Sounou

Songo- Jose Luis Quintana , better known as “Changuito” is one of Cuba’s most innovative drummer/percussionists. Throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, he was a member of the Cuban group Los Van Van. It was in this group that he developed a style of Cuban music called songo.

The first drum set with Los Van Van had no cymbals or hi hat. the basic set consisted of toms, snare drum, bass drum, and a large piece of bamboo called “caña brava” mounted on a stand. The conga drum plays an open tone on the “n” of two and on four. Those are very important notes in latin music. You find those two notes in many other conga rhythms. The bass player plays around those two notes most of the time.

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Part III.

Final Thoughts

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11. Team

Jérôme Goldschmidt: Jérôme has been a professional musician and teacher for over 25 years. He lives in NYC and played with numerous artists such as Tito Puente, Mongo San-tamaria & Chico O’Farrill. jeromegoldschmidt.com

Laurent Peckels: after having spent 10 years in Paris working in the IT field and founding his own company Laurent finally chose The Bass as his career path. He is a member of the Luxembourg Jazz Orchestra Big Band, he teaches and he has kept his soft-spot for mixing geeky tech stuff with music. peckels.com

Jonathan Levi: Jonathan, (born 1996!) is a drummer, loves Jazz & Latin music, good food and new technologies. Follow him on twitter.com/drummerjolev

Georgi Gochev:developer - geonwk.com

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Figure 11.1.: The Team

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12. Contributors

Siddhartha Naithani: Musician, sound designer, and audio editor based in NYC. Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/noeticsound

Greg Askew- Bronx, New York Greg Askew, a product of Harbor Performing Arts Center, studied with Reggie Tyler, Louis Bauzo & Alex Giglio among others. He recorded with Orchestra Yambu and played on Danilo Perez “Motherland” album. He performed with Tito Puente, Roberto Borrell y su Kubata and Felipe Garcia; he is currently performing with Caribbean dance troupes “Patakin” and “Carambu.”

Louis Bauzo – Brooklyn, New York Born in Puerto Rico, Louis Bauzo attended Julliard School of Music and studied in Africa, Puerto Rico and Cuba. He has been a professional musician for over thirty years. A member of the Tito Puente Orchestra for seven years during the 1970’s, he has performed and/or recorded with Dizzy GIllespie, Machito, Mario Bauza, Eddie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaria, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, Celia Cruz, Cachao, Paul Simon, Manhattan Transfer, Joe Jackson, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Babatunde Olatunji, Ladji Camara, Katherine Dunham and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, among others.

Luiz Ebert – Queens, New York Luiz Ebert, drummer and percussionist, is a native of Brasília, Brazil, He has developed a vocabulary blend of drumming with percussive sen-sitivity all his own. Combining the innovative concepts of jazz music with traditional el-ements of Brazilian music creates a unique sonic palette that propels music in different directions. Luiz Ebert currently resides in New York City, where he works with some of the most talented upcoming jazz artists, as well as some established Brazilian artist such as pianist Cidinho Teixeira and bassist Leco Reis.

Marcos Napa– Clifton, New Jersey Marcos Augusto Napa Ormeño, was born in Lima, Peru.

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He dedicated his life to Afro-Peruvian music and dance and made his debut as a profes-sional percussionist in Ballet Perú Negro. After a brilliant career with Ballet Peru Negro, he performed with great Peruvian artists such as Eva Ayllon, Juan Castro Nally, Cecilia Braca-monte, Lucila Campos, Mariela Valencia and Maria del Carmen Dongo. Currently, Marcos teaches Afro Peruvian Dance at Pachamama Peruvian Arts in Queens, NY and directs his Afro Peruvian Music and Dance Group: “Caracumbe”. www.marcosnapa.com

Mario Monaco– Queens, New York Born in Montreal (Canada), Mario started playing Drum Set on his 8th birthday and became a full time player at the age of fourteen playing mostly North American Music. In his 20’s, he moved to Brazil and spent 8 years in São Paulo ab-sorbing the Music. Besides being an incredible drummer, Mario plays also percussion. He is most recognized for his dedication and musical abilities in the variety of Brazilian rhythms.

He has performed with Al Di Meola, Paul Winter and Sambeamba, and has recorded with Claude Dubois, Querubim Samba, and Mamadou Baye, to name a few. Mario is currently living in New York City.

Oswald Simmonds – Irvington, New Jersey Mr. Simmonds began his musical career in Spanish Harlem New York City at the Boriqua Workshop, under the tutelage of John Mason and the Quiñonez brothers. He later furthered his studies with Chief James Hawthorne Bey in Queens New York, at the Bernice Johnson dance School. Following this experience, he joined the International African American Ballet, where he studied the music, dance & songs of the Old Mali Empire West Africa, with Olukose Wiles, John Blandford, Rhonda Morman and Hazel Starks-Bryant. He became Co-founder and Associate Director for both the Body Forms Dance and Fitness Studio in Jersey City, New Jersey and the African Performing Arts and Culture Center, of Newark New Jersey. He has performed and recorded with many musical groups and dance companies. Mr. Simmonds is a former consultant for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Artist in Residence Program, and Adjunct faculty member of the New Jersey City University.

Reynaldo Alcantara- Cliffside Park, New Jersey Born and raised on the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, Reynaldo Alcantara considers himself a great lover of all that is folkloric music from many countries but especially from the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and his native home of Dominican Republic. He studied folkloric music with Master Teach-ers Louis Bauzo and Alfredo Coyude. In addition, Reynaldo has professionally played Salsa

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for over forty years and has had the privilege of playing and professionally recording music with various bands like El Conjunto Saoco, Yambu, Nino Segarra, Paquito Guzman, David Forestier, Loas Hermanos Colon, Cano Estremeda, Tricoche, Billy Carrion, Luisito Carrion to name just a few.

Richard Byrd - Bloomfield, New Jersey Richard Byrd, native of New Jersey, has traveled around the world perfecting his craft as a Drummer and Akponni. He has had the dis-tinction of performing consistently with Babatunde Olatunji, Ladji Camara, Chuck Davis, Charles Moore Dance Co. and Chief Bey. He was also the founder and director of Dundu Dole, a West African Dance troupe. His constant study has afforded him the distinction of being one of the better Djembe Drummers and all around percussionist. His wide range of talents allows him to be proficient on many types of drums, including the Bata, Congas, Sangba, Djundjun, Sabar, Ashiko, as well as a wide variety of percussion instruments, such as Shekere, and Agogo bells. Richard’s dedication has led him to become one of the lead-ing Akponni’s in the Yoruba tradition. Richard has also worked with Jimmy McGriff, Tito Puente, Sun Ra Arkestra, Cecil McBee, and Charles Earland.

Rudy Walker – Orange, New Jersey Tasty, powerful, dynamic, steady. . . these are only a few of the adjectives that have been used to describe the technique and performance of drummer, Rudy Walker. Since the age of seven, Rudy’s natural attraction to percussion has been in evidence. Starting on the snare drum was the beginning of mastering the entire drum set, and watching a performance by Billy Brooks set a burning desire in motion. With a career that spans thirty years of performance, recording and teaching, Mr. Walker takes tremendous pride in his contributions to making music with such notables as Sir Roland Hanna, Walter Davis, Jr., Randy Weston, Pharaoh Saunders, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Fortune, Bobby Watson, Andy Bey, Gloria Lynn, Amiri Baraka and Jimmy Scott. Throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Africa and Japan, Mr. Walker has made music with many of the best musicians in the world, whether high profiled or local legends, music that spans the spectrum of style and craft. www.rudywalker.com

Victor Rendón– Queens, New York Originally from the Corpus Christi, Texas area, drum-mer/percussionist Victor Rendón has had a 30 year plus career as a performer and educator in New York City. He studied classical percussion intensively for many years with his first teacher, Jimmy Ramirez, and Latin percussion in NYC with renown percussionists: Louie

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Bauzo, John Almendra, “Little” Ray Romero, Frankie Malabe, Mike Collazo Sr., Changuito, Roberto Borrell, John Amira, as well as drumset artists; Paul Guerrero, Charli Persip, and Dom Famularo. Formerly co-leader of the Rodríguez/Rendón Latin Jazz Orchestra, he now leads the Latin-jazz group Blue Mambo and the percussion group: Co-Tim-Bó. His lat-est project is the Bronx Conexión Latin-Jazz Big Band with it’s home base at Lehman Col-lege. He has worked as a side man with Mongo Santamaria, Chico O’Farrill, Carlos “Patato”

Valdés, Ray Santos Orchestra, Grupo Caribe, Latin Jazz Coalition, The “New” Xavier Cugat Orchestra, Grupo Latin Vibe, Los Mas Valientes, Rudy Calzado, Corpus Christi Sympony, Bronx Symphony, and many others. www.victorrendon.com

We would like to thank: Roger Fixy, Louie Bauzo, Johnny Almendra, Victor Rendon (thank you for revising the wording), Alberto Villareal, Mario “Aspirina” Jáuregui, Greg Askew, Ernesto Gatel, Maximino Duquesne, Amado Dedeu, Cristobal Larrinaga, Carlos Aldama, Olivier Congar, Ray Alcantara, Richard Byrd, Thomas Beato, Luisito Quintero, Daniela Gi-acone, Max Sauber, Paul Mootz, Alain Ginter, Rainer Kind, Romain Heck, Gregor Hueb-ner, Sven Prokaska, Mario Monaco, Bruno Marrazza, Jacques Tellitocci, Catarina Almeida, Kameliya Gocheva, Luc Kinsch, Anne-Catherine, Ada, Maud, Isabelle, Patrick, Ministère de la Culture du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Our thoughts go to our families which we love dearly.

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