by Thomas Altmann » Wed Mar 30, 2022 12:01 pm
Referring to the subject of the thread, is having more congas overrated: I don't believe it's a matter of rating; if you can say everything you want with just one drum, that's fine. If you need five, then you have to bring five. When hired as a conga player, you are usually expected to set up a pair.
What I play depends on what I have in the first place. I own two sets:
1. four custom-made, prototype Schalloch congas made of maple for me in 1985. They sound fantastic, and they are my loud set. I've never been afraid of big or amplified bands with them. The sizes are approximately 11" / 11.5" / 2 x 12".
2. four vintage 1980's Gon Bops. I have played preferrably an original pair of one mahogany large conga ICL-3014 and one large tumba ITL-3014 for the past 10 years. Measurements are 11" and 12.25". I also have a 9.75" quinto IQ-3014 that I only play in rumba settings, but never in the set. Recently I bought a regular 10.75" oak conga IC-4141, but exchanged the original "teardrop" crown for a modern regular one of the contemporary Mariano series. Finally I acquired a regular tumba IT-3014 of 11.5", matching my original mahogany pair. So now I can either play a triple set of my mahogany drums (11" - 11.5" - 12.25") or a set of four with the 10.75" oak model as my center drum. The oak is considerably louder and brighter (and heavier!) than the mahogany drums. I might use it in louder settings.
Because of Corona, I haven't played congas publicly in the last two years. Generally spoken, the number of drums I brought to a gig depended on three considerations: (1) what I felt most comfortable with, including how much I was willing to carry around, (2) how much space I had on the stage, and (3) what type of music I was going to play, including the instrumentation of the band.
I could have brought a set of three drums in many instances, when I eventually decided to confine myself to the minimum requirement of two drums, for one of the reasons mentioned above. The third drum would be a medium-sized and -pitched drum to my left. There are days when I don't feel comfortable and strong enough with my left hand reaching out for that third drum.
The fourth drum to add would be a large, low sounding tumbadora in the middle in front of me, behind my center drum. I brought it only occasionally. I tune down the fourth drum so low it can musically function as a bombo or iyá (batá) sound. Often I can replace a heel bass sound by this fourth drum. But I don't do it always; the fourth drum is a sort of a secret weapon to me. In general, I find that with playing more than two drums, making choices and knowing when intentionally not to play the third and fourth one, becomes an issue.
While I do study other players and how they use multiple drum setups, I generally follow the traditional functions, melodies, clave- and tuning concepts provided in folkloric Cuban music. This is official practice: Even in the three-drum marcha, the medium-sized drum is habitually struck on the "1" of the 2-side of the clave, following the model of the tres-dos in modern rumba.
The drummers I studied for multiple conga setups are Joel Driggs, Jorge Alfonso and Daniel Ponce. I also got something from Giovanni's videos, I carefully watched Rumbavana's Rolando Sigler (Pica), and of course the patterns given to me in 1984 by my first Cuban teacher, Rodolfo "El Moro" of LA 440, were basic. I know that Candido and Patato had been the pioneers of setups of three and more congas, but to this day I haven't really checked them out.
Thomas