Papa Kila

[Thomas Altmann]

Hi everyone,

I just want to briefly share an insight about the bongo playing of Papa Kila (Antolín Suárez). I know that there is a theory circulating that in regard to the clave, he is placing his rhythmic accents in a manner contrary to standard salsa style as represented by people like Johnny (Dandy) Rodríguez or Manny Oquendo (who nonetheless credits Papa Kila as influential on him), as well as an entire echelon of salsa bongoceros, with maybe just a few exceptions:

I was already about to examine some 50 recordings in order to find out whether Papa Kila had really been following an opposite clave concept, or whether he played his accents rather randomly, meaning, varying their placement in reference to the clave as he felt fitting. So I listened carefully for the occurrance of the two strokes on 1+ and 2, as well as the variation of 1+/3/4+, because these patterns were the easiest to recognize:

To make it short, I only had to check two recordings to find out that, while he may have been aware of the clave, Papa Kila did not follow any consistent clave concept in his actual playing. The stroke patterns notated above, which in standard salsa regularly appear on the 2-side of the clave, can be heard being randomly played by Papa Kila on both the 2- and the 3-side of the clave, even within one and the same piece of music.

The 4+, which is regularly preceding the 3-part of the clave in standard salsa, was not relevant, because Papa Kila played it indiscriminately in any bar as he pleased, as it is also commonly done in boleros.

The hembra is often hardly audible on the recordings, especially on the 4 preceding the accent, and it is possible that Papa Kila often played these notes as mute touches, perhaps even on the macho. Check out his playing on Miguelito Cuní's "Sones de Ayer" from 1958, where there is no tumbadora covering the same spot.

The recordings that I chose to examine were "Juventud Amaliana", written and played by Arsenio Rodríguez and his conjunto for Victor in 1946, and "Que se fuñan", composed by Lili Martínez, played by Chappottín y sus Estrellas for Puchito and re-published by Antilla on the LP "Sabor Tropical" in 1957. I encourage everyone to verify my findings.

I also suggest people check out when Kila changes from bongo to bell and vice versa.

Another interesting observation is Papa Kila's cierre call to signal the coda. On his earlier recordings with Arsenio in the 1940s (like "Juventud Amaliana"), he was playing:

These double hits can either be repeated as often as the bongocero likes, or played only once. I also heard this signal from the bongocero of the Conjunto Bolero ("Pototo"?) and in septetos. Even Frank Oropesa uses it.

However, the same Papa Kila, who not only played with Arsenio's conjunto, but also in the successors Conjunto Modelo and Chappottín y sus Estrellas, switched to a different cierre in the 1950s, which he executed in unison with the conguero:

In order to take care of the cierre, the bongocero may put down his campana while the montuno section is still going on arriba (dynamically up), to pick up the bongo and give the sign to finish the section and procede to the coda.

Saludos,
Thomas

[Chtimulato]

Interesting post. I need to check this out. I'll come here again then.