During my recent trip to Arizona I had the pleasure of meeting Onile, Tony. One of the nicest guys you could meet, he received me and my cousin with open arms, even cooked a wonderful Puerto Rican dish, "pernil" and "arroz con gandules", Chacho!!! pero que platillo
he said "It's pretty much traditional in our cultures that when folks bless us with their company, that we provide food and drink" say no more hermano you wont get any argument from me
. As I walked into his house the first thing that caught my eye was his set of portable pearls on that awesome custom made stand, I could not help but to be in awe as I laid my eyes on the rest of his arsenal
, all in the living room, Matt's, Islas, LP Patatos and 1 JCR/Mat, all of those wonderful tambores, each one just begging to be played. Once he said "go ahead Tocalos", it was open game, I took some long strides to the Matt's. sat on the throne and just felt them, the first live set of Matt's I've ever seen, or touched, wow, pero que tambor!!.
After chatting a good while, drums drums and more drums, he went into his room closet and pulled out one out of the three "FATS", man what a beautiful drum.
After the drool and the awe's he played on the Islas for me, pero chico!!!!!, man can that guy play, he really knows his stuff. He is also a teacher of the drum, man If I lived in AZ I would be taking lessons from him all the time. I could literally feel his love/passion for the drum and the Afro Cuban Culture. Man I was just soaking it in as best as I could. Another thing that greatly impressed me about Tony was when he said "the best challenge that we can accept in this life is to pass the torch (knowledge, skill set)", this to me spoke volumes about his heart, character and interest in teaching others.
You might be wondering why that Patato is upside down, that's the quinto, Tony told me that that conga had fallen one too many times, notice the small bottom, and he did not want it happening again.
Tony, once again, y con todo corazon hermano, gracias por todo, the videos, the manteca de corojo, but especialmente tu hospitalidad. Bendiciones.
Juan