundo? Anyone know more what they looked like? All I can find are descriptions, but it's sort of like a bodhran, only from the West Indies via Africa, maybe up into the U.S. too?

"...they [West Indies negroes] have the Banja or Merriwang, the Dundo, and the Goombay; all of African origin... The Dundo is precisely a tabor..." Source.

The tabor, of European origin, looked like this:

http://www.wga.hu/art/c/cranach/lucas_e/8/5fountai.jpg

Edited to add...

Check this out:

"As it was my business to see every thing that could interest me in Jamaica, I accompanied Mr. Mathews to the Bay, where one of these entertainments took place in the house of a free mulatto woman. The music consisted of three fiddles, a pipe and tabor, and a triangle. (1823) Source

Now whether the musician was truly playing a pipe and tabor in the classic European tradition, or whether he was playing a dundo (with or without a pipe) and the English visitor just filled in what he expected to see because of his own cultural background, it's hard to say, but we're getting pretty close to a tabor/dundo, fiddle, banjo and triangle ensemble of genuine black, not blackface, Jamaicans, like the photo.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Bagman]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

Sure looks like a bodhran to me.....I guess it's a good thing we're not trying to give an eye-witness account of a robbery to a police officer. Like many things in life, and on AC fora...., what you see often depends on where you stand.

Jeff Christman
Liberty Hall Fifes & Drums

[4VADRUMMER]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

Sure looks like every minstrel Tabo "Tamborine" I've ever seen. They were normally that large (between 12" to 18"), had very few rattles or spoons (normally only 4 to 8 sets of rattles), and the shell was normally between 2" and 6" deep. No one makes a good reproduction Tambo today for the exception of George Wunderlich. Most the (modern day) period bands tend to end up using the smaller modern tambourines with a whole ring of rattles. The problem with that is the sound is totally different from the larger tambo's. I think a lot of folks have a false impression of what the period tambo was because of this. If anyone is interested in making one, an old feed measure would work great for the shell!

[Silas]

Re: 1860 Minstrel Group Question

A rim could also be ordered special from Cooperman drums. That was the source for the rim on my banjo. I called, told 'em what I wanted and had it within a few weeks. I don't recall specifically how much I paid, but may have been less than fifty dollars with shipping. (And no, I don't have that phone number any longer.)