by pavloconga » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:35 am
I first learned on mum's pots and pans in the kitchen!
I was fascinated by drums as a kid. I remember being about 5 years old and seeing for the very first time a silver and black Pearl drum kit being played by a drummer in a Jazz group while on a riverboat trip. For some reason those drums fascinated me. So I ended up learning drum kit a few years after that.
Fast forward some years (about 15 years ago). I had never played congas before this time, knew nothing about the instrument and had no interest in playing until one night I had a powerful dream that I was playing a pair of white congas on a stage floating in the ocean, with none other than... the Santana band! In the dream somehow I knew what I was doing and it sounded amazing, my hands were just a blur. At the end of the dream I was flying high in the air above bright silver and gold lined clouds while holding a white conga in each arm.
A couple of months later I started group classes with a local conga player. A few months later, after being on the look out for some second hand congas I came across a pair of old white LP fibreglass congas... perfect.
A little later in the year my teacher brought a top conga player (Ray Periera) from interstate for some workshops. Ray began to play on some congas and I was stunned and amazed - I couldn't believe the magical sounds and melodies that he was creating with his hands! I was hooked from that point and Ray became my teacher and mentor for the next 5 years or so. Ray was a tough and demanding teacher and was big on lots of quality practice.
I remember asking Ray one day, "How can I get to be as good a player as you?"
He just said, "Look Pavlo, there are no shortcuts, you just have to practice a lot and you have to keep on learning." How true. How true.
The things that really kicked my playing up to a higher level were travelling to the source of the rhythms - Africa and Cuba. In 1998 I went with Ray and a few of his more advanced students to Ghana, West Africa where we studied in depth mainly on kpanlogo type drums with local musicians (Nii Tackie Abia, Nii Tettey Tetteh, Yaw 'Captain' Asumadu and Adotey Richter). In 2001 I went with Ray to Ghana for another study trip and in 2003 returned there on my own and got very sick (but that's another story...).
Later, I also spent several months in Havana, Cuba where I studied with a 65 year old master conguero, Sandalio 'Macho' Calderon and Mario "Chavalonga" Dreke (Macho as a boy was a student of Chava and Chava was a contemporary and good friend of Chano Pozo). Of all the conga players I have ever met, studied with or heard play live, Macho still impressed me the most and it is from him that I have learned most about the congas. A true master of the instrument and still an incredibly powerful player even at 65.
While in Cuba I also studied under Guillermo Lopez Clemente from the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional.
Before I went to Cuba I harbored a dream of somehow meeting Jose 'Changuito' Luis Quintana, though I didn't know how that was going to happen. Anyway, towards the end of my time in Cuba, after a lesson with Macho he said to me (in spanish of course), "What are you doing tomorrow? You want to come with me and meet a good friend of mine?
I said, "Sure! who is that?"
"He's a very good conguero, his name is Changuito" Bingo. Dream fulfilled!
Have worked in countless bands of many kinds, (percussion ensembles, samba, jazz, pop, salsa, funk etc) theatre, dance theatre, dance classes, workshops, etc
Like Johnny says you can learn a lot just by watching and listening to great players.
cheers,
Pavlo
Edited By pavloconga on 1183382462