TUMBADORA ICONS from Havana to New York

Latin Beat Magazine, Nov, 1998 by Luis Tamargo

Mongo also hit the jackpot with his early 1960 pop hit Watermelon Man, while Herbie Hancock, Mongos former pianist, made his first million. Further, as a bandleader, Mongo graduated sidemen into their own bandleading careers as regularly as Art Blakey. If you do not believe me, ask Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Chick Corea, Joao Donato, Justo Almario or Steve Berrios (just to mention a few).

SECRET HANDS AND SONGO SONGS

In the 1970s, bassist Juan Formell revolutionized Cuban music by creating the songo, a rhythmic style that combines elements of traditional Cuban genres with contemporary harmonies and electronic instruments, among other things. As leader of Los Van Van, Formell was fortunate to count on the outstanding trap drums/tumbadoras relationship established by José Luis Quintana (a.k.a. Changuito), and Raúl "Yulo" Cárdenas, the latter of whom is currently featured as tumbador with El Greco's Cuban jazz ensemble.

Primarily known for his innovative role as Los Van Van's original trap drummer/pailero, Changuito also expanded hand drumming by adapting trap drum techniques to the tumbadora. Such mano secreta techniques would later influence the work of many younger tumbadores, including a Puerto Rican prodigy named Giovanni Hidalgo.

Formell invented the songo, but its highest common denominator was established by the orchestra Ritmo Oriental, whose tumbador, Juan C. Bravo (alias Clarito), in conjunction with trap drummer Daniel Díaz, injected a more powerful sound into Ritmo Oriental's charanga format. By developing a tumbadora sound on the style of the batá drums, Clarito produced a polyrhythm known as guatrapío, which propitiated Ritmo Oriental's overwhelming popularity in the 1970s.

The 1970s also signaled the rise to prominence of the amazing Jesús "El Niño" Alfonso. It has been said that El Niño was largely responsible for the incorporation of Yoruba and Carabalí rhythms into the groundbreaking sound of Irakere, the preeminent Cuban jazz band of the 20th century. Although El Niño standardized the usage of four or five tumbadoras during his tenure with Irakere, it has come to my attention that there was an extravagant character called Lázaro Cinco-Tumbas (for obvious reasons) in pre-Castro Havana, circa 1956. Like many other Cuban musicians, Lázaro could not become a prophet in his own land, and he ended up moving to Europe. What happened to Lázaro Cinco-Tumbas afterwards remains a mystery.

BLACK MAGIC MEN AND CROSSOVER DREAMS

Back in the 1970s, a search for new musical avenues was taking place in the U.S., giving a boost to the careers of various seasoned tumbadores Aguabella made a valuable contribution to the Latin rock movement through his involvement with Jorge Santana's Malo, and Peraza joined Carlos Santana's band in 1972. Within said primordial Latin rock organization, Peraza was admired for his youthful energy and playing prowess.

Meanwhile, Mongo and Barretto derived multiple benefits from New York's salsa explosion. By the mid-70s, however, Barretto disbanded his conjunto and went on to record several ill-fated "crossover" fusion albums for Atlantic. He was not as fortunate as a former calypso musician named Ralph McDonald, who became the busiest (and most financially successful) jazz-fusion tumbador of the 1970s, followed closely by a carioca named Paulinho da Costa.