LATIN MUSIC YOU'D SHARE

[Soandso]

Raymond Barretto Pagán (1929-2006) was born in the USA of Puerto Rican parents and became part of the influential "first generation" of Latin musicians born in the eastern USA and not Cuba/Puerto Rico. I'll post my Ray Barretto playlist below.

 

[Soandso]

A little lite music

In 2000 the band CUBA L.A. released a Christmas album titled "Navidad Cubana." The song I like for sharing here replete with Latin drumming is their rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" even though I doubt there were congas in the original musical score.

The timbales player is the accomplished Cuban Orestes Vilato (b.1944); pictured below. On congas is Michito Sanchez, playing flute Danilo Lozano, and 2 violinists namely Cuban Ilmar Gavilán and Pablo Mendez Granadin among other musicians.

 

[tineared]

And now for something completely different

 

[tineared]

Raymond Barretto Pagán (1929-2006) was born in the USA of Puerto Rican parents and became part of the influential "first generation" of Latin musicians born in the eastern USA and not Cuba/Puerto Rico. I'll post my Ray Barretto playlist below.

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Some cool jazz for your list

 

[tineared]

 

[Soandso]

Luis Salinas (b.1957) from Argentina developed his guitar reputation expressing cross-cultural musical influences including on electric guitar. With 21 records since 1995 demonstrating his talent and 2 nominations for Latin Grammy I'll just post below my playlist for Luis Salinas.

 

[Soandso]

And now for something completely different

The Marc Ribot band actually included the Cuban drummer Roberto Juan Rodriguez whose respectable talents were in demand by many noteworthy musicians, as can be read in the screen shot next to his picture below.

Here below is the 1998 record's promotional blurb highlighting the musical content's origin and target audience. The band recorded an additional "Cubanos Postizos" album in 2005.

 

[Karmacoma]

Quantic latin music's ventures are great

 

[Karmacoma]

Absolute banger everyone should have in a playlist.

 

[tineared]

Is this Emmanuel Tagoe tune African music with a Latin influence or is it just African?

 

[Karmacoma]

Is this Emmanuel Tagoe tune African music with a Latin influence or is it just African?

Djembés are African, congas are latin. After the colonial era, musicians from western African countries had a big wave of interest for latin music which resulted in fusion of both or straight up latin music. This is fusion.

 

[Karmacoma]

Here's one of my favorite tracks from this era, pure latin stuff, except in french!

 

[tineared]

Djembés are African, congas are latin. After the colonial era, musicians from western African countries had a big wave of interest for latin music which resulted in fusion of both or straight up latin music. This is fusion.

I think the origin of the conga drum can be debated. My understanding is they originated from the African Congo, hence the name .
No doubt Latino musicians made them popular world-wide though.
But it's the music that interests me. Certainly it's "fusion", but so is all music to some extent.

 

[Karmacoma]

I think the origin of the conga drum can be debated. My understanding is they originated from the African Congo, hence the name .
No doubt Latino musicians made them popular world-wide though.
But it's the music that interests me. Certainly it's "fusion", but so is all music to some extent.

Well if you look at the picture, it's pretty obvious. Two tribes refer to the Africans and the afro-caribeans and you can see african instruments on the left and latin instruments on the right. Instruments are rarely only from one place only, usually they evolve when they encounter a new culture. The congas we know are definitely latin.

 

[Soandso]

Is this Emmanuel Tagoe tune African music with a Latin influence or is it just African?

I've a 2 part observation:

1st:
The musicians listed and the percussion instruments shown on the album cover are not all African. For example at lower right those are round India "tablas" which at around 1:52 are distinguishable. The playing does weave syncopation and poly-rhythms which, although not unique to it, are part of African musical traditions.

2nd:
In 1939 "Congolia Radio" located in the city of what is now called Kinsasha began broadcasting it's programs in French and several African language time spots; after W.W.2 significantly upgrading it's transmission capacity. The colonists and missionaries had coastal porters bring along phonographs as well as musical instruments for a long time already. And since record companies had been marketing Cuban music those were brought in by foreigners for their phonographs and subsequently into radio programming Africans heard. The aforementioned coastal porters who eventually returned homeward also spread exposure to what we'd now consider vintage Cuban musical styles.

 

[tineared]

Well if you look at the picture, it's pretty obvious. Two tribes refer to the Africans and the afro-caribeans and you can see african instruments on the left and latin instruments on the right. Instruments are rarely only from one place only, usually they evolve when they encounter a new culture. The congas we know are definitely latin.

There is no doubt that the congas of today have evolved substantially in the Latino music community beginning with the Africans that were brought to Cuba well over a century ago.
The question was where did they originate.
I believe we are arguing semantics and it's getting silly

 

[Soandso]

Djembés are African, congas are latin.

Above is a Cuban postage stamp picturing the Bonkó Enchemiyá. When male west-African slaves from what is now SE Nigeria/SW Cameroon found themselves in Cuba their ancestral fraternal society was transplanted. Originally tribal Efik, Efut and Ibibio people re-created in secret the "EKEPE" (a "Brothers of the Leopard" Society) whose secret speech in Cuba was called "ÑAÑIGOS" (ñaña = society brother + ngo = African word for leopard) and the fraternal members called "ABAKUÁ"; at one time ñañigos was a Cuban slang word used derogatorily about someone.

In Cuba the ABAKUÁ communicated via so called speaking ("talking") drums since not only was it a secret society but so the Europeans were kept from understanding. More routinely an Abakuá temple meeting played the drums for marching/parading/stepping together. Their percussion ensemble "BIANKOMEKO" comprised 3 types of accompaniment drums known as the "ENKOMÓ" being the "OBIAPÁ", "KUCHI YEREMÁ" and the BINKOME." However in addition to those 3 there was the lead talking drum of the biankomekó ensemble which was the "BONKÓ ENCHEMIYÁ". When, how and why the tall Leopard Society's drum "bonkó" word became associated with the low profile Cuban "bongo" and they began calling the tall drum instead "conga" (Congo) I am not informed enough to say.

 

[tineared]

Here's another from Cuba L.A.s cleverly titled second album that includes a violin...

 

[Karmacoma]

There is no doubt that the congas of today have evolved substantially in the Latino music community beginning with the Africans that were brought to Cuba well over a century ago.
The question was where did they originate.
I believe we are arguing semantics and it's getting silly

Nope, that's not the definition of semantics, and the conversation only gets silly when silly arguments are made . Congas are latin, whatever their roots are (Africa), just like negro spirituals are american, whatever their roots are (African), just like 6-strings guitar is european whatever its roots are (Arab) and so on... Once again the question of the origins is answered on the cover of the album you shared, it's obvious for the artist (and for me) and that's the core concept of the album. Now if you wanna speak about the instrument it's derived from, which certainly comes from Africa, we're not talking about the same instrument, so that's not semantics.
Let that sink in a little bit before going further.

 

[Soandso]

Bobby Rodriguez has played trumpet with many recording artists (see below). I'll here recommend 2 of his instrumentals which are evocative with his phrasing and modulating flugelhorn notes' intimacy. The songs are presented on the same album and I am at a loss to say whether I like "FLAMINGO" or "LADY YVONNE" a bit more.