Whoops!  Opening my mail in the wrong direction again.  Good memory,
Andrew; this group you saw was Steve Turre and the Sanctified Shells. And
the Syrinx was the same one I mentined in my post of a few minutes ago. (I
bet the Syrinx wasn't sinistral on "unday Morning"!)  The group is not
Latin American but does look it, and Steve has Mexican blood. I'll quote
from the article again, on how he began playing shells:
 
"In 1978, while he was performing with Woody Shaw in Mexico City, some of
Turre's relatives came to hear him. After the concert, I went to their
house," he reminisced with obvious pleasure.  "They told me that our
ancestors used to play sounds on the seashells. Then I went to Teotihuacan,
and I saw a carving on the way of this Aztec priest playing one."
 
That was the start of his career playing shells. The last album I know of,
"Steve Turre,"   "has achieved a full assimilation of shell sounds"  by
including the shells with trombones, trumpets, African and Cuban
percussion, piano, trap drums, saxophone, guitar, mallets (both marimba abd
vibraphone) a string quartet and vocalists! 31 musicians playing  in
combination with shell horns.
 
Lynn in Derby City again
 
 
 
>  Andrew Vik
>Tampa, FL., USA.
>[log in to unmask] & Peta: A couple years back on TV, I saw a
>Latin-American jazz band that used nothing but seashells as instruments.
>The largest instrument was a Syrinx aruanus used as a bass. I saw this band
>on the CBS Sunday Morning program with Charles Osgood. I didn't think to
>turn on the VCR, but I think that CBS would have a copy of the program
>available.