Boogalu
Productions is ever expanding its horizons to include more and more of
those scenes you always wished you could see first hand.
Musically speaking, the descarga, or Cuban jam session, as it is often
called, has long been a favorite of Latin music fans, record
collectors, and autodidacts everywhere. That is a fancy word for
people, like myself, who sit with bongos or congas in front of the
stereo in order to teach themselves through the vicarious experience of
playing alongside more advanced performers. Not to say that a
jamming descarga is not also conducive to dancing or just a very
exciting listening experience. Descarga tempos can be interpreted as
"bailable".
The extended solos and the fiery emotional release
that this form can generate is both infectious to the participating
musicians as well as the audience. What could be more exciting
than watching and hearing musicians doing what they themselves enjoy
the most, "stretching out" as they feel it, to their heart's content,
without the usual time restraints or "commercial" considerations?
With
this current Boogalu project we have added the hitherto missing visual
element to just such an authentic Cuban descarga recording. A picture
is worth a thousand notes and now you have before you both the audio
and the video. You can learn from hearing and from simultaneous seeing
- and what a spectacle it is - the next best thing to actually being
there.
By the way, there are plenty of close shots of hands on
instruments so you can really see what is going on. You will also enjoy
watching the casual camaraderie among the musicians, before, during,
and after each session.
The emphasis is on instrumental solos,
but not without some vocal elements and coro as well to spice things up
and to keep a reference to the traditions. In addition to percussion
(tumbadoras, timbal, bongo, bata, cajon, clave, campana, guiro,
guira, and shekere) there is piano, flauta, tres guitar,
trompeta, and upright string bass. You will see and hear extended solos
by the flute, the piano, trumpet, tres, bass, and, of course, all the
percussion.
Some of the many highlights to look for are the
advanced conga drum solos by "Panga" and the totally inspired bongo
solos by the leader "Chaguito" who also composed and arranged the whole
session. Fans of the traditional wooden flute will hear one of
its masters, Melquiades Fundora, who was an original member of Orq.
Sublime in 1956! Other highlights are solos by pianist Angel
Labori, tres guitar by Esconodio Padilla, trumpet by Juan Carlos Tito
Rojas, timbales by Alberto Muguercia, bongo by Luis Enrique "Kiki"
Romero, and bass by Armando Fuentes.
In addition to the cha
cha chá (destined to be a hit in its own right), the son, the
son montuno, and the conga, as take off points for these descargas,
Chaguito has arranged many inventive combinatorial pieces which utilize
an extended range of Cuban percussion traditions. This includes pilon,
mozambique, bata-rumba with cajon, rumba guarapachangeo, and bembe.
During the bembe piece, for example, you will witness something quite
unique in one section - both Chaguito and Panga playing lead conga drum
phrases with one hand while holding clave with the other.
After
this gets out, I cannot imagine that every percussionist around the
world will not be challenging themselves with this little exercise, to
learn, as we always seem to be doing, from the many accomplishments of
our Cuban brothers and sisters.
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