Album Notes

We are a group of friends and families living in the Flathead Valley of northwest Montana, that gather to play music on African style marimbas with roots in the polyrythmic mbira traditions of the Shona Tribe of Zimbabwe. Many of the tunes we play were brought to this country by Dumi Maraire who taught in the northwest of Washington. The rest are originals written by various band members or the group as a whole.

In 1985, members of the "Grin and Bear It String Clan" encountered the marimba version of this music at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, caught the spark, and the Tropical Montana Marimba Ensemble was born.