Santamaría learned rumba as a kid in the streets of Havana’s Jesús María barrio.
He reminisced: “In the neighborhood where I came from we had all kinds of music, mostly from Africa. We did not leave it alone; we changed it our way. The music we made dealt with religion and conversation. The drum was our tool and we used it for everything.”
Afro Blue (a Mongo Santamaria composition)
Personnel on Afro Blue
Mongo Santamaria, congas
Bobby Sanabria, drums
Sal Santamaria, percussion
E.J. Allen, trumpet
Sam Furnace, tenor saxophone
Tony Hinson, baritone saxophone
Bob Quaranta, piano
Eddie Resto, bass
Afro Blue – The John Coltrane version
More from Mongo
Tracks:
1. Perez Prado – Mambo del 65 – Mongo on congas, first time he was recorded on the instrument
2. Tito Puente – Four Beat Mambo – Mongo with Willie Bobo, and Patato
3. Mongo Santamaria’s Afro-Cuban Drums
4. Cal Djader Quintet – Afro-Blue – Tune with and by Mongo Santamaria
5. Mongo Santamaria – Mazacote – With Willie Bobo, Al McKibbon (Mongo on bongo)
6. Mongo Santamaria – Canta Bajo – Mongo Introduces La Lupe
7. Mongo Santamaria – Canto Abacua – With Justo Betancourt
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
When you talk about Cuban music, you have to talk about Puerto Rico and the Bronx too.
This video is a classic example why.
From a concert recorded in Puerto Rico in 1998.
Andy Gonzalez – bass, The Bronx (Puerto Rico)
Jerry Gonzalez – trumpet, The Bronx (Puerto Rico)
Ivan Renta – tenor sax, Puerto Rico
Luis Perdomo – piano, Venezuela
Pedrito Martinez – congas, Cuba
Jerry Gonzalez founded the The Fort Apache Band, which included his brother Andy, one of the great Latin jazz innovators of all time.
Henry Holloway, veteran jazz radio broadcaster and host of “Swing, Sing and All That Jazz” which we make available to you each week through the magic of the Internet.
Henry Holloway was the first non-American to win the Golden Bandstand Award and is one of the very few non-musicians to do so. Other winners have included: Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra.
Recently, this eighty-something year old jazz fan with decades of jazz broadcasting experience signed up for a free course about Cuba and its music by subscribing to “Ken’s Cuba List.”
Here’s what he said in a recent private email to Ken (reprinted with Henry’s permission):
Dear Ken,
I’ve just finished listening to the program you sent about the conga.
Awesome, just awesome!!!!!
I have NEVER before realized how fascinating the conga and associated instruments can be!!!!! In fact, I’ve always written them off, but now I respect them greatly.
This has been an enormous musical lesson to me……
Thanks and keep up your wonderful work.
Yours in Jazz,
Henry Holloway
Whether you’re eight or eighty, if you’re US citizen, you have been cut off from Cuba for most of your life.
This is a tragic situation on many levels including the music and musical connections we’ve all missed.
To help mend this sad state-of-affairs, Ken McCarthy, the founder of Jazz on the Tube, is offering a weekly musical “lesson” about Cuba and its music, truly one of humanity’s great cultural treasures and one of the essential contributing elements to the music we call jazz.
It’s free and you can start the course any time. Just sign up for Ken’s Cuba List. (As always, you can unsubscribe at any time.)
Discovering the richness of Cuba’s music has been a life changing experience for thousands of jazz lovers (Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton come to mind.) Now you can learn – in depth – what all the fuss is about.
This is a clip from the film “El Milagro de Candeal” (The Miracle of Candeal), part documentary, part cinematic parable by Spanish director Fernando Trueba, the maker of “Calle 54.”
The film is about how music and social action transformed a notorious slum in the Brazilian in Bahia (a state on the northeastern into a thriving thriving community socially and economically under the leadership of singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Carlinhos Brown.
Bebo works out on the Cuban classic “El Mansiero”, the 1930 that helped kickstart the US passion for Cuban music.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Every year, Jazz at Lincoln Center hosts the equivalent of “Woodstock” for high school jazz bands.
It’s called Essentially Ellington and in a word it’s GREAT.
The bad news is you can’t get tickets. It’s for the bands only.
The good news is Jazz at Lincoln Center video streams the entire three day program live and later post videos to YouTube.
For the first year ever, a band from Cuba participated. Directed by Camilo Moreira.
The band wasn’t one of the three finalists, but some of its members were recognized for individual excellence.
They were:
– Baritone Saxophone: JORGE SERGIO RAMIREZ
– Trumpet: DAVID ARMANDO NAVARRO
– Tenor Saxophone: LUIS MIGUEL SANCHEZ
The band’s trumpet section was also recognized
We don’t have any video of them playing (yet), but to get an idea of the quality of the playing at this event, check out Newark Academy playing “Jack the Bear.”
Newark Academy Jazz Band at Essentially Ellington 2017
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
