Rhythm in a box: The story of the cajon drum - Paul Jennings

[@basdegroot8412]

It's hard to take my drumset anywhere but the cajon is the perfect instrument to bring to jam sessions with friends. Never felt limited by the cajon's capability

[@gaetanomusic]

The Cajón is a great instrument with a long story. The video states that the strings were added as an invention outside Perú, when in Trujillo and Arequipa in the 1950's cajones were already being made and sold with strings inside, although not used by most players at the time.

[@mkn.567]

very true. Peruvians were already experimenting with different versions of the cajon when paco de lucia "discovered" it. It is necessary to mention this because it helps to avoid a typical narrative in colonial history of "then the european's improved upon a primitive indigenous thing." love flamenco, but it didn't reinvent the cajon or made any significant modification. It propagated its existence and use.

[@VidelaArg]

@Mario I recommend you listen to the "festejo" of Peru, It is a genre where the cajon looks good :)

[@mrp123123123]

Sound hole is to tune the resonance of the enclosure, not for sound to escape. It will emit sound with or without a hole.

[@cristinallanos4845]

Very nice! (Im Peruvian).

[@alejandrogiha7583]

In Peru is mandatory to learn the basics of cajon in primary school.

[@AdrianCuyubambaDiaz]

Lol no

[@Angie-ze6yx]

i love ted-ed and especialy when it does cartoon with its lectures cause it looks adorable i love the artist style :) sorry i know its irrelevant to the lesson buts i just had to put that out their

[@abcd43373]

¡Good one! Greetings from Perú~

[@davidmortara]

This TED talk regurgitates a point of view that is popular and romantic, saying that the cajón starts with West Africa. Not so. People confuse the development of the instrument, which grew out of an earlier tradition in Peru of drumming on the carcass of a harp as a percussive accompaniment, assuming that it must simply be an extension of a musical tradition that comes from somewhere in continental Africa, just because “Africa is drums” - right? That is pure conjecture for which there is little actual evidence, while there is plenty of pictorial and documented evidence that the cajón evolved from the need for a percussion instrument when the harp fell out of fashion in Lima and was replaced by the guitar. There was already a drumming tradition in existence among pre-colombian cultures in Peru. Besides, the cajón only starts becoming popular in Lima during the early to mid 19th century. There is no evidence to say that the cajón was an instrument that developed on slave ships or during the time of the conquistadors. That is fantasy. It makes no appearance in the CODEX of Peruvian culture commissioned by the Archbishop of Trujillo in 1782, or in the watercolours of Pancho Fierro painted around 1820, whereas other drums - now fallen into disuse in Peru - which can be identified as having an equivalent in Africa - such as log drums - actually do appear. Note, I am not saying that some of Lima’s “black” communities are not expert in playing cajón - they are. But then, the cajón also had expert criollo practitioners - Mono Aristedes, Pepe Ezeta and Gancho Arciniega, for instance. All I am saying is that this TED talk at its beginning is not historically correct. It makes assumptions that are based upon popular misconceptions of the cajón as an instrument that evolved out of Africa and on slave-ships, without reference to any documentary evidence that exists in Peru.

[@playcajon]

+David Mortara Thank you for your comment and for adding to the discussion. This is an educational video lesson that teaches the popular and widely accepted history of the cajon in order to bring more awareness of this fantastic instrument and inspire new players of the cajon. All of the points in the video were fact checked to the best of our abilities. Sure, some of the parts of the story of the cajon are speculative and somewhat a matter of interpretation. You could say the same thing about the story of the dinosaurs. Nevertheless there is a story to be told and one that with time, will change I am sure. For right now though, this is a short, fun video that tells the story and introduces the cajon and the Afro-Peruvian culture to a new audience. All the best, Paul Jennings.

[@davidmortara]

+Play Cajon Hi Paul, well here are some authoritative sources; so if people watching your video want to find out more about the history of the cajón they can check these out: TOMPKINS. W D, [1981] The Musical Traditions of the Blacks of Coastal Peru. UCLA. SANTA-CRUZ. R, [2001] El Cajón Afroperuano, Cocodrillo Verde, Lima. FELDMAN. H C, [2007] Black Rhythms of Peru. Wesleyan University Press. All of these studies have to address a reality - slaves from the African continent (and via the Caribbean) arrived in Peru stripped of everything except their personal memory. Even collective memory - expressed in identity and culture - faded within a generation, as blacks sought to integrate themselves into the host society. The cajón facilitates a means of reconstructing a sense of the connection that has been lost, which is why people are so intent on linking the instrument with Africa despite the pictorial and documentary evidence suggesting otherwise. Fact is, there is no cajón tradition in Africa that predates Peru and the cajón in Peru is at most around 200 years old. I agree that the cajón is a wonderful, expressive instrument. I have been researching about it and playing it for half my life, since 1991, and its appeal is in its simplicity - especially in its Peruvian form, which (unlike the form that developed later, in Spain) has no resonating snare wires inside. Literally, the sound is “in the hands” of the player - the cajonero or cajonista. Where are you based, Paul and how did you become interested in cajón? Do you teach and perform? Perhaps, you are a cajón builder?

[@kentakagi5214]

rip lol

[@davidmortara]

Looking at my original comment five years later, I can see that I was being very harsh. +Paul Jennings is a very nice person who, as a result of the resulting dialogue below, asked to interview me for his PlayCajon channel talking about Peruvian percussion instruments and their very interesting histories.

[@kentakagi5214]

@@davidmortara if it was apocryphal, then your criticism was valid. i've written a short essay on african american music and had included similar info about africans bringing over their influences and instrument knowledge.. which i now find to be in doubt (although i haven't done any further research yet)

[@oscarfernandoofpublicnature]

The spanish plural for CAJON is CAJONES, ...cool lesson!

[@guersomfalcon7544]

Viva Peru carajo

[@nelsonwk9367]

Alex Acuña was the man that made this instrument popular.

[@rollon613]

Yes, in North America.

[@luismartinsantacruzcartage4734]

AMAZING CULTURE PERU!

[@eltanquedecasma1184]

🇵🇪

[@brendanweaver224]

Very cool video. The creators should make a Spanish language version as well.

[@ayaha7883]

Looks like they use the app 53 pages or something like that I can tell because of the utensils they used on the app

[@peruchocool1930]

My afroperuvian culture, i'm proud :)

[@Evolutionmine16]

0:44 I'm certain slaves didn't have that much room on the ship. The slave ships were described as crowded, humid, and dark (as the slaves were held below deck most of the time). I do really like the cajon, though. I have a mini one that I can play it in a similar way as one would a bongo. It has a wide range of sounds, which is really interesting to experiment with alone or in a group. I'm in a band, so, in coffee houses especially, we usually don't bring a full drum set with us.

[@Evolutionmine16]

*that I can play in a similar

[@miileeme]

Am I the only one who thinks that Avi's illustrations look a lot like Quentin Blake's works in Roald Dahl's books?

[@commente]

these animations indeed do

[@NiTheGod]

never heard of this until this video

[@danieltokaryev7505]

Learned how to pay the cajon to CCM.

[@kellymendozan]

I love the music :D Greetings from Perú :D Excellent video :D

[@teresabassas5669]

"With respect to the comment whether it does not originally come from Africa, I would like to say that the cajon was originated in peruvian people of black and slave origin. It is therefore difficult to believe that the cajón is a traditional instrument. On the other hand and to add a little more to this great story of the origins of cajón, the new sound of this instrument arrived here in Spain thanks to Rubén Dantas and MANOLITO SOLER (bailaor in that famous Paco de Lucia tour). Apparently the cajón they brought to Spain was faulty or broken from the frontal part, so from here all the first cajón players like me, we tried to make cajones that were "faulty" or "broken" at the upper part of the instrument. We even used to put sand bags stuck in that upper part to achieve the right pitch (that of a broken cajón). With time, luthiers started using snare and base guitar strings. " I have translated these comments from my husband Juan, thanks Ted Ed for making this video.

[@mkn.567]

Please... it can just as easily be argued then that Flamenco isn't "traditional" to spain, since spain didn't have it until the moors conquered them and infused their musical influence. Nobody in peru tries to take away the credit from the africans for inventing and developing this instrument and music but the point is that the cajon IS peruvian as much as flamenco IS spaniard. And even adding the strings wasn't a spanish invention. People in peru had been toying with the design of the cajon since the 50's, but since the original purpose of the cajon was to accompany african rhythms and clean valses, the traditional design was generally preferred

[@yaroslavleshchukh]

Wow :-) Thank you guy's for interesting story about cajon. You made my day :-)

[@melissalourdesenriquez]

Viva el Perú ❤

[@rollon613]

"But the basic concept remains the same".

[@alwinbenjamin]

❤️❤️

[@lunarglitch1318]

I'm only watching this for drums of thunder at hillside

[@zorsee.]

ITS YOUR BOY, OLIVIA FROM MUSIC CLASS. (hi)

[@kc5onyoutubification]

0:34 Ameridote

[@alonsozapata5651]

Marco Aurelio Denegri is real the 'cajonística' expert

[@patriciahuarhua6370]

🥁cajon

[@DJAIV]

Juzzie Smith

[@Markus9705]

Why are Africans white in this video? :O

[@mc_dibia]

west africans are so musically inclined

[@eduardodominguez6579]

He pronounces it like "ball".... CAH jon ... Not cojon XD

[@Lostpanda123]

Why are Africans painted in white? 0:55 weird...

[@KriAsb]

Colour is not the same as ethnicity

[@Lostpanda123]

KriAsb agree... but indigenous south africans had not not white or brown colored skin... therefore technically the coloring in the animation is wrong...

[@Matiburon04]

Notice white skin is just unpainted, so everything is washed out

[@DJAIV]

they were southerners

[@Lostpanda123]

Morgan Alston lets say that caramel is quite exiting! ;)

[@limbus_patrum]

I know what it is harpsichord, trembita and jew's harp but I never heard about this "most popular percussion instrument".

[@jeaor22]

First!

[@PoliceOfficer-nb8zy]

First???!!!!

[@bloxywhale814]

Rubish