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Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:55 am
by KidCuba
Any pictures of Conga de Comparsa sartenes out there? Looking for some design examples to build a set...

Gracias!

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 6:26 pm
by RitmoBoricua
Since sarten roughly translate to frying pan from spanish to english.
Can you use one of those cast iron frying pans?

On the following video I see two guys holding what seems
to be cast iron frying pans with no handles.Around 3:55 you can
clearly see the (2) guys near the guy playing the chinese cornet holding
the pans and hitting them with a metal stick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH0BWxxqpfk

This video comes to show what it can be done
with tin cans and such things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SYk22a6zFM

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:40 pm
by KidCuba
Thanks for the links...

I was aware they are frying pans, just looking for some mounting/strap ideas...

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:23 pm
by jorge
No frying pans, those are brake drums that they use in the conga in Santiago, I don't think they use frying pans anymore in the conga Santiaguera. You can see the brake drums more clearly at 1:20-1:25. They weigh a ton but sound good and give a very characteristic flavor to the rhythm.

The frying pans are used more in current day conga Habanera. There are 2 small frying pans, chosen for their different pitches, mounted on a little wood table that you strap around your waist and played with 2 sticks like a guagua. You can see glimpses of that in this clip at 5:02, 5:50, and 7:32. The ones I have played were mounted open side down, that way sounds fine and doesn't destroy your sticks. Play soft (hard to do) or use hearing protectors! This is an instrument that can quickly cause permanent hearing damage to you or others around you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-ZqWfhhSo

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:35 pm
by RitmoBoricua
I thought I saw drum brakes in another video
of comparsa but no problem we can add
"drum brakes" to the list of percussion
instruments. Thanks for the correction
"Medico De La Rumba" plus you just
saved my big iron cast frying pan I was
eyeballing :)

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:53 pm
by jorge
The sartenes sound and rhythm patterns are very different from the brake drum sound and rhythm patterns. In modern day comparsas the brake drums are more associated with conga santiaguera and sartenes and bells with conga habanera. The bombo patterns and other instrumentation and parts are a bit different too. These 2 videos from Santiago and La Habana are excellent examples of the 2 styles. Aprenda! Also, you don't want to use big frying pans, small ones are lighter, cheaper, sound better and you won't have to give up eating tostones. I guess you will have to improvise your own mounting table, I don't know who makes those in the U.S. I don't have any experience with brake drums, but they have to be tuned right and the guy in the junkyard might look at you like you are crazy when you start checking them out, unless he is from Santiago de Cuba! The brake drum is another instrument that requires hearing protection, you hit it with a metal stick less than a foot from your ear and the sound is loud enough to carry a quarter mile or more.

By the way, isn't that kids' conga de latas video great? Living proof that it is more about the drummer than the drum, although it is not just any kids. Here is another video of Lucumi playing quinto before he was 10, he plays more than most of us adults.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPid2ZZibqA

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:59 pm
by RitmoBoricua
jorge wrote:By the way, isn't that kids' conga de latas video great? Living proof that it is more about the drummer than the drum, although it is not just any kids. Here is another video of Lucumi playing quinto before he was 10, he plays more than most of us adults.


No doubt is a great video, that's a perfect example of why growing in the
culture makes a a big difference. I remember back when I was a kid one
of the guys could play the melodies the Catholic Church bells played
on road guard rails and he did it with sticks that had broken-off
trees. As far as "las latas" I know people too that created their first
set of bongos from tin cans.

Love the video, Jorge. Lucumi playing is impressive.
What I really love about the video is that is a "communal
effort". I thought one of the bata players look like
the late great Pancho Quinto.

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 4:03 pm
by jorge
RitmoBoricua wrote:As far as "las latas" I know people too that created their first set of bongos from tin cans.

I thought one of the bata players look like the late great Pancho Quinto.

Yes, and word is that Tata Guines was one of those whose first bongos were tin cans. That definitely is Pancho Quinto playing iya with Lucumi. Lucumi was a star student of Tata Guines and Pancho Quinto, amazingly talented child prodigy who was mentored by the best of the best. Not sure what he is doing now, 18 years after those videos, but I have not heard good things about his attitude as he got older.

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:22 am
by KidCuba
jorge wrote:. Lucumi was a star student of Tata Guines and Pancho Quinto, amazingly talented child prodigy who was mentored by the best of the best. Not sure what he is doing now, 18 years after those videos, but I have not heard good things about his attitude as he got older.


He seems to have taken Cusito's spot in Rumberos de Cuba, from what I have seen on YouTube recently...

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:57 am
by Jerry Bembe
Brake Drum is used as the main time keeper for large Steel Bands in Trinidadvand Tobago. These are bands of 100-200 playing Steel Pan. The Brake Drum is a position of honor and a dangerous one if not played well. People have been attacked for messing up in ths position for Panarama (national Steel Band competition).

A Brake Drum can be tuned like a tounge drum by cutting the top into sections of different sized tounges. Most people just play te Brake Drum in its natural whole form.

Re: Sartenes...

PostPosted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 6:59 pm
by RitmoBoricua
Jerry Bembe wrote:Brake Drum is used as the main time keeper for large Steel Bands in Trinidadvand Tobago. These are bands of 100-200 playing Steel Pan. The Brake Drum is a position of honor and a dangerous one if not played well. People have been attacked for messing up in ths position for Panarama (national Steel Band competition).

A Brake Drum can be tuned like a tounge drum by cutting the top into sections of different sized tounges. Most people just play te Brake Drum in its natural whole form.


Just wait until they play on the anti-lock brake ones,
superior performance! :D