Cruising Ebay and Craigslist for bargains on instruments as I do, I frequently come across some truly unfortunate versions of these drums. There are of course the clumsier Mexican drums, some strangely evolved fiberglass ones and of course the truly awful modern budget versions with their strange shapes, anemic hardware and bulbous comfort rims.
But these bongos are truly the weirdest version I have come across.... of course now that I have said that something weirder is going to come along...
I've been completely in love with Brazilian music for a while now. It started with Bossa Nova and then Samba, Maracatu, Brazilian Jazz and even some Baile Funk. Mas Que Nada originally by Jorge Ben, and covered so famously by the Tamba Trio has been one of my favorites and is a standard from Brazil. Hearing the chorus sing the opening refrain always gets me going:
O, Ariá! Raió!
Obá! Obá! Obá!
O, Ariá! Raió!
Obá! Obá! Obá!...
I'm sure it is well known among my readers that a rumba version of Mas Que Nada exists. Famously performed by Virgilio Martí on Patato and Totico's seminal album. Listening to Jorge Ben's soulful and simple singing of this song, I can understand how Marti may have been inspired to sing this song as a rumba.
I've been wanting to sing this song for years at a rumba. It's such a catchy tune and famous. The problem is the lyrics are in Portuguese, which is a beautiful language, but not really appropriate for rumba. Virgilio twists things up and sings his version with some funky Spanish lyrics more appropriate for rumba. I've probably sat down 3 times to try and piece Martí's version together, but my Spanish vocabulary just is not that expansive. I really did not want to be singing some gibberish that I thought was Spanish at the next rumba you know? Sadly, Patato, Totico and Virgilio left the lyrics out of the liner notes.
Luckily, we have the great rumba song lyric website El Cancionero Rumbero so I consulted it's huge archive to get the lyrics. Surly all the songs to this famous album would be there. Aaah, no such luck.
I've had the good fortune to correspond with Barry Cox who runs that site and Vamos a Guarachar and La Rumba No Es Como Ayer , so I sent him a request for the lyrics which he so kindly provided me with.
I'm very happy to have these lyrics now, I've been kind of butchering the song with a strange mix of half remembered parroted Portuguese and Spanish lyrics during my private practice. Not pretty! I like this song as a Columbia. Anyways, Caranaval is this weekend here in San Francisco, so I'm going to try and get it down for our rumba performance there.
Sadly I have heard the news that Francisco Aguabella passed away today, Friday May 7, 2010
Francisco Aguabella was a personal favorite of mine. As a musician he could do it all. Afrocuban Folklore, Rumba, Bata, Jazz, Latin Jazz, Salsa, etc. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to see him perform. A look at my music library shows an extensive collection of his works.
Francisco Aguabella:
Agua de Cuba
Cantos a los Orishas
Cubacan
H2O
Hitting Hard
Ochimini
Francisco Aguabella y Su Grupo Orishas
Bembe y Afrocuban Music
Not to mention the several albums he played on for Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente among others.
My favorite quote regarding Francisco comes from Dizzy Gillespie:
"Aguabella is the John Coltrane of the Conga Drums.” -- Dizzy Gillespie
I was fortunate to see Aguabella play at Yoshi's on Filmore a couple of years back. An incredible show. The pictures in this post are from that show. I remember something Francisco said that night, which made me very happy
"Now I live in L.A., but San Francisco, is my city!"
We'll miss you terribly Francisco. Thanks for all the great music.
This rhyhtm is an adaptation of Bembe Agwe played on three drums by myself. Bembe Agwe is a bembe played when singing songs for females. Zoom H2 and Alesis SR-16 on bell.
Another recordingI made playing three drum adaptations. This one is bakoso, even though a lot of players around here refer to it as bembe, I've been told by my instructor that it's actually bakoso. It's the first rhythm I learnt to play on 3 drums. Again, the Alesis Sr-16 plays bell. Recorded by Zoom H2.
A short recording I made using my Zoom H2, what a convenient device. Anyways I'm playing an adaption of Abakua on 3 drums with my Alesis SR-16 drum machine playing the bell pattern.
I've just nearly finished up a couple more shekeres. The one on the left with the wood beads is a birthday present for my father. He doesn't play percussion at all, but he is a rather good guitarist. He just wanted to own one of my instruments. Shekeres are also good looking enough to have around as decoration, but of course they should be played. At any rate I'll be able to give this one a couple of shakes whenever I visit. Who knows, mabe my dad will pick it up.
The red and white one was meant to be sold, but it didn't work out that way. The deal fell through. But not to worry, the more I thought about it the more I liked this "candy cane" shekere and to tell the truth it is a very good match with my other shekere. This red and white one is now the mula to my black and red caja. Just got to get to work on the cachimbo. I'm lucky because I have two very nice cachimbo sized gourds to choose from to round out my set.
I recently made another trip to the library and came across this excellent book "Rites of Rhythm The Music of Cuba" by Jory Farr. Jory makes several trips to Cuba and other Cuban music hotspots in America and interviews several key Cuban musicians including Miguel Anga Diaz, Jesus Alfonso Mira, Orestes Vilato and Chucho Valdes.
Anyways I was reading the book and came across this paragraph where Juan Bautista Castillo Mustelier describes Jiribilla as a kind of dance related to a rhythm called Tahona. Juan Bautista is from Santiago and from mixed Cuban and Haitian background. This is what the book says.
When Bautista arrived in Santiago, he danced the rumba-but in the Tajona tradition...
"Many people think there are just three kinds of rumba. But there is really a fourth style, and I introduced this style into the repertoire of Cutumba and Conjunto Folklorico de Oriente when I was the directore of both groups" Bautista said.
In Tajona, the force of the music powers the dancer into what is called the jiribilla, where the man must create, very quickly and very powerfully, certain improvisations. The dancer reacts to the repique drum, which is akin to thee quinto but comes from dahomey. In fact I'd seen this the night before at Teatro Marti: a spectacular eruption of dancing that seemed like a controlled convulsiuon"
~Rites of Rhythm, pages45-46
Anyways I have heard very little concerning exactly what Tahona is beyond the term being used in the title of this Chavlonga recording. Chavlonga is certainly an elder in rumba, and the rhythms in the recording sound different when compared to Los Munequitos for example. However I have not really done any in depth analysis of Chavlonga's record, assuming I even have the skill for such to be meaningful in any way. Still it's a fascinating subject, these old and obcsure rumbas.
A slow day like today is perfect for tinkering on drums. Today's project was putting a handle on my DW Gon Bops. The maker of Gon Bops, Akbar Moghaddam, is very experienced and makes an incredible drum. However they have these ugly holes drilled into them in case the owner wants to mount them on a rack. They also have 2 metal labels and GB stamped into each lug plate. That is a lot of stuff on my sleek little quinto, so something had to be done.
I bought the Gon Bop to go with my set of Resolution Drums. My 9 3/4" DW Gon Bop is a smaller size than Resolution makes, and is the "requinto" for that set. However the main reason I bought it is because it matches them so well. The red oak and hardware of the DW Gon Bop is very similar to the Resolution Drums, no big surprise there as both Ralph Flores and Akbar Moghaddam made Valjes at one time. Ralph Flores' father Tom Flores was the founder of Valje, and Akbar Moghaddam made Valjes here in San Francisco, prior to making his own Sol drums, which Akbar made before contracting to DW Gon Bops.
Okay so enough history. I called Ralph Flores and ordered a handle so I could put it on the Gon Bops. I like handles on my drums, and a Resolution handle would help the Gon Bop match even more. I positioned the Gon Bops label over the holes drilled for the rack mount to cover them up and hide them. Then I put the handle below that, similar to the way Resolution does it. Luckily the order of the staves was good, meaning I did not have to drill holes into a seam and weaken the drum. The handle for the Gon Bop had to go a little lower than the Resolution drum because the Gon Bop drum was taller.
A simple project really, even though it is always a little daunting to drill holes in a perfectly good drum. I think I have improved the look of the drum a bit by covering those holes, made it easier to move around and now my Gon Bop drum matches my Resolution drums just a little more. Certainly it should be obvious to anyone that it is part of the set.
