Death Rattle

December 23, 2017 3:18 PM

There is a technical term for the kind of instrument it is, a wonderful word: idiophone. An idiophone is something that you hit to make a distinctive sound. That’s all there is to it. No strings, no flute-holes, just an object that you strike. A triangle would be the most obvious example. The root “idio” here means singularity or itself-ness or sole, as in, “alone.” Think idiosyncratic—not in sync with others, obeying its own rhythm. Or idiom—an expression that makes sense only in the language to which it belongs.

In the African-influenced musics of Latin America one often hears a uniquely electrifying percussion instrument known as la quijada, the jawbone.
posted by Rumple (15 comments total)

¡Adiós güiro, hola quijada!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:24 PM on December 23, 2017

The Vibraslap is still the best name
posted by thelonius at 3:35 PM on December 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

thank you.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:53 PM on December 23, 2017

Slay Philistines and lay down some heavy beats in style.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:29 PM on December 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wow! I was watching the video thinking 'how different can the sound be?' Then the player ran the stick down the teeth and I thought 'yeah, that is a cool sound, but you can get that from other, less morbid instruments'. Then he hit the first rattle and I got it!
posted by DSime at 7:29 PM on December 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I realized something sort of amazing when all of this reading was finished, or the combination of the reading and the remembering. The quijada, the jawbone, is one of the great New World instruments. Its area of influence extends all the way from the deep south—the real deep south, as in Peru—and all the way north to places like Kentucky. Anywhere you had African slaves encountering European settlement, you found the jawbone.

If it was so widespread throughout the Americas, and found primarily in Black communities, wouldn't it seem likely that there's an African antecedent? I kept looking for mention of this in the article, but maybe it was outside the author's scope.
posted by pykrete jungle at 8:33 PM on December 23, 2017

La Porta is wonderful. This with the PanArt Hang is gorgeous. And then this on a kit just made me so happy -- once he gets a stick in his right hand, he just cruises.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:24 PM on December 23, 2017

The Vibraslap is still the best name

I think you meant to post this comment here.
posted by vorpal bunny at 10:10 PM on December 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'd always heard it attributed to Africa, even though it's often associated with a wide range of Latin American music. I guess a real jawbone is a more versatile instrument than the Vibraslap, but probably more fragile and inconsistent (and kinda gross), having seen more broken ones than not. They do appear like they's snap like a wishbone if you hit them too hard. I suppose a broken one could still be useful as a percussion instrument, but not for the "death rattle" sound. The Vibraslap seems more a one trick pony (heh), and I always associate it more as a sound effect for suspenseful 70s tv cop show scenes.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:11 PM on December 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I associate this instrument with son jarocho. They're pretty sturdy from my limited experience.
posted by Mister Cheese at 6:27 AM on December 24, 2017

Needs more cowbell. (sorry)
posted by nofundy at 6:38 AM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a video there where La Porta plays water, so a cowbell should be there somewhere.

More cowbell and more assjaw.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:20 AM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a video there where La Porta plays water

Trilok Gurtu blew my mind with that, back there in the 90s, when I saw him with John McLaughlin Trio. He also had some technique where he bent the pitch of a cymbal by manipulating it over the water thing. Still not sure what happened there.
posted by thelonius at 9:53 AM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also it explains that sound at the beginning of that LedZeppelin song that I always thought was some electronic thingy. Deeply satisfying to hear that.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:06 AM on December 24, 2017

Yeah the classic way to pitch bend a cymbal is by dipping it in water. It's a cool trick.
posted by idiopath at 8:09 AM on December 26, 2017 [1 favorite]