congaplace.com

Wow! That's cool. Any idea why he's in your town? Could be an opportunity for a private lesson with him.

I had a similar 'strange but true' experience here in Halifax in January. Giovanni Hidalgo was in town shooting new instructional dvd's. I was lucky to get a call and invitation to spend a day during filming. I knew the film crew. Gio was a a great guy, very humble and approachable. He said he'd like to come back sometime and cook us all some Puerto Rican food.


dan

Changuito is my favorite percussionist in the world.
Nobody grooves like him - a master conguero/timbalero/drummer.
He is a living legend and a true "Soul Daddy" of Cuban music.

When I was in Cuba one of the things I wanted to do was meet Changuito and have some lessons with him.
I didn't know how this was going to happen apart from asking different musicians I met in Havana if they knew him etc. everyone said 'yes' they knew him but no one came through and offered to introduce me.
One day about a week before my departure date, out of the blue at the end of a lesson, my conga maestro 'Macho' said to me in Espanol, "What are you doing later today? Do you want to come and meet a good friend of mine?" "Who is that?" I said. He said something understated like, "Un amigo called Changuito. He plays congas and things." Of course I said yes, so later that day we met up with Changuito and his young son at a club in Vedado, we all chatted a while, drank some beers and later took some photos. He also invited for me to go to his casa with Macho a few days later.

However, on the day we were meant to go (a day before I was leaving Cuba) family things came up for Macho and he couldn't take me, so I didn't get to spend any lesson time with Changuito. But it was an honour just to meet him, one of my favourite percussionists in the world, after studying his videos and listening to his music for so long.

Enjoy the time listening to him play and meeting him. It will be an amazing day, I'm sure.
ciao
Pavlo

BTW In Havana Changuito drives a VW beetle! (at least he did at that time)