Hand-made large agbé by Afonsinho Menino
Carefully hand-braided xequeré by a small brand called Ylu Brasil, a project all about Brazilian music and percussion instruments which creates beautiful instrument creatively designed of traditional, recycled and new materials.
Only well and evenly grown, nice looking gourds can become a xekeré. Shekerés are especially important in Candomblé music, but you may also find them in many other styles. A shekeré is a timekeeper, a show effect, and musically and optically always a great enrichment! The larger the gourd is, the louder the sound will be as more surface is hit by more beads.
A bottle gourd only grows in a few climate zones where it needs to be turned over carefully every single day in order to avoid pressure marks and to keep it nice and round during its months of growth. In the end, only very few of the plants are good for being proceeded into a shekeré. As soon as the gourd is hollowed, cleaned and processed, you will see the beautiful wood grain and texture on its smooth outer body.
There are many different ways of playing the shekeré. You can play sounds not only by using the beads as an effect, but also e.g. by using your flat hand for countermovements from beneath the instrument producing hollow sounding and almost drum-like effects.
| article n°: | A602602 |
|---|---|
| Brand: | Ylu Brazil |
| Beads: | plastic |
| Body: | gourd |
| Type: | Xequeré |
| Weight: | 0.65 kg |
Ylu Brazil
Ylu Brazil
Afonsinho Menino, founder of Ylu Brasil, lives completely up to his guidelines of Brazilian percussion music. More than 30 years of experience with percussion and instrument making reflect his knowledge which you will notice in both his creativity and the quality of his products. He plays, builds instruments and teaches. You can see him in bands of all sorts of genres, such as ‚Só Conversa‘ and ‚Qualquer Lugar‘ (instrumental), or in ‚Sendero‘ (Latin American music), Mayombe Afro Cubano‘ (traditional Son Cubano), Tropeiros da Serra‘ (Forró and group dances)‚ Carimbolando‘ (Carimbó from Pará) and ‚Carimbó é o Bicho!‘ (Carimbó for kids).
Afonsinho teaches percussion and instrument making to a great diversity of people, e.g. to social projects, but also to people trade unions and other organisations; he gives private lessons in his studio but also public workshops, compact courses in culture and recreation centres and communities, libraries, schools, parks etc. His lessons are as many-sided as the instruments which he makes of traditional, but also of modern or even recycled materials. Through the large diversity of musical styles he plays, he has gained knowledge to make most of the instruments himself: for Samba, Afoxé, Ijexá, Olodum, Frevo, Forró, Baião, Xaxado, Maracatu and Coco. He makes all sorts of sound bodies such as drum sets, shekerés / agbes, ganzas, maracas, güiros, cajones, ocean drums and rainmaker etc.
All instruments by Ylu Brazil are made in Brasil. They are unique pieces with beautiful sound colours and good quality making!
Login