Santiago's Bata

[Asher358]

Hi all,

Just thought I would create this thread to show my appreciation for the craftsman who helped me convert some beautiful lathe-turned bata shells to modern (hardware equipped) batas.

This video shows several batas for sale (three of which I had the fortune of purchasing) by the widow of the late great Santiago Nani (I was informed that the shells were purchased by Nani upon a past visit to Cuba):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NklAFCOddms

Below you can see some pics of the drums finished with rims and plates from Skin-On-Skin percussion (Thanks to the tremendous work of Joshua and Jay!), the skins from Bill Confer and others skinned by the Miami great Allan "Bam Bam" Ramos (SeisPorOcho) and the lugs crafted by Rafa Trinidad of Puerto Rico.

Note: The Iya will soon be equipped with some BEAUTIFUL mule skins from Mike Barsky of L&H Percussion (Check out his new site!: http://www.landhpercussion.com)

Okonkolo

Iya & Okonkolo before skins

Itotele

[msb501clave]

how is the project going ? play them yet?

[seisporocho1]

Hey,

I think I can speak for Asher...the batas sound incredible.
We are still letting the Iya skins settle in but it sounds great already.
The Itotele is ridiculous. The cha side has ridiculous slaps. The enu has sick tones.
The Okonkolo is just awesome. In the picture Asher put up, the Okonkolo doesn't have a skirt on the cha side but we changed that the next day and put a Bill Confer skin with the skirt.
We played the batas with Lazaro 'Tato' Alfonso the other day and it sounded beautiful. Lazaro also made a fardela (traditional recipe) for the Iya. He will also make the Chaworo as soon as Asher gets the bells.
I am sure once the mule skin breaks in, it'll really sing!

Thanks.

6x8

[Asher358]

So I figured the least I could do is post a decent pic of the Iya with the skins mounted. I certainly will post a final pic when it has the Fardella and Chaworo on it. Thanks to Michael from L&H Percussion (http://www.landhpercussion.com) for the beautiful mule skins!!!