Jorge Sarmientos Marimba Concerto I, played by Keiko Abe

[flutemaniac]

What a great feeling is for me as a Guatemalan to hear this beautiful concerto, written by another guatemalan such as Maestro Sarmientos, and played wonderfully by Keiko Abe, simply beautiful!!!!!!

[Hamgammy]

she has problems with dynamics. there are only 4 instances in this piece where fff is indicated, but she seems to overdo it. i guess she is old and needs to hear it better. otherwise, flawless!

[SirBob202]

Damn i wish the quality was better because this is soooo impressive!

[jazzbandpiano]

Who is the publisher and where can I get the score?

[ptm5150]

my god I love this woman!

[joselitogome]

Jorge Sarmientos orgullo de Guatemala.



[SHOULDERjr]

keiko abe es la ley, vino a chiapas mexico y si nos dejo impresionados y enamorados con su musica,

[TheMalletKid]

Another example of Keiko Abe just being ridiculous and amazing!

[DesmonJones]

It's too bad the sound quality doesn't support the lower register. The marimba is so beautifully resonant.

[minimalisminmusic]

maybe one of the most undervalued concertos for marimba! i'd like to listen to other recordings, maybe with a better audio quality

[imintcomposer]

The Introduction on 0:27-1:09 like Prokofiev Piano Concerto no.3 1st mov.

[USMCdrummer06]

This is gorgeous.

[PercMusicOnline]

Hi there, great piece! I would love to promote this on my website - do you have more information on the piece that you can help me with?

Many thanks,

Tim

Percussion Music Online

[Brandnew3597]

Im playing this piece with my orchestra at school!

Im really exicted about it.

Keiko's interpretation is like 20x better than Vida Chenoweths.

Are there any other recordings of this?

[TheGabeCapes]

i am not complaning i really love the piece but she need to sort out her stick heights the right is higher than the left.... not that it bothered the music just i would be slaughtered is mine were uneven

[SwedxSimon02]

Amazing percussion, composition for the rest of the piece is sort of meh

[rogerthemaestro]

The conductor looks like Oddjob :D

[NotCowell]

4:41 sounded like a pair of mallets clicked each other. regardeless awesome performance!!!

[LuxGonderange]

die Marimba ist ein Instrument mit den viele Kinder sich identifizieren. Ängste lassen sich Akustisch zuordnen. Auch die Stimmung können hier vertont werden. Nur zuhören oder selbst mit den Instrument Experimente in es für die Ohren immer eine heraus Forderung für Kind und Erwachsene

[MTAJEMNICZA3]

super :)

[kidkarate99]

There are SEVERAL instances where Keiko was given only a couple days notice to play brand new concertos that she had never seen before. She would get the music, get onto a plane, read through the piece and visualize herself playing it, show up to the concert right off the plane, and play it flawlessly. THAT is the sign of a true genius

[fpagliato]

Marimba is such a delightful instrument... and Keiko Abe is amazing... I find it really incredible the fact that she doesn't even need to read, knowing it all by heart... at 71 years old!

[laidbacklemon]

This is awesome. Im learning this now. She makes a lot of stuff up, but she's Keiko Abe, she can do what ever she damn well pleases.

[MagicalSunrise1984]

it's unfortunate the quality of the sound is not at its best, yet a wonderful performance nontheless

thank you very much for sharing this piece

[mcgregor2007]

Excellent performance!

[flutemaniac]

As a guatemalan I feel very proud of watching this video and see maestro Sarmientos conducting his own concerto, and listen a soloist like Keiko Abe playing it, it's really overwhelming, thanks from Guatemala.

[funkycuban28]

@flutemaniac yeah and the marimba also originated from guatemala.

[Kurrel]

sorry bro more like africa

[ngpiano72]

@funkycuban28 Didn't the marimba originate from africa and eventually make its way to Central America?

[chebass461]

dude VVV its KEIKO ABE!!! dont question if shes doing anything wrong! :D

[alancheng12345]

i'm not sure about this song, but i'm not sure if that's the proper way to roll on marimbas with four mallets...

[tylerofdenmark]

Umm... that is correct... those are double vertical rolls. She is using the cross grip for 4 mallets. Ripple rolls are somewhat out of place with that grip.

[zuzrwolrd]

is cross grip the same as traditional?

[tylerofdenmark]

Cross Grip is an encompassing grip which refers to two different grips: Burton Grip and Musser Grip, both of which require the crossed mallets. I'm not sure what you mean by traditional. Surely you don't mean traditional in terms of snare drum playing. Cross grips are mainly useful for chordal playing. The Independent Grips, such as Stephens are usable in almost any 4-mallet situation.

[xmalletx]

Musser grip isnt a cross grip. It is an indem[pendent grip. The "stevens" grip is really just a modified musser grip. "cross grip" is any style of playing in which the mallets cross. In "traditional grip" which was really began by asians when the modern form of the instrument came about in Japan in the 80's Burton came around and switched some things around and got a variation of cross grip named after him im not so sure. any how, without Keiko, you would still be playing a xylophone.

[xmalletx]

Get the Keiko Abe Book called Keiko Abe a Virtuostic life by Rebekah kite. it will explain the modern history of marimba and the "traditional grip" and get nancy Zeltsmans book "the guide to 4 mallet playing" it has the best instructions on cross grip playing out there.

[xmalletx]

and anything you can play with independent grips you can play with cross grip.

[MyChoiceZildjian]

@tylerofdenmark The burton grip is your cross grip then there is the musser grip where the mallets don't cross over. and the stephens grip is know as the musser-stephens grip because stephens adapted the musser grip into the new technique the musser-stephens grip.

[jcraven021]

Traditional is one of the original forms of 4 mallet grip. It is a form of cross grip, so in a way, yes, traditional is a form of cross grip

[skidrum11]

in my opinion, its up to the artist what kind of roll to use. though certain grips might make certain techniques easier/more difficult, there is no set "roll" for cross grip.

[Melissa8293]

there are many ways to roll. also many techniques

[peterson719]

1:50 those are really big mallets

[lauternes]

my school has 3 in diametter mallets they are really heavy VERY hard to four mallet with them

[scoggles]

This would have been phenomenal if they knew how to mic a marimba...

[valtent]

marimba's audio quality is disgusting, especially in tremolos. And that's certainly NOT Abe's fault!

[skidrum11]

i agree....

heres an idea, marimba close mikes, have a mike for each key..haha

[shanepryde]

Such wonderful music!

Now, a question for anybody who can answer it. I know it's really faint, but right at the beginning of the video while Keiko is walking onstage there is some music playing. Can anyone tell me what that piece of music is? It sounds so good, but I have no clue where to start.

Thank you!

[mitogramian]

I think you heard the bass players that are playing something as usually happens for all the instruments of the orchestra after they pitched it could be a part just from the concert that they are going to play....

[shanepryde]

Maybe, but it really sounds like a marimba playing and not any basses or something. I don't know, but it just sounds too wooden and quick to be a couple of people warming up. And also, it would seem odd that people would be practicing right when Keiko walks on, considering she's the main artist and all. But maybe it is. All I know is that I love the sound at the beginning.

[mitogramian]

Probably you are right......anyway if you look the basses it seems they are "all" warming up and they are playing with fingers (pizzicato) not with bow and regardind:" practicing right when Keiko walks on"....it could be....

I can't "help" you anymore i hope you solve the Mystery

Bye

[shanepryde]

Thank you!

[zuzrwolrd]

i think they're just tuning the basses

[scoggles]

That would be the low strings tuning...

[valtent]

probably they're just tuning some instrument ;)

[Nielspercussion]

My god, sorry, but she plays horrible, she hits the marimba like it is her mother-in-law!

I do really like the orchestra :)

[DancingMonkey12]

@Nielspercussion You sir, are an IDIOT.

[luistollinchi]

where can i get this music???????

[kwc19740718]

You can buy this Concerto for Marimba & Orchestra Piano Reduction from MostlyMarimba at US $40.

[IainPeters91]

Ruth Underwood could take her on. No problem.

[beaverteeth92]

Ruth is an amazing mallet player, and is great at what she does. I mean she sight-read St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast almost perfectly after not seeing it for 30 years.

But Keiko's stuff tends to be much more technically-complicated, and considering how difficult it is, she should have no problem attempting one of Ruth's solos.

They play completely different styles. Ruth rarely picks up 4 mallets, when Keiko can play easily with 6.

Keiko wins, no contest.

[ThePercussionMaster]

OMG you have to be kidding me!!!!!

[InfiniteStaircase]

I LIKE IT!

But the sound quality sounds like Darthvador peed on it then pushed it out into space only to find out its still alive...

...BARELY

[porippon]

It's a shame that the video sound quality is not good!

[backwarddrummer]

holy crap

[RUFHER]

Bravísimo Maestro Sarmientos

Braavo Keiko

Rubén Darío Flores Guatemala

[Xendza]

Does anyone have the score? Please contact me if you do! :)

[LHDLtenor]

dis would sound so much better if the sound quality was better

[ghettopod]

it's so cool to see someone play wit scissor grip..... you see a lot of stevens grip these days and i have never seen 6 mallets..... amazing!!

[LazyBastard69]

scissor grip? burton grip is a scissor grip as well but she's playing traditional and i can't figure out why one would want to play in that grip. feels so awkward.

[xbraver]

i personally love traditional grip, it feels very good on the hands compared to stevens, and has a very elegant feel in my opinion

[beaverteeth92]

Assuming she started playing at the age of 30, it still would have been like 8 years until Leigh Howard Stevens invented Stevens Grip.

Not to mention that traditional is much more popular in Japan, while Stevens is more popular in America. But I don't think it matters in Keiko's case as to what grip she uses...

[mateo3713]

ive actually seen doctor zater at A&M commerce play 6 mallets. When i saw it I was like........ omg........ but later i found out he actually spent several years in Japan studying with Keiko Abe

[porippon]

Great artist!

[writindrummer]

Nielspercussion, you DO realize that Kieko Abe is 71 years old, right? And she isn't ramming keys; it's called f/ff/fff. Fortisimo. Her technique is flawless, and one of the rare percussionists in the world who can perfectly use 6-mallet technique. End rant.

[ChristopherHa93]

@writindrummer holy crap? 71?? thats amazing. i hope i can become as good as she is someday, and hopefully still be able to play when i'm 71! AND i didn't know 6 mallet, was even real! i thought it was just a rumor. wow...

[iCraacked]

@writindrummer Oh dang!

[Nielspercussion]

SHe doesn't put any feeling in it, she just rams on the keys... Horrible!

[mosurla]

What do you write? You do not play openly(frankly) better and you cannot judge so people without thinking! Your boast goes too far, tell to be superior to a legend is really ignoble! Thoughtful thousand times before writing whatever it is! You Suck!

[NewAgeEagles]

everyone has a opinion, just because one is better than another does not mean that the least experienced of the two can note on the more experienced mistakes.

mosuria, i dont agree with nieispercussion but you dont have to be get so mad at people just because you dont have the same veiws..... please stop acting like a 4 year old

[mosurla]

Sorry if I was allowed going, but what I wanted to say it is that it's not done to say this kind of critic even before being "bigger" than somebody. I apologize for my behavior...

(sorry for my bad english too X( )

[jrad767]

i sort of agree with you

[Gyurme25]

Please correct the name of your video is: Jorge Sarmientos Marimba Concerto, the conductor is Jorge Sarmientos himself from Guatemala, Guatemala Recording 1999 PLEASE!!!!!hOW I KNOW ??? BECAUSE I KNOW THE PLAYER AND THE COMPOSER

[Dabombmh1990]

How would i go about getting this music to play?

[nonoshuu]

Thanks for uploading this!!

Do you have any other movements?

Ms.Abe said that she also want that!

because she don't have any date of this piece~even the score!

[PheonixMagic]

wow... keiko can really play, this peice is amzing

i'm definitly gonna try and learn it, thanks for putting this up

[leesy9004]

Is anybody knows that how to get music sheet for this concerto??

[Dabombmh1990]

I know this sounds kinda weird but a good ear training exercise is to find an audio recording of this and try to transcribe it on finale. Use a program called Transcribe to slow the music down. Good training and you get the music.

[luismigueldl]

TODO UN ORGULLO GUATEMALTECO!!!

[UltimateHayley]

Sweet

[gurucow]

it sounds a little bit prokofievish... :)

[percussioneducation]

This video has to be from the 1980s. Ms. Abe looks really young in the video. It is too bad the audio is distorted.

[marimbamuse]

Thanks for uploading this - however it is only the first movement of the Sarmientos. Do you have the rest? Also, do you have the date of this performance?

[juanperc]

This is the Concertino for marimba and Orchestra of Jorge Alvaro Sarmientos a Composer from Guatemala I dont knew Keiko abe play this piece.Thanks for posting it !!

[yuanyilin]

Thank you very much for uploading this =)