Hear Kalimba King Carl Winters play the music that’s in your blood

Carl Winters, the Kalimba King, will be performing at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. This will be a free show for the entire family that will feature jazz, blues, pop, oldies, freedom and civil rights songs, and gospel played on 12 kalimbas (African thumb pianos). 

Winters will also include an educational component that includes a discussion of how kalimbas are used in African countries, a question and answer period, hands-on opportunities for participants to play the kalimbas, and handouts that illustrate how to make kalimbas.

In the 1970s, Winters was inspired to play the kalimba by Maurice White, founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. He has been playing festivals, universities, schools, churches, libraries, senior homes and special events for over three decades. Some past performances include the Smithsonian Institution, the Gullah Festival in South Carolina and the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

While teaching in the Oakland and Hayward school districts, Winters incorporated music into the curriculum, and his classes performed for TV and radio stations, the mayor of Hayward and in senior homes. Now a retired teacher, he still gives kalimba lessons and performs in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as across the country. Winters also assists with the Allen Temple Baptist Church Children’s Choir in Oakland. For more information, contact www.kalimbaking.com.