by Isaac » Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:03 am
Hey JC, I was inspired by your story, so I thought I'd tell mine - Isaac
I was born and raised in the Canadian Prairie City - Winnipeg, Manitoba.I have an older brother who grew up to be a professional drummer. He eventually
became a Broadway Show drummer, and has worked in every style you can imagine - from Military, Classical, Opera, Big Band, Funk, Original Rock, Country, Soundtracks, etc. In the 70's he started bringing home latin records. So he was one of my first influences.
I also had an eccentric great aunt who in her youth
was an actress in the then thriving Yiddish Theater scene. She made frequent trips to New York City to connect with the scene there. When I was about 5 years old, she came back from one of these trips and was all of a sudden
dancing to Mambo records! She soon got bored with it and gave my brother and
I a nice little stack of Perez Prado, Tito Puente, and Noro Morales music. So as
kids, these gifts became a major part of our tiny record collection. From the roof
of our house we would watch the Scottish Marching Band rehearse with their
drums and bagpipes. If you havn't heard that live - its more inspiring if
done well than you can anticipate. Soon after my aunt gave us a short wave
radio. When weather permitted, we could clearly listen to our favorite radio
station - an all Soul & R&B Black radio station from Little Rock, Arkansas (home
of Bill Clinton). We used to fake going to sleep, and stay up listening to
all those funky grooves...I was 6 or 7 by this time. At school I was exposed
to traditional Jewish music both in Hebrew and Yiddish, the older stuff still
with that Eastern flavor. Another early but vivid image, was
sitting watching Tarzan movies on TV. In the background you'd hear actual field
recordings of African music - not like today - studio cats with great synth chops,
but no clue about actual rhythms. Later I recognized some of the music as
being from Central and East Africa. So the music influences of the far away world luckily made their way into our house or maybe we were just thirsty for those
sounds.
My brother Jack's rock band rehearsed in our house and I watched
almost every band rehearsal I could. In 8th grade I started guitar lessons with
his guitarist who was a genius of the instrument by 15.( He eventually took too much acid ,and became a recluse for many years, before recovering & becoming a highly published health & naturopathy writer), but I received a walloping electrical shock and was hurled against a wall with a numbing jolt to the arm. It was a clear sign - the guitar was not for me. My brother brought home a sax soon after and he never opened it. I began to play the alto sax. I picked it up by ear very naturally at first and could manage to play simple blues and jazz. About a year went by. I was now 15, and starting to jam with others. After returning from a summer camping trip with friends ( what teenagers used to do in Canada) I discovered my sax missing. I wept in desperation, learning that my brother had taken it and swapped it for a pound of grass!! He had been away in Europe for a year and didn't know that I was playing it. Feeling very guilty and
sorry for his mistake, he came home with a conga drum for me. He also never
wanted me to play his drums , because I used to bust a lot of his skins., so
this conga was a good solution. The drum was a tourist model conga brought
back from Nigeria by one of his college professors, who was also a good
customer at my parent's corner grocery store. It had a tacked-on thick
cow skin. So this became my new instrument. I kept this till 1997 and had kept
repairing it, added hardware, fixed cracks, mounted a few different heads on it
and fiberglassed the inside. I also had a set of LPs (from Palisades Park, and a
used set of Gon Bops)
Music was however, not my career choice, but I kept the fire burning slowly
in the background for many years. I eventually travelled and met "real"
congueros who'd show me a few things. There are many names I could mention,
some well known. others not. In 1976 I went to Minneapollis on a college trip,
and while there got a chance to see the Stan Kenton Orchestra. The Conga
player was Ramon Lopez, from NYC. This was a truly inspirational experience.
On the same trip, I met a Ghanian drummer in a Park and he gave me a drum
and started teaching and showing me things. So I was about 19 -20 yrs old
by then and really just getting started on the conga. There was no one I knew
to learn from, so I began looking for good records to listen & learn from.
My first few purchases were recommended by my good friend Geoffrey Clarfield,
who eventually became an ethnomusicologist and professor in Africa.
1. YAMBU by Mongo Santamaria ( had on it Armando Peraza, Julito Collazo, Willie Bobo, Carlos Vidal, and a few other giants)
2. Top Percussion - Tito Puente and Mongo and many of the same as above.
3. Mustafa Teddy Addy - (not conga, but the Ghana equivalent - Kpanlogo)
4. Patato and Totico (just re-released as a CD) some good Rumba with Arsenio
Rodriguez on Tres - very soulful, his last recording before he passed on.
5. Los Papines
I listened to this stuff over and over again for years.
From 1977 -1980 I lived in Israel. The Music there is a whole other chapter. I began working in a Band with Brazilians, Peruvians and Argentinian musicians.
I also was a solo Percussionist for a small dance group that did weekly performances of Yemeni folk music - all very odd time signatures. I became
part of the Rubin Academy Percussion Ensemble, where we did a few Brazilian
things like the Batucada. There I met an American Jazz musician named Jerry
Garval. He moved there from New York in 1964. He played Trombone, Drumset
and Congas, and used to play with a lot Mongo's crew before leaving the USA. I basically started over and learned all the standard tumbao and guaguanco
stuff. After leaving Israel I arrived in New York to study latin percussion. I took private classes by day, and went to shows almost every night. Got to see Mongo, Palmieri, Baretto, Sonora Poncena, Airto, and many of my musical heros.
This lasted 3 months, when I had to leave because of Visa restrictions.
I drummed with a few rumba friends in Toronto once in a while but was not growing musically for the next 7 years. I took a trip to Cuba in 1988 to get recharged. In 1990 after a solid career in graphic design, married and with a 6 month old daughter, we moved to New York. Where else in the world can access so many styles of music? After work I started more study at the Harbor Conservatory, my teachers were Jimmy Delgado and the late master percussionist from Cuba - Luis Andino. These days I do a bit of performing, a bit of teaching to beginners,and am still making time to practice and learn some more. a little at a time.
Because its been part time, its been a long slow process, but the journey
is whats rewarding.