Your favorite Conga player

[rumbaman]

Wow thats a hard one , but i do have my favorites . I like mongo , Raul rekow , and also poncho and ray barreto . They are my favorite but i also like giovanni , and aguabella . I listen and play many different styles of music from latin to rock to jazz . I'm always open to new stuff also . The different ingredients make the final product much richer in SAOCO .
thanks , carlos

[JohnnyConga]

There is a Drum Brother named Joey de Leon. He is in L.A. but from NYCity. He is an up and coming player and is very good and very "tasty". He's got a strong sound and quick hands. He is on the new Susie Hanson CD "the Salsa Never Stops" and on the latest Banda Brothers Cd. Check him out!...."JC" Johnny Conga.....

[Jesus Muñoz]

for mi the best conga player is...mmm maybe Giovanni, poncho Sanchez too. ilike the poncho's solos, Miguel Anga (I played whith him two timws becaus now his location are barcelona like me and I coincided with he... He's a monster!!! fantastic

[RitmoBoricua]

If I get one conguero is PAPO PEPIN. He is the guy I will like playing with me and my biggest influence because of his "unusual tumbaos style." Another guy in the same line is "LITTLE JOHNNY RIVERO. Of course, I admire GIOVANNI HIDALGO, RICHIE FLORES, PAOLI MEJIAS, MONGO SANTAMARIA AND RAY BARRETO.

I have to go with Papo Pepin, Little Johnny, Frankie Malabe, Cachete Maldonado, Giovanni Hidalgo and Jimmy Morales.

Saludos!

[zumbi]

peace&blessings!
i am new here and i love the amount of informations and the respectful family vibe on this site. i am drumset player of 20+ years but i got to spend more and more time on my quinto in the recent couple of years.
at this time i mostly listen to congueros for inspiration on the drumset
my all time favorites: mongo and patato
also i love anga and i feel echu mingua is a masterpiece of universal music.
one love

[JohnnyConga]

My favorite NEW Conga player from Cuba is ELIEL LAZO-LINARES....he plays with the band Blanco y Negro and The Art Ensamble of Havana......"JC" Johnny Conga...

[jorge]

So many great conga players, how can you choose just one????

If I had to choose, overall, it would be Tata Guines. I still sometimes practice with his Descargas with Cachao from 50 years ago. Que tumbao que tiene! You can recognize his style on any record he plays on.

In rumba, on quinto, I like the old school players from Matanzas, Pelladito (Guaguanco Matancero), Titi (Muñequitos) and Regalao (Afrocuba) and a few Habaneros like Chori (Yoruba Andabo), Alejandro Publes (Clave y Guaguanco), and Papin, although Puntilla has done some really nice stuff over the years (check him out on Rene Lopez' new Homenaje a Tio Tom recording to be released this month). On salidor/tumbador, it has to be El Goyo (Muñequitos), and Marquito Diaz (Rumberos de Cuba), both of them changed the way tumbador is played in rumba. Pancho Quinto and Malanga el Rumbero of Yoruba Andabo revolutionized the rumba and guarapachangueo and took it to another level.

I am really stuck in the old school and never learned to love the new styles like Anga, Vizcaino, Pedrito, and Giovanni, but I am seriously impressed by their amazing technical skills.

[blango]

aaa man, Jorge, how did you miss THE MAN...

Sandy Perez - only the principal percussionist for AfroCuba de Matanzas since before he was a teenager - 'till his late 20's.

He is in his mid 30's today and defigning the tradition. Ive seen this guy rip holes in 12/8 with a smile and a wink.

Its hard to believe that he is a good 10 years away from his 'prime' !!

http://www.myspace.com/sandyperezoncongas

Tony

[conganoob]

The musicians that made me fall in love with the conga sound as a child:

Los Papines
Patato
Mongo

I met Patato in Miami when I was a teenager after a gig he did with Tito Puente. I'm in the lobby of this hotel and there he was, the little man with the hat! I shook his hand (it was like a rock) and thanked him for his music. He was so kind and gracious. A true gentleman. That is a memory I will always cherish.

[jorge]

Hi Tony,
You are right, Sandy Perez is a great conga player, I should add him to my list, although I have only heard him play a few times. The only time I have seen him play quinto was when he came to our rumba in NYC in February. He has a really strong, clean quinto style, in the tradition of his family in Matanzas, and Pelladito, Cha Cha, and Regalao. Sandy's quinto style builds on the great tradition of these old masters. He is standing on the shoulders of giants, like some of the other Matanzas drummers of the younger generations eg, Luisito Cancino, Ivan Alfonso (Ibae), Eddy Espinosa, and Freddy Alfonso.

I haven't heard any recordings with Sandy on quinto, at least he has not been identified on liner notes as the quinto player. The columbia La Calabaza on his website at the link you provided is one of the prettiest columbias I have ever heard. It was recorded in 1971 with Regalao on quinto (in spite of the liner notes that credit Pedro Tapanes "Pello", who I have only seen playing salidor). Regalao told me it was him (Regalao) on quinto on that song, and I believe him; the style sounds more like Regalao than Pello, or anyone else I have heard.

Sandy carries on the Matanzas tradition of super clean quinto styles, I will be honored to study with him at the AfroCuban Drum and Dance Workshop at Humboldt State University this summer.

[blango]

Brother Jorge,

Thank you for your kind words about Sandy Perez.

I have to admit, you seem to know more about the Matanzas houses than I. I'd be very greatful if you would be so kind as to share some of this with me, as im putting a site together for him.

As far as him on quinto, ive had the great pleasure to see him play many a time, and ive never been closer to Chango. He speaks the language of Rumba like Martin Luther King used the english language.

The amazing thing is, whatever comes to him, he can play. Ive never seen him frustrated with his hands, or trying to get something 'right'. He just speaks, and with such athority and ansestral power.

Some academics here in the bay (mostly europeans who study the tradition) prefer a more parcimonious quinto, but when sandy plays, he can step all over everyone, and it works perfectly, somehow.

Or, he can play the sweetest 'empty' quinto and make it even more powerful, somehow.

You will find him warm, open, and mostly egoless. I think this is why he is not taken as seriously as he should be. He is also a young looking id 30's.

However, with a quinto in his hand, he plays with such violence and clear focus, like a hunter pouncing on prey.

But his true calling is the Caja!

I have a meeting with Sandy tomorrow about promoting events in the bay area just after the Humbolt event. It looks like several members of his family will join us in early August for a series of performances and workshops in Oakland and SF. Ill keep you all informed.

Thanks again Jorge! Ill send you an email, well have to chat off line.

Tony

[jorge]

Tony,
I got your email, and will give you a call. Sandy was in NYC for the Palenque show in February, and I got a chance to hang out with him a little bit. You are right, he is super talented but very humble, in a way that I have seen in some of the other master drummers and rumberos I have met. Somehow the ego trips we see in the rumbas in the street and places like Central Park are not usually backed up by the quality of talent that the masters have.
Jorge

[Laurent Lamy]

Roberto Viscaino is the one who inspires me most...

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[Thomas Altmann]

I think I like every drummer for the particular things he does/did. It would be more practical to name the one or two guys I don't like, which forbids my politeness.

I remember one time it was Daniel Ponce's "Solo para ti" that confirmed me not to give up the instrument in favour of the drum set; he seemed to speak in my place, so to say. It was pretty much the sound I heard within me, and I wanted to play like him for quite some time.

My other heroes during that period (around 1985) were Irakere's Jorge Alfonso, and Yoel Dreke, who played both with Los Van Van and Rumbavana in the beginning of the eighties. And Tata Güines. This was before I heard Giovanni, who at first confused me more than actually inspired me.

I saw some videos of a guy named Pedrito Martinez on YouTube. I think he is fantastic.

Thomas



Edited By Thomas Altmann on 1181262196

[jorge]

Hi Thomas,
Yeah, 4 great conga players. Have you heard Yoel Driggs playing a 3 drum songo in the track "Tu Tranquilo" with Los Van Van? Best congas in songo that I have ever heard, tiene un sabor that would make even Giovanni jealous. Do you know what ever happened to him? The only time I saw him was at the Tropicana in 1985 playing a solo on 3 bata drums, and I met his sister Dagmaris when she sang with Clave y Guaguanco in New Jersey around 1998. She said he was playing with a group in Cuba at that time, I don't remember the name of the group. I haven't heard anything about him since then, and never saw his name on any recordings.

Pedrito Martinez is another young drummer to watch in the next few years. He has deservedly become a superstar here in the US, for his singing (rumba and apkwon), his playing (congas, bata), and especially singing and playing together. Rock solid perfect timing, un reloj humano, and awesome chops in his stage performances, but I think his best playing is offstage at the rumba. Another supertalented but humble and down to earth Cuban drummer. Check out his recordings with Raices Habaneras (rumba), Oba Ilu (bata and apkwon), and a CD put out by LP, Montvale Rumba (singing rumba). His fusion group Yerba Buena, with Xiomara Laugart, has some nice stuff too (you can see them on YouTube), although I am partial to the folkloric music.
Jorge



Edited By jorge on 1181272420