Adolfo Arias
The musician, the inventor, the Man.

By: Cesar Vasconcelos

I first met Adolfo Arias when I went to a jamming section in Mountain View.   I had met a mutual friend met Brad Hamilton. A group of people from a diverse background regularly meets to play percussion instruments. That's when I met Adolfo. Aldolfo is an interesting remarkable guy. He is very tall, very strong and extremely lively and loves to engage you in friendly chat, especially if the topic is about his favorite passion music.

This Peruvian grow up listening to Samba, Jazz and Afro-Peruvian Music. "When I was young my family would travel a lot. Every year was a new adventure we would pile up in the family car and head in a different direction and spend time in a different country every year, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.   We didn't just go sight seeing my father had friends everywhere we went." "we must have seen the Vienna boys choir in at least 7 different countries, during the rest of the year aside from going to school I took piano and accordion lessons for 3 years. One day he decided that, he wanted to give it up to undertake other activities, as a teenager he thought that he owed it to himself, and his father accommodated him by letting him quit. One of his very few regrets in his life to have given up music so early.   It has been a while since I last seen him, but as luck will have it, I went to a news's year party at the Senzala restaurant in Sunnyvale, where   I run into Adolfo again.   I could not help by see Adolfo standing next to a very unusual instrument. Being inquisitive I approached him and asked. What the heck was this Aldofo? He smiled broadly and promptly started to   showed me his latest invention.    

Check it out he said. It's a Tamborica" or tamborim. I said what the heck? He calmly explained that, " A few weeks ago another great friend and teacher dropped of a couple of instruments for me to fix, one of them the Tamborica tree, as I sat there looking at it and what needed to be fixed on it, I decided I could improve on its original design and materials, so after I fixed it. Aldofo used his best tools to reverse engineer the instrument, and better yet to   improve up it.   His "Bola Tamborica" is currently being featured as the instrument of the month at www.espiritodrums.com ."

Bola Tamborica is "a drum machine of sorts designed to play multiple tamborims at the same time by a single player". Who can use such instrument I asked?   He said that, this type of   instrument can be best utilized for studio recordings and small stage shows where a whole line up of tamborim players could not be accommodated.    Adolfo finalized our conversation by stating that he will continue to try to make whatever it takes to make a functional instrument as long as it is cost effective, and contribute to the growth of the Samba community the best he can.

Adolfo Arias
The musician, the inventor, the Man.

By: Cesar Vasconcelos

I first met Adolfo Arias through mutual friend Brad Hamilton at a jam session in Mountain View. Here a group of people from diverse backgrounds regularly meet to play percussion instruments. Aldolfo is an interesting   and remarkable man. He is very tall, very strong, extremely lively and loves to engage you in friendly chat, especially if the topic revolves around his favorite passion, which is music.

The Peruvian Adolfo grew up listening to Samba, Jazz and Afro-Peruvian Music. "When I was young my family would travel a lot. Every year was a new adventure - we would pile up in the family car and head in a different direction and spend time in a different country every year, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.   We didn't just go sight-seeing as my father had friends everywhere we went. We must have seen the Vienna boys choir in at least seven different countries.   During the remainder of the year aside from going to school I took piano and accordion lessons for three years." One day a teenaged Adolfo decided that he wanted to give his music practice up in order to undertake other activities and his father accommodated him by letting him quit. One of his very few regrets in his life is to have given up music so early.  

It had been a while since I had last seen Adolfo, but as luck would have it, I went to a new year's party at the Senzala restaurant in Sunnyvale, where   I run into Adolfo again.   I could not help but notice that Adolfo was standing next to a very unusual instrument. Being inquisitive I approached him and asked, "what the heck was this Aldofo?" He smiled broadly and promptly showed me his latest invention.    

"Check it out," he said. "It's a Tamborica or tamborim."

I asked, "what the heck?"

Adolfo calmly explained it to me. "A few weeks ago another great friend and teacher dropped of a couple of instruments for me to fix, one of them the Tamborica tree. As I sat there looking at it and what needed to be fixed on it, I decided I could improve on its original design and materials after I fixed it." Aldofo used his best tools to reverse engineer the instrument, and better yet to   improve it.   His "Bola Tamborica" is currently being featured as the instrument of the month at www.espiritodrums.com ."

The Bola Tamborica is a drum machine of sorts designed so that a single player can play multiple tamborims at the same time. I asked Adolfo who would be likely to use such an instrument?   He replied that this type of   instrument is best utilized in studio recordings and small stage shows where a whole lineup of tamborim players could not be accommodated.    Adolfo ended our conversation by promising that he will continue to do his best to make whatever it takes to make a cost-effecting and functional instrument which can contribute to the growth of the Samba community.