The Comoro Islands

Gabus Player
16" x 10"
oil on canvas, 2011

I had never heard of the Comoro Islands until a few days ago. Scrolling through a list of the 196 "official" countries of the world, Comoros was the first one I had never heard of. This is why I used it as an example in a facebook posting on collecting folk music. This is what I wrote:

Thanks to Maria for dragging me in to those thrift stores. I added at least 7 more countries to my international folk collection this week. I now have gathered records from more than one hundred countries (there are officially 196 of them, so I'm more than half way to collect them all (but where the hell would I find a record from Comoros?)

 From several responses, the link to the LP Folk Music of the Comoro Islands (on Folkways, what other label could it be?) was the most interesting. I ordered the music as a download and now, suddenly, from an unknown, it is part of my collection of folk music from around the world and right away too, part of my Top 100 archive. The Shinzwani Love song with cabus that opens the record is irresistible in its charm. As with the cumbus player a few weeks ago, the publishers published a photo of the musician, but both photo and cabus player on the LP remain anonymous. Yet again a new instrument in my painting repertoire, I'll work on Cs I guess (as I love things in alphabetical order. The C is a big letter too in our spice rack: cumin, cinnamon, chili, cayenne, curry, cloves, chives, caraway, chicory, are all together there—be it not in that order). What will the next instrument be? I haven't painted chimes yet, or the irresistible clavichord? 

p.s. The instrument depicted above is not a cabus but a gabus. The text accompanying the music was hard to read. So much for painting instruments starting with a C.