Vibraslap

Not to be confused with Vibraphone.

The vibraslap is a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire (bent into a U-shape) connecting a wooden ball to a hollow box of wood. The percussionist holds the metal wire in one hand and strikes the ball (usually against the palm of their other hand). The box acts as a resonating body for a metal mechanism placed inside with a number of loosely fastened pins or rivets that vibrate and rattle against the box.^[1] The instrument is a modern version of the jawbone.^[2]

Vibraslap

A vibraslap manufactured by Latin Percussion

Latin Percussion vibraslap showing metal teeth

History

The vibraslap comes from the African jawbone instrument. This is the lower jawbone of a donkey or a zebra which has loose teeth that rattle when the instrument is struck.^[3] The instrument was carried by enslaved people to South America where it became known as the jawbone (quijada in Spanish).^[4] It became used in Latin American music in the ensuing centuries.

The modern vibraslap was invented by Martin Cohen in 1967.^{[5][better source needed]} Cohen was told by percussionist Bobby Rosengarden, "If you want to make some money, make a jawbone that doesn't break." About the inventing process, Cohen remembers, "I had never seen a jawbone before, but I had heard one on a Cal Tjader album. I found out that it was an animal skull that you would strike, and the sound would come from the teeth-rattling in the loose sockets. So I took that concept and invented the Vibraslap, which was my first patent."^[6] The vibraslap was the first patent granted to the instrument manufacturing company Latin Percussion.^[7]