by jorge » Sat Dec 05, 2020 3:49 am
I got to meet Tommy Lopez Sr at his 70th birthday party that Jay Bereck threw for him at Skin on Skin in Brooklyn. Tommy was a great rumba drummer, that was the only time I got to play with him and with Little Ray Romero, I learned a lot that night. I liked his swing playing with Palmieri.
And Chucky was a child prodigy on bongo. In the early 70s I played with a band called "Adoracion" in Elizabeth NJ, named after Palmieri's tune. After hearing Chucky's solos on 17.1 and Adoracion and some other Palmieri tunes, when someone told me he was 2 years younger than me and he was like 15 years old and had only been playing for a few years when he cut 17.1, I figured I was too old to learn, quit playing bongos and focused on learning congas. Never got to meet him in person. It would be great if you could pull together un homenaje musical a los dos, padre e hijo. Great musicians run in families, sometimes. Ibae bayen tonu. QEPD.