congaplace.com

hello, i would just like to make some of my fellow hand drummers aware of the wonderful tradition of afro brazilian hand drumming.I sometimes feel it is overlooked in favour of afro cuban traditions by many in europe.There are many wonderful rhythms such as cabila ,samba de caboclo,barravento,congo,maculele,ijexa etc.These rhythms have been taken to high levels by many conga players in brazil and europe such as dudu tucci who is based in germany.Please let me know any opinions on this subject.

Hi there and welcome to the forum! :)
I can only answer from my personal point of view which probably doesn't rapresent any country here in europe (i live in italy).... my little experience as a conguero started few years ago with my friend and teacher Gilson Silvera who is brasilian... thanks to Gilson I discovered so many greats percussion instruments (pandeiro, ago-go, tambourine, cuica, surdo...) and I had the opportunity to learn such wonderful rhythms (I fully agree with you!) as samba de caboclo, barravento, congo, maculele, ijexa and others... then, few years later, I started a new adventure with my second teacher (and friend) Daniel Sanchez (Mexican) who helped me to enter into the afrocuban world of percussions and rhythms (since then I didn't know what the Tumbao technique was!).
What I would suggest now to anyone who wants to learn percussion is to try to have as many experiences as possible (we never stop to learn) and develope his own style... (just my modest opinion, may be I'm wrong!)
In anycase if you have the feeling that afrobrasilian is overlooked in favour of afrocuban tradition on CongaPlace site please let me know and I will happy to dedicate all the new updates to the great BRASIL!!
Keep in touch!

Thankyou for your reply on this subject.my feeling is that most congueros start off learning cuban grooves and many continue with this tradition ,sometimes unaware of the complexity and beauty of other traditions.I myself started the other way round.Firstly i discovered batucada,sambareggae,maracatu etc and then began to study atabaque rhythms from the candomble tradition.This then led to an obsession with congas and latin percussion, especially Cuban.I am currently studying bata,cajon,etc with a great teacher but still enjoy brasilian music and afro Brazilian percussion.I am also putting together a project fusing them both with Irish music [i am Irish].Let me hear your views on mixing styles.

I play in a samba bateria (http://www.lionsofbatucada.com) and have taken a few of my cuica patterns and adapted them for congas and bongos. But where can I get more afro-brasilian rhythms for congas? What recordings can I learn from, or books, websites? Thanks!

I have learned exclusively from videos. Unfortunately I have not come across one conga instructional video dedicated to Brazilian conga patterns. Can anyone please help me? I have about 20 conga videos and they all exclusively focus on afro-cuban patterns. I have a book on Brazilian percussion and it has very little on congas but I learn best from videos. Airto does not play congas on the videos I have for him. I am a jazz saxophonist and play many Jobim tunes and would like to learn patterns from Brazil. Please help, thanks and God Bless congueros everywhere!! Descarga........

unfortunatley there dosent seem to be any videos available for brazilian conga drumming,and most books are pretty poor when it comes to brazilian conga grooves.ed uribes essence of brazilian percussion and drum set offers very little in regard to conga grooves,offering only bland generic patterns with no back up information or even names for the rhythms except for 3 rhythms for an afoxe groove.this is in sharp contrast to his afro cuban book which i found to be very informative and comprehensive.cheers

Hello everybody,
my experience was not only based on cuban music. I am french and I can say the brasilian rythm are long-lived in France. I play cuban now but I started by the ngoma drum with a congolese master and the candomble rythm in the way of Gabi Guedes. There are many common roots with the Afro rythms of Cuba as the excellent cd Bata Ketu of Mike Spiro proves it.




(Edited by Laurent Lamy at 10:09 pm on Aug. 26, 2001)


(Edited by Laurent Lamy at 10:11 pm on Aug. 26, 2001)


(Edited by Laurent Lamy at 10:12 pm on Aug. 26, 2001)