Re: MONGO SANTAMARIA
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 5:52 pm
davidpenalosa wrote:Here's Mongo playing with the Temptations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBxFTzxc0Bo
Mongo Santamaria plays congas on the hit "Cloud Nine" by the Temptations. This is an example of Afro-Cuban rhythm seamlessly blended with funk. Mongo is playing a conga de comparsa, or mozambique-type tumbao here.
-David
Thanks for posting that link, I didn't know Mongo had played with the Temptations. I hadn't heard that song for probably 30 years. Listening to it now, it sounds almost like they are doing an advertisement for getting high rather than a social commentary against it.
But the conga part Mongo is playing on that piece sounds like a straight ahead marcha to me, with a few fill-ins and at the end, going down to the tumba every measure rather than every other measure. I don't hear either conga de comparsa or mozambique.