1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Let's discuss about the origin and history of this beautiful instrument...

1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:01 pm

I bought this old Cuban tack head at the Englishtown N.J. outdoor auction in 1979 (when I was 26).
The "Englishtown Auction" was and still is a massive (3 football fields long) outdoor and indoor flea market In Englishtown, New Jersey.
I went early at 6:30 ot 7:00am... you know "the early bird get's the worm"... the Englishtown auction (flea market) is so BIG that they have dirt streets with names that you walk through to get around.
I was at the crossroads of two streets... when I looked down one of the streets and from a distance... all the way at the end of the dirt street, I saw a vendor with a tall black drum on a table, for sale.

I thought "holey crap, I wonder if it's an old Cuban drum!" I headed straight for it and when I got up close, I saw it was a tall black stained Cuban tack head! I didn't want the seller to see how excited I was, so I started looking at other stuff on his table, but eventually asked if I could look inside it, he said sure.
I took it off the table, turned it upside down and looked inside... I saw a "Solis, Havana-Cuba" sticker and knew I had to buy it. I paid $40.00 for it and took it back to my Aunt's place in Freehold N.J.

Upon close inspection of the surface of the head/skin, I saw the faded words stamped on the skin:
"Manny's Music 46th street New york City 1948".
So I knew that the drum had been brought back from Havana sometime in the 1940's... then in 1948, the owner must have taken it to Manny's music store to have a new skin put on.

I took the drum back to New Orleans where I was living back then.
I had the drum from 1979 to 1986, when I moved back to N.Y.C. in '86, I gave the drum to a Cajun guy who had been taking lessons with me. These many years later, I regret giving it away.

These pictures were taken in front of my Aunt's place the same day I bought it.
Attachments
Tack1.jpg
The drum, me and my Mom - 1979
Tack2.jpg
The drum, my cousin, my Aunt and me - 1979 Yea, dumb shot but my Mom told us to pose like that.
Tack3.jpg
This was 1980, I had started to remove the black stain, but never finished the job.
1980 New Orleans, about 6 months after the "Mariel boat exodus" from Havana, the guy playing it and his brother holding my Chekeré both came on a boat from Cuba.
The guy next to me is playing the first S.O.S. Ash drum I owned back then,
His name is 'Hector Gallardo' a killer Cuban multi percusionist who played bongoes EXACTLY like 'Yeyito Iglesias'.
Vintage, classic and contemporary Cuban tumbadoras a.k.a. congas and bongoes made in Cuba:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1418352131820747/
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:21 pm

Chano Pozo with his tack heads.
Attachments
Chano Pozo 1947.JPG
Chano Pozo - 1947
Chano Pozo & Art Blakey1948.jpg
Chano Pozo & Art Blakey - 1948
Chano y Dizzy.jpg
Chano Pozo and Dizzy G.- 1947, '48
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby pavloconga » Mon Dec 06, 2010 9:10 pm

Great story and thanks for sharing.
I love the cheesy photo your mum got you to pose for... it was the 70's after all. :)
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby roberthelpus » Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:05 pm

pavloconga wrote:Great story and thanks for sharing.
I love the cheesy photo your mum got you to pose for... it was the 70's after all. :)


Yes it is a great story. That cheesy photo looks like it could be for a 70's sitcom promo or opening credits.
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Anonimo » Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:17 pm

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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Jerry Bembe » Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:59 am

Hey,

Thank you for sharing this. It is important for us to know where the music has been so to understand where it is going.

I have been diggin' these ole' tackheads myself. Just the old cheap ones off Ebay. I have been surprized a fewtimes with the tone produced by thes humble instruments. I have fine congas too by the great hand builders of today but I personally feel a spiritual connection to these old tackheads. I feel that they take me back and put me in touch with our ancecestor congueros. (even though I am an Anglo-Suburban conguero, I have had a transplant ya know :lol: )

If a player can make music with humble instruments then how much more potential he has with the fine instruments of today. I am a strong believer of this principal.

Keep it fun,

Jerry
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:21 am

leedy2 wrote:Markito
Mannys was 48th street not 46th hahaha


Ahhhhh... si, verdad, just two streets off. jajaja!
I do a gig once a week on 46th... I must have had that # in my mind. :roll:
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:28 am

roberthelpus wrote:
pavloconga wrote:Great story and thanks for sharing.
I love the cheesy photo your mum got you to pose for... it was the 70's after all. :)


Yes it is a great story. That cheesy photo looks like it could be for a 70's sitcom promo or opening credits.


Yea.... the sitcom "Three's Company" hahaha!
Both me and my cousin were wearing 'bell-bottom' pants... and I still had hair on my head back then. :lol:
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Omelenko1 » Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:04 pm

Hector Gallardo, nicknamed Kun- Fu, is a great percussionist. In the late 80's he visited Miami and came over my house, I still had my radio show on WDNA. He is a great bongocero, plays great conga. When he played my Humberto Morales timbales, he played them backwards, like lefties should, he had the macho to his left and would tap the macho with his left hand while he played the bell, is suppose to be the hemra on the left and the macho on the right for right handed players. Still he got a great sound out of them.

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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Ernesto Pediangco » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:24 pm

A wonderful discovery ! You lucked out ! I wonder how thick or thin the staves are & if there is any evedence of it ever having metal tuning hard wares earlier ? If you notice Chano Pozo's tack head drum is very mis shapened from bein thin and the tension of the head added to how the drum head warped to the shape it had at the time the photo was taken. Personaly, I never cared for Cuban made stave drums. The mediocre wood quality & species, the crude construction and designs over all are just not of value to me aside from nostalgia. The Nationalized company that makes Cuban congas for local use & for tourist industry, is not very special or well developed. Its just a funky wood shop / metal shop cranking out a product and providing a job for who ever is in line for the gig. Same as any factory using cheap labor but not nessesarily staffed my masterful craftsmen and specialized machinist. I founf Congas & Bata made in Peru that were superior to Cuban made. The same is true of Colombia,Venezuela & Brazil. Its a matter of finding, setting up purcheas & transport, since the economy makes it hard to import and market these Latin American products. Its a shame & an insult to Latin America that Asians build and sell the instruments of Afro / Latin heritage. Cuba & U.S. relations is also shameful & insulting !
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:52 pm

Ernesto Pediangco wrote:A wonderful discovery ! You lucked out ! I wonder how thick or thin the staves are & if there is any evedence of it ever having metal tuning hard wares earlier ? If you notice Chano Pozo's tack head drum is very mis shapened from bein thin and the tension of the head added to how the drum head warped to the shape it had at the time the photo was taken. Personaly, I never cared for Cuban made stave drums. The mediocre wood quality & species, the crude construction and designs over all are just not of value to me aside from nostalgia. The Nationalized company that makes Cuban congas for local use & for tourist industry, is not very special or well developed. Its just a funky wood shop / metal shop cranking out a product and providing a job for who ever is in line for the gig. Same as any factory using cheap labor but not nessesarily staffed my masterful craftsmen and specialized machinist. I founf Congas & Bata made in Peru that were superior to Cuban made. The same is true of Colombia,Venezuela & Brazil. Its a matter of finding, setting up purcheas & transport, since the economy makes it hard to import and market these Latin American products. Its a shame & an insult to Latin America that Asians build and sell the instruments of Afro / Latin heritage. Cuba & U.S. relations is also shameful & insulting !



Saludos Ernesto, "the Nationalized company that makes Cuban congas for local use & for tourist industry" has nothing to do with the drum or types of 1940's drums this post refers to.
You mention: "any evidence of it ever having metal tuning hardware earlier ?".... no, nobody "took off metal hardware and retrofitted/converted it" to a "tack head".

The drum shown in the above post at the beginning of this thread was made in the 1940's, referred to as a "tack head" because this is what was played back then, the drum never had metal tunable hardware.
The reason the head of drum is "out of round" that Chano is playing is that it was brought from a tropical climate (Cuba) to New York City, where the climate/temperature change was drastically different and caused the drums of the 1940's to warp. Additionally... those drums were tuned before and during hundreds of gigs by using cans of Sterno (fire).
(Chano Pozo didn't play drums that were made for tourists.)

The late Mongo Santamaria, Tommy Lopez, Frank Colon, Willie Bobo, Chonguito, Chino Pozo and Chano Pozo all played and recorded with the so called "tack heads" for years and they sounded great.
I'm sure none of them ever complained about their axe's being "mediocre wood quality & species, or the crude construction and designs".
Attachments
Chino Pozo y Chonguito.jpg
Chonguito & Chino Pozo playing tack heads (with Tito Rodriguez y Su Orq.)
Marcelino GuerraOrq.jpg
Wilie Bobo playing a tack head (with Marcelino Guerra y Su Orq.)
Manny_Charlie_Mongo.jpg
Manny O., Charlie P, & Mongo Santamaria playing his tack head.
Frank Colon y Chino Pozo.jpg
Frank Colon playing his tack head, Chino Pozo playing his tacks. (with Tito Puente y Su Orq.)
Vintage, classic and contemporary Cuban tumbadoras a.k.a. congas and bongoes made in Cuba:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1418352131820747/
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby FidelsEyeglasses » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:04 pm

Manny Oquendo, Lil' Ray Romero and Tommy Lopez playing tacks.
Attachments
Manny Oquendo, Lil Ray, Tommy Lopez.jpg
Manny Oquendo, Lil' Ray Romero and Tommy Lopez playing tacks
Vintage, classic and contemporary Cuban tumbadoras a.k.a. congas and bongoes made in Cuba:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1418352131820747/
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Omelenko1 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:52 am

Cuban stave congas, especially Vergaras is what Mongo played well into the 90's. Meinl gave Mongo a good chunk of money for them to use his name, but he always preferred his Cuban Vergaras from the late 50's. Jay Bereck (SOS) made a set of congas for Mongo and Mongo kept on playing his Vergaras. Vergara congas sounded like no other, maybe because the staves came from cured wine barrels from Spain. Tommy Saito, a Japanese conga player from San Diego has Mongo's Vergaras, I helped Mongo ship them to him in 2002, a few months before he passed on Feb. 1, 2003.

Mongo with is Vergaras, la roja pa' Chango (the red one for Chango) as he used to say. MONGO LIVES!

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Mongo and Dizzy.jpg
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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Anonimo » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:29 pm

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Re: 1940's Cuban tack head I bought in 1979

Postby Anonimo » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:37 pm

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