Guys,
I accepted a bongo pupil recently who taught himself with YouTube, mentioning the same sources that you brought up. He was completely misled. Not necessarily because the youtubers were doing wrong, but because there was no one to correct him or giving him an idea of what is primarily important in music. His sound was below anything acceptable, for example.
I never watched the instructional videos of Michael Miranda or Eric Perez, no matter how good they are. I watched Dandy, Manny Oquendo (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms-14M4sZ3U), Frank Oropesa (for Septeto style), and anything by Orestes Vilato and Jimmy Delgado. Once there have been short clips of Ray Romero demonstrating the martillo the way he learned it from Chano Pozo, but they seem to be gone by now. That was a treasure, and Ray Romero was very good, as can be verified on one video with Giovanni. I saw him live with the Machito orchestra in 1982. When I go through YouTube, I do so for inspiration, connecting with the history, the tradition. It adds to, and complements what I have already learned so far. One day, when you finally consult an experienced player for classes, you might find yourself in the need to start all over again from zero.
Of course there are other great bongoceros that have not been mentioned. Roberto García was good. He played with everybody from Bebo Valdés to Emiliano Salvador to Afro-Cuban All Stars. Then there are the Puerto Ricans, like Roberto Roena and others. These are the people that I would check out - before Antoni Carrillo.
Santiago /Oriental style is different. I never studied that. Changüí
tampoco.
As I said, I don't know Eric Perez. If he or somebody else is playing "wrong" in clave, he might be inadvertantly doing so, or he follows the style of Papa Kila (with Arsenio Rodríguez). It would be silly to say Papa Kila or Yeyito played wrong
.
I think I have said everything I could say. Wishing you success,
Thomas