Sizes of congas and it's use's and names

[Anonimo]

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[Mike]

Now my question is why use a quinto are you going to be soloing all the time ? I think that a well balanced rhythm section sound when all are playing in unison (together) and one not standing out from the others. I consider it to be making noise and not music would even call it showboating. Give your opinion

I guess a simple answer would be that many amateur congueros find
it easier to produce a slap on a cranked-up quinto rather than a conga in mid-tonal range...

[niallgregory]

Again i never ever heard the word re quinto being used in cuba . A Quinto for me is a 10 inch drum for soloing in a rumba etc . The only other size drums are conga / tumba and variations that the drum companies come up with to sell drums . Whats a super tumba ? Its a big over sized tumba , exactly the same drum with the same uses just larger . Quinto , conga and tumba .. end of ..

[Mike]

Quinto , conga and tumba .. end of ..

Those three are indeed the conguero´s Holy Trinity.

BTW we have had the discussion here if ancient drummers ever cared about their drums´names or exact sizes a lot of times.

In other words: Thinking about playing straight tumbao, I couldn´t care less if I play an 11" plus a 12.5" combination or a 12 + 13.5 etc. as long as I produce the "right" sound that blends with bongó and the rest of the rhythm section.

esi Arnez used a conga with a strap around drum to hold it on his shoulder if we were to categorize it would be a re quinto. But for business terms the named it the Ricardo for Ricky Ricardo of the Lucy show. http://youtu.be/rAV3bOJaQuY This I think was a disgrace to the drum it's just noise he his making , but it brought him a lot of money.

I cannot really see the disgrace here, Leedy. Desi Arnaz belongs to a golden era in which Latin music really gathered influence worldwide.
So there is a positive effect of showboating after all

[Anonimo]

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[bongosnotbombs]

Desi Arnaz played the boku. He is playing a boku drum in that youtube clip, NOT a conga.

BOKU
A conical shaped, wooden shell hand drum played in carnival music (Conga) from Santiago (eastern province of Cuba)

Desi Arnaz was born in Santiago de Cuba.

The term Ricardo is completely made up term, only the big drum manufacturers use it, and it is they that invented the term.

There is already an existing thread on the names of congas

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=748

[Joseph]

Continuing the off topic tangent.

Desi Arnaz belongs to a golden era in which Latin music really gathered influence worldwide.
So there is a positive effect of showboating after all

As to Desi he was mainly a singer not a drummer or did not know any thing on drumming. What he did was copy a well know singer and drummer Named Miguelito Valdez style and worst of all got the credit for it . Miguelito died miserable, poor and got no credit for this tune Babalu yet Dezi gained all the fame for this tune.

The supreme irony of all of this is that Desi's father was the Mayor of Santiago, Cuba and issued an edict forbidding the public display of comparsa drumming:

"The Celebration of the Santiago Carnival has been definitively prohibited. People will not be permitted to circulate in disguise, either on foot or in vehicles, and the comparsas are prohibited, except for the dances, the patrons of which may not attend in disguise."
-Edict issued by Mayor Desidario Arnaz, Santiago de Cuba July 25, 1931
~~Cuba and It's Music p403

"...The most popular kind of comparsas in Santiago de Cuba (which also boasted Carabali comparsas and the tumba francesa), the comparsa conga featured a Haitian descended barrel drum called the bocu', a higher pitched drum called the quinto, (and) a variety of iron implements used as bells...."
~~Cuba and It's Music p370

Desi got famous singing someone else's tune (Babalu), while playing (for show), the drums his father forbade by force of law, to the citizens of Santiago, where Desi was born.

[Anonimo]

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[bongosnotbombs]

Seems like Desi defied his own father's decree, sounds pretty rebellious and cool to me for the early 50's.

[Anonimo]

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[Joseph]

A couple more quotes regarding Desi / Miguelito / Babalu from Cuba and It's Music...BTW a great book!

“ But not only was Desi’s interpretation of Babalu a poor copy of Miguelito’s ….it seemed to be a deliberate parody – directed at the Latin public, who associated Miguelito with the tune – right down to the way his hair was mussed up a la’ Miguelito for that number only. Though the name Miguelito Valdes is conspicuously absent from Arnaz’s autobiography, he appropriated Miguelito’s persona pretty much wholesale, necessarily replacing Miguelito’s talent with his comedic talent and his considerable showman’s skills….But Miguelito, a poor boy and a boxer from Cayo Hueso, sang Babalu like he believed in santeria, which he did. The black Havana dialect of the lyrics sounded fake in the mouth of Desi, a Santiago aristocrat. Even at that, it was the strongest dose the American public had had of afrocubanismo.
At least he didn’t try to do Bruca Manigua."
P534

"A running joke on the (I Love Lucy) show was the Ricky Ricardo big song Babalu.
It is hard to imagine a less fitting subject for a joke than Babalu-Aye’, the terrible, smallpox-afflicted, Dahomeyan god who walks with a crutch, attended by dogs who lick the ulcers on his legs. But it enhanced the old god’s name recognition, even if nobody knew exactly who he was. In April 1952, in the middle of the show’s first season, the Arbitrons estimated a viewership of 30,740,000 people, ‘nearly a fifth of the nation’s(USA) population'.
That was a lot of Babalu.
The show was seen in Cuba as well, but was not the same kind of hit there. It’s humour was very much tailored for American audiences; in Cuba, Arnaz – who was not much of a musician and never had a career in Cuba – was barely considered Cuban."
P581

[Anonimo]

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[niallgregory]

Surely the whole deabate re the names of the drums goes back to the cubans as its there terminology that we all use worldwide wether its puerto rico , usa , europe , south america etc .The terms conga , quinto and tumba come from the afro cuban culture . It just annoys me that companies insist on inventing new sizes of drums like requinto and super mega huge tumba nonsense . We all know there drums have 3 sizes and then variations on this theme

[Anonimo]

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[ABAKUA]

Just to chime in on the 'requinto' talk, not sure where this discussion of the term not being used in Cuba came from...
I spent just under 3 months there from early Nov last year through to late Jan, heavilly immersed amongst the biggest names in the band scene, as well as the rumba/folkloric scene, the term Requinto was used everywhere, even by the elders.
Heading back soon, will be staying as long as I can this time, selling up all my stuff and taking off again.