The Human
Hambone
by Mark Morgan, Director
First Run / Icarus Films, Brooklyn NY,
2005
VHS, 49 mins., col.
Sales (Video-DVD), $379; rental (Video),
$75
Distributor’s website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa
ballast@netins.net
The word "hambone" is slang for the venerable
practice of making instrumental music
without instruments, usually by rhythmically
slapping ones legs, thighs, chest and
so on. In this film, the term is used
in a wider sense, bringing in other phenomena
like mouth sounds, playing the spoons,
plus tap, step and other foot music. While
none of these may have originated in the
U.S., they were probably encouraged in
the 18th century (in response
to slave rebellions) by the forbidding
of slaves to use African drums. Denied
traditional methods, they did not stop
making music, but did it through improvisation
instead, by playing their bodies and singing.
One of the virtues of this film is the
measured and credible manner in which
it traces the historic use of body music,
in part by using excerpts from interviews
with historians. In addition, the narrative
talks about how rhythmic sound is closely
tied to our own clock-like body sounds,
such as our heartbeat, breathing, the
rhythm of jogging, and so on. But the
best and most delightful moments are found
in a wealth of voice-over performances
by a variety of hambone, tap and other
musicians, including Sam McGrier, Radioactive,
Click the Supah Latin, Sandy Silva, Artis
the Spoonman, and others. It really is
hard to imagine how anyone could come
away from these performances without a
sense of astonishment and, maybe, a new
understanding about racial unity. This
wonderful film, its press release asserts,
is "as entertaining as it is informative,"
and it truly is. Indeed, I suspect there
are very few films that would be of interest
to such a broad range of audiences, in
part because (as amply shown) all human
beings have rhythm, and virtually all
human beings have made some attempts at
body music.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review, Volume 21 Number
1, Autumn 2005.)
