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Posted: **Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:34 am**

wondering what the best and worst of the conga and timbale books are out that i should thik about getting. the reason i ask for worst is because i would like to not be swindled into buying something i don't want or shouldn't get, and also because i would like to have a little bit of knowledge about the educational books on the market.

I am not a beginner yet i realise that i do not know all of the rhythms out there.

Piece

Posted: **Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:54 pm**

Tito Puente's timbale book is very good and comes with a CD. Also the original Humberto Morales/Ubaldo Nieto(my timbale teacher), Learn to Play Timbales book, from the 50's, is also very good and "classic"...."JC" Johnny Conga...

Posted: **Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:23 pm**

Toby wrote:wondering what the best and worst of the conga and timbale books are out that i should thik about getting. the reason i ask for worst is because i would like to not be swindled into buying something i don't want or shouldn't get, and also because i would like to have a little bit of knowledge about the educational books on the market.

I am not a beginner yet i realise that i do not know all of the rhythms out there.

Piece

This is good.

Changuito: A Master's Approach to the Timbales

Edited By torelli on 1165173902

Posted: **Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:51 pm**

Also the Tomas Cruz DVD's are very good...I heard Tomas is now charging up to 60 bucks for an hours lesson , it didnt take him long to become a 'capitalist"...And I remember when he came to me in Miami and tried to enlist my help to get him work....I just told him welcome to America, but your on your own.....the rest is His story......."JC" Johnny Conga.....

Posted: **Fri Jun 15, 2007 2:49 am**

I recently got "The Conga Drummer's Guidebook" by Michael Spiro (Sher Music) and already for me I consider it money very well spent.

Posted: **Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:49 pm**

JohnnyConga wrote:Also the original Humberto Morales/Ubaldo Nieto(my timbale teacher), Learn to Play Timbales book, from the 50's, is also very good and "classic"

Hello Johnny:

dizzying idea to have had Ubaldo Nieto as teacher ...

Anyway - but you don't mean this blue book that Humberto Morales made together with Henry Adler, do you?

Thomas

Posted: **Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:42 pm**

YES THOMAS..that's the one..hey bro I try to remember it all... ??? Yea i had a couple of lessons with "Uba"...back in the late 60's..it was the first time I saw charts for timbales and the terms that went with playing the timbales...he was a cool dude, and could read and play his ass off,though you never hear a timbale solo in any of his recordings...with Machito...if there is one somewhere(i may have fgorgotten that too ??? ) I'd like to hear it...."JC" Johnny Conga...

PS ..did u try and call me???...

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:49 pm**

No Johnny, it wasn't me trying to call you.

I once had the Humberto Morales method. In 1974 it was about the only Latin percussion book that I could find (in Germany, admittedly). I lent it to somebody and didn't get it back. However, I was never really enthusiastic about the information it it. Especially the hand drum parts which did not have sound symbols.

Henry Adler said: "I never intended to go into the publishing business. Humberto Morales, from whom I learned Latin drumming, had a brother named Noro who was a leading Latin piano player. Humberto resented the fact that his brother had so much of the limelight. Noro came to me and said, 'You've got to do me a favor. My brother is driving me crazy. Write a Latin drumming book with Humberto and I'll give you the money. You handle everything, and after you pay me back, you and Humberto split the book.'
I agreed and I started to write. Every so often I'd call Humberto in to show him what I'd written. When I finished the book, I gave it to the printer. I had collected about $2,700 from Noro's lawyer toward the publication of the book. I presented his lawyer with the bill for the photographs. There were over 50 in the book. The lawyer said, 'We've got a problem. Noro hasn't paid his income tax in three years.' He was in debt for thousands of dollars. So, I had to pay the bills. I became the publisher.
At the time, Latin wasn't that big, but I took out a few advertisements for the book. I really didn't want to spend that kind of money because I had a retail drum business, and I had just bought a building on 46th Street in New York City."
(source: http://www.pas.org/About/HofDetails.cfm?IFile=adler).

Nice story.

Thomas

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:53 pm**

Yes that's the book ..I too lent it out , never to be seen again..It is now back on the market again..i also didnt know that story..wow...even back then musicians were in "hock" to the IRS....I'm surprised at Noro's story, as much as he worked in New York, he should have been financially alright....but "we don't pay our stinkin taxes!"......hahahahaha... "JC" Johnny Conga....

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:05 am**

Thomas Altmann was my cover name; I'm from the federal tax department, and you are under arrest. :cool:

P.S.: Well, not everybody shares my kind of humor. -TA

Edited By Thomas Altmann on 1182822654

Posted: **Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:01 pm**

For Timbales I like the Tito Puente book and the Victor Rendon book "The Art of Playing Timbales", I have learned a pretty good amount from that book and still reference it from time to time. I have heard Changuito's book is good but I have never seen it.

Posted: **Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:28 pm**

Regarding timbales there is this thread on books.

congaplace.com

Books for congas and timbales - Looking but don't know what to get