Armando Peraza

[Beatnik07]

I was listening to Mazacote by Mongo Santamaria. Wow !! truly amazing playing by Armando Peraza.

[Thomas Altmann]

Hi beatnik,

Armando was a fantastic drummer. However, I remember John Santos telling us that it was really Mongo who played bongo on this one (in addition to the congas). I can't remember where he got that information from.

Check out the colorful mastery of Armando on George Shearing's "Blue Malibu", a catchy /kitschy tune, but great bongo playing. I'm not even 100% sure that that's Armando, because I wasn't there, obviously. But since he played with Shearing regularly ...

Greetings,
Thomas

[jorge]

Hi beatnik,
... it was really Mongo who played bongo on this one (in addition to the congas). I can't remember where he got that information from.
Greetings, Thomas

I agree. I heard Mongo talking on the radio once and remember him saying he had injured his hand playing that bongo solo on Mazacote. Even though Mongo started out as a bongocero, in this performance, he switched from conga to bongo in the middle of the song just for the solo without adjusting his technique and was hitting the bongo like a conga. The bongo solo is definitely Mongo's style not Armando's style, and you can hear how hard he was hitting.
I think it was in that same interview Mongo called some of the percussionists in Central Park concussionists. He must have been commenting on the quality not the loudness of playing in the CP rumba, because Mongo was famous for his congas being the only instrument you could hear clearly from outside the Palladium, and that was without a microphone. He also had lots of problems with his hands in his later years. Dario, do you agree? Do you have any inside information on Mongo's playing on that cut?

[Thomas Altmann]

Dear Jorge,

the recording comes from a live session of the Cal Tjader group with Chombo Silva at the Blackhawk in late 1958. It became an LP for Tjader, but Mazacote was left out and later found its way onto a Mongo record. It was a completely improvised descarga. Mongo appeared as a "visiting guest artist"; he did not belong to the group. (Perhaps he was in the audience and was invited to sit in.)

I was waiting a bit to contribute this information, because you had adressed Dario, and as we all know, he knew Mongo personally. I, however, got this from a book about Vince Guaraldi. You can look it up at Google Books: "Vince Guaraldi at the Piano" [2012] by Derrick Bang, pg. 77.

Greetings,
Thomas

[jorge]

Very interesting. Thanks Thomas for that information.