Timbalero Manny Oquendo (1931-2009, seen here in red, playing bongos) playing a little gig with his group Libre:
Category: salsa
Page of Mozambique
So here’s what we were setting up with that last thing— a page of Mozambique for the drum set: Work up each pattern individually until it feels good, and then combine parts as you see […]
Conga to Mozambique
Let me say up front that I’m always a little paranoid about venturing into Afro-Cuban music on the blog— I don’t have a lot of field experience playing it with knowledgeable people, and have had […]
Groove o’ the day: Chico Hamilton — Conquistadores
Here’s a little 60’s funky LA cha cha (or guajira? Or something— it’s not a standard style) from the relatively unsung drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton. This is Conquistadores, from his 1965 album El Chico: The right hand […]
Podcast — Episode 6: Todd’s playalong tracks
Hey, we haven’t done a podcast in some time, have we? I’ve been doing most of my drumset practicing along with recordings recently— book exercises and everything— and I thought I’d share some of the […]
Page o’ coordination: Songo — 02
This is the companion to the recent Songo page, which I thought you might want to work on concurrently— it’s the same set of exercises, with the clave rhythm in the left foot: Reread the […]
Page o’ coordination: Songo — 01
Here we’ll develop some bass drum variations for playing Songo, a popular Afro-Cuban/salsa drumset style, in case you’ve never heard of it. The first exercise is the ostinato, played with the hands only— the parts […]
DBMITW: Eddie Palmieri
While we’re on the Salsa music, here’s a Mozambique entitled Comparsa De Los Locos, by Eddie Palmieri, from his Vamonos Pal’ Monte album from 1971. Nicky Marrero plays drums, along with several percussionists. What the […]
Clave capers
Please don’t ask me about the title of this piece— I just wrote the first two words I thought of. I think there’s a Billy Taylor tune called Cuban Capers I played once… it’s not […]
Cascara coordination — 01
OK, I am seriously in need of a break from working on the book— finishing the damn thing is always the hardest. So here’s a page of exercises for developing coordination with the cascara, a […]
Drum chart: Mamblues by Cal Tjader
Here is a chart of Mamblues, from Cal Tjader’s album Soul Sauce, transcribed by me. It’s a pretty straightforward (but burning!) salsa tune on a blues form, with a cascara groove, mambo on the vibes […]