Bongo icons: Cuba

Latin Beat Magazine, Nov, 2003 by Luis Tamargo

Categorized by Fernando Ortiz as "the most valuable synthesis of the twin drumming format achieved in Afro-Cuban music," the bongó was recreated in Cuba and destined to emerge majestically when the son genre was transplanted to Havana from Oriente Province in the early decades of the 20th century. Regarded--along with the tumbadora and the timbal--as one of the three major Cuban percussion instruments, the bongó was recently described by LATIN BEAT's Frank Figueroa as "a twin-headed drum developed by the criollos or descendants of Europeans and Africans born in the (Cuban) island. The instrument consists of two wooden drums attached to each other on the side." (Frank Figueroa: "On Afro-Caribbean Percussion," Latin Beat, November/02)

Here Comes the Son: From Sotolongo to Papakila

Born at the dawn of the 20th century, Oscar Sotolongo was one of the first prominent Havanese bongoseros. By the age of 13 he was already spotted playing his own rustic, homemade bongó in the Cuban capital. Six years later, he joined Sexteto Típico Oriental, to be known shortly thereafter as Sexteto Habanero (before it became Septeto Habanero, as soon as a trumpet was added to said ancestral son format).

Like other early son-playing bongoseros (José Manuel "El Chino" Inchiarte, Agustín Gutierrez, Andrés Sotolongo), Sotolongo had to tune his instrument of choice by applying heat to the drumheads with a reverberating furnace, but subsequent generations of Cuban bongó players were able to transcend such logistical obstacles. Metal tuning lugs made life much easier for Guillermo "Grillo" Romero, Arturo "Hueso" Linares, Rogelio "Yeyito" Iglesias and Antolín "Papakila" Suárez.

As a vital accomplice of Arsenio Rodríguez, Papakila played a significant role in the evolution of the son's predominant format from septeto to conjunto. It is likely that Papakila, back in those days, never suspected that the tumbadora would eventually replace the bongó as the son-playing conjunto's lead percussive instrument.

Percussive Double Agents and Cubop Pioneers: From Mongo to Candido

It must be noted, by the way, that many of the most influential tumbadores in Cuban music history started out as bongoseros, as illustrated in the cases of Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría, Cándido "Candito" Camero, Armando Peraza, and Federico Arístides Soto Alejo (better known as Tata Güines). As a matter of fact, Tata was featured as bongó player with Los Ases del Ritmo (a son septet led by his uncle in Güines) long before he moved from his native town to Havana and joined Conjunto Camacho, playing next to a full-time mailman and part-time bongosero identified as Mongo Santamaría.

As in the case of the tumbadora, the bongó was gradually incorporated into the jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s. Before moving to New York, Luciano "Chano" Pozo had already adapted his tumbadoras to the fundamental jazz rhythmic patterns, while performing with Mario Santana's jazz quartet at Havana's Alcazar Theatre in 1947, alongside a bongosero known as Panchito Berejano, who would surface many moons later, alternating with Roberto García St. as Emiliano Salvador's bongosero in the classic Cuban jazz LP Nueva Visión (EGREM, 1978)

The 1950s big bands led by Armando Romeu included such outstanding bongó players as Rogelio Darias and Cándido Camero. A native of Santa Clara classified by Leonardo Acosta as "one of the first to play tumbadoras on a stand, with illuminated engineering," Darias was destined to spread the bongó gospel to Las Vegas in the 1960s, when he collaborated extensively with the late piano star Liberace, long before other qualified bongó players (Chino Pozo, David Romero) arrived in Sin City.

By the early 1950s, Cándido was playing with a jazz combo organized by the Sonny Rollins-influenced tenorist Rubén Morales, alias "Perro Chino" (Chinadog), at the Barrio Chino (Havana's Chinatown) cabaret called El Faraón (The Pharoah). After the departure of Rolando Alfonso (Perro Chino's tumbador) and functioning as the sole surviving percussionist of the abovementioned combo, Camero conducted various groundbreaking experiments by simultaneously playing his bongó and a couple of tumbadoras on a custom-made stand. Sooner than later, Camero would export said innovations to the U.S., where he would acquire much fame and fortune by becoming the virtual successor of Chano Pozo.

Classic Havana Jams: From Chicho to Yeyito

Unlike his former employer (Dámaso Pérez Prado), Benny Moré employed in his Banda Gigante the classic percussive triumvirate of Cuba's "jazzband" format: trap drums, tumbadora and bongó. The latter instrument was handled by the island's former bongó ambassador to Mexico City: Clemente "Chicho" Piquero, whose wife was named (believe it or not) Celia Cruz--no relation whatsoever to the Santos Suárez-born guarachera.

Another descarga expert, Rogelio "Yeyito" Iglesias, had already replaced, three years earlier, the relentless martillomaniac Orlando "Chicuelo" Guzmán as Conjunto Casino's bongosero. In 1957, Yeyito participated in the legendary jam sessions recorded by Cachao's all-star combo. Listening to the classic Panart album Cachan y Su Ritmo Caliente (reissued as a compact disc by the Catalonian label Caney), one can easily understand why these recordings have become a virtual textbook for various generations of Latin percussionists through our planet. Additional evidence is introduced by the L.A. Cuban bongosero Michito Sánchez: "You can't find any bongoseros like Yeyito nowadays."