dladas wrote:for purposes of comparison, here is a picture of mid 50s Leedys
David
dladas wrote: for purposes of comparison, here is a picture of mid 50s Leedys
Are the Humberto Morales model timbales the same ones pictured with Ubaldo Nieto in the Henry Adler book?
LP: Many of the Leedy timbales have different badges that say Leedy-Ludwig or simply Leedy? What is the difference between the two?
MM: The ones that say only Leedy are older. The Leedy products were merged with Ludwig which became Leedy-Ludwig. This happened in the late 1940’s. I have one of the first ten pairs of Leedy timbales. The one who came up with those timbales was the technician who worked for Henry Adler. Uba and Humberto were using timbales that I believe were made by “El Indio” in the barrio. They were made of metal like in Cuba. However, the metal was very weak and so was the stand. They were made by hand with calfskin wrapped around the rim. Whenever Uba or Humberto would break a skin, they would take it to Henry’s technician to have a new skin tucked. The technician would always jokingly say, “Ah, esto es una mierda, una puerqueria” (That is a piece of garbage). One day I will build a good set of timbales”.
LP: How did these timbales become known as the Humberto Morales Model?
MM: Well the technician whose first name was Charlie built those drums. I don’t remember his last name (Tappan). He was a drummer also. He presented these timbales to the Leedy Company. Uba and Humberto tried them out and everybody just went crazy over them. They were very professional. So, Henry Adler sold the patent to Leedy. The first ten sets that were built before they went out into the market came to Henry Adler. He gave one set to Uba, Humberto, various others, and me since I was his disciple. I believe the cost was about $75.00 with case and everything.
Gene Krupa was endorsing the Radio Kings made by Slingerland. Therefore, Leedy needed a model name for these timbales. These people didn’t know anything about Latin music. They were Americans from Chicago so they asked Henry Adler for advice. The head of Leedy wanted to come to New York and go to a club and see a heavy timbalero play on these drums. Henry was going to take him to see Uba with the Machito orchestra. The timbales were going to be named after Ubaldo Nieto. When the head of Leedy came, Machito was on the road. Therefore, Henry took him to see the Noro Morales orchestra at the China Doll with Humberto on timbales. That is how the timbales became known as the Humberto Morales Model. This was around 1948 or 1949.
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