Educational Media Reviews Online

Do you remember when you first heard and saw “Hambone”? Count yourself lucky if it was on somebody’s front porch, and among the fortunate few if one of your relatives introduced it to you in person. More likely, it was on film or TV, or for those of a certain age, after it had become a national hit on radio (!). Hambone is slap happy. Not quite a song (any accompanying tune is usually not more than a chant of two, three, or four notes), it’s mainly a form of spectacular rhythmic inventiveness, and truly must be seen to be fully appreciated. Once you’ve seen it, if you are of a certain frame of heartbeat, you are likely to want to do it yourself! DO try this at home, children, without giving yourselves bruises, please.

This engaging documentary attempts both a history of and a commentary on contemporary human use of body percussion to communicate: slap hands wherever they can reach, tap feet using whatever amplification available, filter breath through lip pouts and poufs, tongue clicks, and chattering teeth. As history, it fails: an introductory segment on movement’s ‘silent language’ invoking the work of Edward Hall goes nowhere, and a later clip attempting to trace this tradition to an American slave rebellion is unconvincing, but when practitioners of hambone are introduced, their testimony compels attention. Black and white, male and female, young and old, all do their thing and speak about what it means to them. Some practices are homey, others showy. Campus fraternity ‘yard steppers’ create community, street tappers give cities a unified beat, if only one corner at a time. “We’re all drummers,” says one enthusiast, “It’s music,” assures another, “No one is sad” doing hambone, all seem to agree. “Beatbox” practice may be new to older viewers. Male practitioners impersonate mechanistic rhythm machines, and make far more human sounds. This puts me in mind of Steve Reich’s reaction against using electronic devices to express his percussive music – he’d much rather hear individual quirks introduced by human performers. This video does not cover the huge variety of hard shoe dancing among the world’s cultures, but does have a segment on playing spoons.

Excellent editing and judicious use of voice-over keep viewer interest focused. For example, one performer may start a routine and fast cutting to other performers will keep the same ‘beat’ going through a variety of techniques. Hambone is action and sound, movement and music, and the self-accompanied dance aspects of it are visually arresting even when someone demonstrates his ‘human lawnmower’ technique, which, he admits, can look ridiculous.

For programs in school and public libraries and college classes in folk music and dance.