Noon Tunes Summer Concert Series: Boka Marimba

The Noon Tunes Summer Concert Series returns for its 31st year on Tuesdays throughout June and July! From noon-1pm enjoy music from some of Portland's best regional and local musical talent. With seven FREE concerts, dancing, and some of Portland's favorite food vendors at Carts on the Square, Portland’s Living Room is sure to be Downtown’s summer lunchtime destinations. Sponsored by Pioneer Courthouse Square, Inc. 

About Boka Marimba

Boka Marimba is a ten-member dance band that plays exhilarating, positive-energy music from Zimbabwe and other areas of southeastern Africa. The music is in the Shona style: Melodic themes and variations layered in polyrhythmic, cyclic patterns. People, on hearing this music for the first time, have often described the feeling as one of coming home. Some have spoken of dancing for the first time in their lives, or for the first time ever out of the privacy of their living rooms. People of all ages respond with enthusiasm and delight. At one outdoor festival, an elderly gentleman came up and said, "This was some of the best entertainment of my life. I tried to stay seated, but finally had to get up and dance."

The band's instrumentation consists of seven marimbas (two sopranos, one alto, two tenors, a baritone, and a bass), gourd shakers called hosho, mbira ("thumb piano"), and drums. The songs are sung in the Shona language.