Active Musicians

[jorge]

In the early 70s, I played bongos and conga on weekends in salsa bands (lots of weddings and dances), freelanced with jazz groups, hung out at and played a little in the Central Park rumba, and played for African dance classes. In the 80s and 90s, I played at home and occasionally played in the rumba in Central Park in the summers. For the past 5 years all I play is rumba, and occasionally play djembe for an African dance class. For 4 years we had a rumba group, rehearsed every Sunday afternoon, did a few gigs, but didn't work enough and it broke up a year ago. It was great playing with the same people every week. I learned to play quinto in guaguanco and yambu. For the past 4 years we have had Sunday night rumbas through the winters on Castle Hill Ave in the Bronx, which ended for good last week. Now the Sunday night rumba is at Manny's Grill on Westchester Ave. At this time, I just play rumba, mainly tres dos, sometimes quinto, sing coro, play clave and guagua. I also like playing for Afrocuban dance classes. Between family and work, the constant struggle is making the time to play, I have no aspirations to make a living playing rumba. Soy musico y rumbero activo y creativo, pero no soy musico profesional. Que siga la rumba.



Edited By jorge on 1196883655

[Garvin]

jorge, who do you play African music with. I've got a bunch of friends living out in that area studying dance and drumming with all kinds of folks. Let me know some names, just wondering.

[JohnnyConga]

JORGE I KNOW YOU KNOW "MI COMPAY" "EL RUSO" WILLIE ? HE WORKED WITH TOTICO AND SINGS AND PLAYS THE TOQUES AROUND THE CITY. ....JOHNNY CONGA...

[jorge]

Garvin, in Teaneck where I live, we have the Hameed African Drum and Dance Company, I have played djembe with them off and on for the past 6 years. The first dance class I started out playing for was for Syvilla Fort's Studio of Theater Dance, in 1971, then the Afrikan Dance Company of NewArk in 1973, and others since. There are other classes around that I have played for recently. The biggest school is at Djoniba and there are other places in NYC, as well as a class in Montclair, NJ, but they tend to be irregular. I hear there are 2 Afrocuban dance companies in Phildelphia that rehearse regularly, but haven't been there.

JC, yeah, I saw Willie a couple of weeks ago at the last Castle Hill rumba, Puntilla and Abie were singing. Nice guy, he can play and doesn't come with alot of the ego baggage we see so much in NYC. By the way, I have been meaning to call you back for the last month to talk about your invention, things here have gotten crazy busy.

[ABAKUA]

I currently work with 6-7 bands, apart from the 11 piece salsa/timba band I am currently putting together.

Genres Im currently working in range from salsa/timba, funk, RnB, reggae etc..
Also work with DJ's doing the percussion thing.

Here are some short clips of me with some of the bands I work with.

On congas here:
Live performance on TV (click here)

Also here:
Live performance at an album launch (click here)

another:
From a 2 hr show we toured with in Aus..(click here)

Here while touring with ex Bamboleo singer from Cuba Osvaldo Chacon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz23E_N1V8Q

Our drummer Steve:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVp_y6l81eI

A little more of Steve if ya diggin it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlekAZ_MsM

[pavloconga]

Hi just to answer your question about active musicians and bands.

I have played in a lot of different bands and usually have a few different projects on the go. At the moment I play in a salsa/merengue/cumbia band, which is always good fun.

I also have worked since 1997 with a vocalist from the Caribbean. Lately we have been doing school voice and percussion performances and workshops - that's been a lot of fun!

I'm also involved in a big band (about 18 members) that is combining bass, guitars, keyboards, percussion and drums with orchestral instruments and a conductor from a symphony orchestra.

[Jongo]

I was in two bands for awhile, I was in a jazz group called Caravan and we gigged around town and had some fun. We lost our sax player and replaced him and kept going. We lost our trumpet player and kept going, our trombone player dropped out but we kept on with 5 of us. Then we lost our bass player, replaced him then the replacement quit. After that we just gave up but I enjoyed it while it lasted, it was a good group of guys.

While I was in that group I was also in a Samba group called Urban-15 and I played timbau, surdo, and caixa. That group is a lot of fun and there are a lot more opportunities for gigs. Obviously we are not as good as the real thing in Brasil but we do the best we can. One of the things I like about this group is that we are branching out into some other Brasilian styles, Afoxe and Partido Alto for example and so I am able to play some congas on those pieces

I was drumming for some Brasilian dance classes and that was a lot of fun, it was a paid gig but the pay was really just gas money but it was fun. for that gig we actually used a drum set, congas and bongo. So it was not traditional instrumentation but we put it down. I was playing bongo, bell and shekere, rotating between them and that was a really fun gig because we had some freedom to play as long as we kept the dancers moving! I was also playing djembe for an African dance group for gas money + tips and that was cool but I had to give it up. I did not have enough time to devote to it.

So both those gigs ended and now I am still playing with the samba group and I am playing capoeira so with that I am playing pandeiro and atabaque. So I get out and play and I have made some money to support my conga lifestyle but the reality is that I am not nearly of the caliber of some of the peeps on here. So while I think I am a good player and I can hold my own I cannot compete with the real working musicians!

Here is a clip from Urban-15, the samba group, I am playing timbau but the sound quality is poor

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BnUFmC8gkTg

[Garvin]

Jongo, what's the scene like in San Antonio? MY wifes family is there and we just went down to visit and I loved the city. Everyone was so nice and I felt like I could definitely stand to live there. Seemed like a lot of potential for music as well.

PS

Is there a mestre in San Antonio? What style capoeira?

[yoni]

Hi all,

Active in a few bands but playing steady now with mainly two - duets and trios with Amin, an incredible violinist and oud player, and a gig of mostly rock-roll covers with the "kostizaband". I didn't name the band so, and none of us eats kostiza, but the sax player named us that as kind of a joke.

Samples of music from both these groups can be heard at these 2 links:

http://www.myspace.com/yonatanbarrashi

http://www.myspace.com/kostizaband

All the best,

Yonatan

[Bachikaze]

I am the director of Goro-Goro, a world beat fusion drum ensemble (think of taiko meets STOMP, the Drummers of Burundu, and Olodum). I don't play my congas in that group. I make most of the drums myself.
http://www.gorogoro.info/

These days, I'm concentrating more on DrumDogs, a smaller group that focuses more on Latin/African/Middle Eastern styles and on hand drums and percussion. Like Goro-Goro, we avoid any attempts at ethnic authenicity and we freely mix styles. I play congas, bass drums, and percussion in DrumDogs.
http://drumdogs.net/



Edited By Bachikaze on 1196984870

[CongaTick]

Yoni,

Kostiza indeed! Fats Domino?!!!! I bow to a fellow ecelctic. We Love to play it ALL, don't we?

[Jongo]

Hey Garvin, the music scene here in SA is OK, there are a few really good bands and a few good venues but not enough. When you compare SA to Austin the scene in SA looks even worse but of course Austin is billed as the live music capital. I think for Brasilian music it peaked when Jorge Alabe was teaching here but he moved to San Francisco a few years ago and the scene for that genre has diminshed considerably.
For the capoeira I am only a beginner but Mestre Loka started the school but another man is teaching the class I attend.

[Bachikaze]

I just noticed, while reading through the other posts, that some people were posting their past experiences with bands, so I thought I'd add mine. I had only posted my current projects.

I played for 15 years with a rock band. I played bass guitar, which was very helpful in learning phrasing and turnarounds, how to subconsciously count measures, and of course keeping rhythm and tempo.

My first major drumming experience was with Super Sonic Samba School, where I mainly played surdo in samba batucadas.

I found that I was only interested in a narrow range of Brazilian music, so I left Super Sonic to start a band focused only on all-percussion, Bahia bloco-afro/samba-reggae music. The band was called Diaspora, and was quite successful, with the help of a local Brazilian promotor. I directed the band, still mainly on surdo, but also repique/bacurinha and occasionally timbales. I composed all the rhythms, but insisted on an authentic, uncompromising Bahia bloco-afro style.

I discontinued Diaspora to start up Goro-Goro to develop my own style of music, rather than copy the musical styles of other cultures.

[vinnieludovico]

re;musical activity,currently play in a jazz/latin group(Ric Montalbano),a jam band(Turnip Stampede)a funk/blues group(Phil Petrof) an occassional show and just about any situation that needs/wants congas/perc.I also still gig on traps(my first instrument)I toured/recorded w/ Masters of Reality 89-91 when I played on Sam Kinisons(comedian) last album.Music has taken me from rock to Afro-Cuban and, my brother drummers,I only wish I discovered the Tumbadoros earlier as they are in my opinion,the ULTIMATE in percussive self expression.to all those just starting,keep at it ,ITS WORTH THE HARD WORK ! http.www.youtube.com/vincentludovico P.S. my folkloric group can be seen on youtube