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Abuelo
 His name is really Cristino Aleman Murillo, but everyone knows him as
"Abuelo". The 94 year old
marimba player is the star attraction on the Calypso Cruise to the private
reserve, Punta Coral, Costa Rica. "Abuelo" (Grandpa) has 17 children and 107
grandchildren and this is the reason for his nickname. Every day "Abuelo" would
walk the sidewalk along the beach in the Pacific Port City of Puntarenas and ask
tourists sitting in restaurants and bars if they would like him to play for them.
He did this for 40 years. One afternoon when leaving a restaurant.
David and Cecelia Reid, the founders of Calypso Tours, saw him and asked him
to play a tune. After he finished, they were so impressed that they offered him
a job. He was always asked to play at, fiestas and celebrations but not until he
started working for Calypso Tours did he have a steady job. When asked to play
at a party today, his answer is always "no". Why? If you ask "Abuelo" he will
tell you, "All these nice people (referring to the many employees and the
founders of Calypso Tours) are my family now, and I will play only for them".
 His marimba is an
instrument made of wooden bars graduated in length so as to sound the notes of
the scale when struck with mallets. Abuelo plays his homemade marimba using four
sticks, two in each hand. "I can play with five, but I am better with four," he will tell you without a hint of bravado. He cannot read or write music but
swears that after he hears a piece of music played he has memorized the tune.
Underneath the wooden bars are pvc pipes in graduated lengths. At the bottom of
each pipe there is a tiny hole and surrounding each hole are layers of wild bees
wax. Abuelo carries a small baby food jar and inside are 1 inch squares of dried
pig bladder. With a special tool, he made himself, Abuelo carefully presses the
piece of pig bladder onto the beeswax, covering the hole by pressing firmly to
stick it into place. This gives the marimba it’s unique sound. The wooden bars
are made of Balsamo wood (a very hard wood that grows in Costa Rica) and cut
into thin rectangles, two inches wide. Abuelo carves the underneath of each key
with an old pocket knife until it gives him the tone he wants when he hits it
with his mallet.
The mallets are thin round sticks, thinner than a pencil and about sixteen
inches long, and at the end of each stick is a ball of black, semi hard raw
rubber. Abuelo boasts that in his younger days he climbed trees in the jungle to
look for the wild bee’s wax and tapped the rubber trees to get the rubber for
his mallets. He has friends that get him the raw ingredients today, but the
assembly of all the necessary parts to make the marimba he still does himself.
Whenever he is asked how he remains in good health, Abuelo answers, " Years ago,
when I first started working for David and Cecelia, their daughter Celiece (
then 6 years old), gave me a dollar bill. She told me to put it in my wallet and
keep it with me always and this would bring me good luck." There are very few
marimba players left in Costa Rica today. Most of the musicians are old men, not
as old as Abuelo however. None of the younger generation seems to have an
interest in learning this Costa Rican instrument. Abuelo knows and plays songs
long forgotten, some as old as 200 years. For the first time in his 89 years,
Abuelo has recorded some of his favorite tunes. They are friendly, easy to
listen to and played from the heart of a wonderful gentleman.
Abuelo, now 93, has retired, but he's not forgotten.
| Abuelo's CD |
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This album was recorded live during an afternoon banquet at the
private biological reserve Punta Coral. It has not been edited in anyway.
Great pains have been taken to preserve the natural ambience of this
tropical paradise. If you listen closely you can even hear the native
birds. Purchasing this CD directly helps us to preserve the paradise here
in Costa Rica. Stay involved, visit our website, tell your friends and
visit us again. To order your CD send an email to:
abueloCD@puntacoral.com |
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