Space Harp
electrified lamellophone invented by Phil Cohran
The space harp, also known as a frankiphone, is an electrified lamellophone invented by Phil Cohran as part of a musicological experiment exploring his African roots. He named it after his mother, Frankie. It was first recorded during his tenure with Sun Ra on his album "Angels and Demons at Play".
Later recordings of the space harp include his work in the 1960s with The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, now available on the album entitled On the Beach. This album consists of recordings of The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, which included a number of well known musicians including Don Myrick (horn player with Earth, Wind and Fire), Pete Cosey (guitarist with Miles Davis) and "Master" Henry Gibson (studio percussionist for Motown). Released in 2007, the entire album revolves around the rhythmic and harmonic stylings of the space harp.
References
Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Angels and Demons at Play. Saturn SR 9956-2-0/P (between 1963 and 1967); Saturn LP 407; Impulse AS 9245 (1974); Evidence (1993). (Possibly the first recording of an electrified thumb piano.)
Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 8, 2021. The linked authority identifier is Q7572372. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007, 1963, 1967 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “Space Harp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.