Episode 44: Congero Legendario "CHEMBO"!

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GRAMMY AWARD NOMINATED Percussionist Wilson “Chembo” Corniel was
born in Manhattan on November 22, 1953 of proud Puerto Rican parents; Chembo
was raised in the humble streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn. It was during these years,
as a quick-witted youngster, that he had the privilege and honor to study with such percussion luminaries as, Tommy Lopez Sr., “Little Ray” Romero, Louie Bauzo, and Cachete Maldonado.Chembo honed his skills at The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts in New York, and also at the prestigious La Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba under the direction of the great Chucho Valdés. 

In Cuba Chembo studied with Roberto Vizcaino Guillot, Jose Luis Quintana “Changuito”, Papo Angarica,
Alejandro Cavajal Guerra, Lazaro Poderoso, Julito Fantoma, Sandy Perez
(Grupo Afro Cuba De Mantanzas).

His intense studies with such legends noted above channeled his energy onto a path where Wilson “Chembo” Corniel has now created a reputation for himself among musicians and the public. Today, he is considered as one of the best hard-hitting, versatile percussionists around!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Without any further to do.
Please welcome to the mumbo inthe city south of podcast Chambu
coordinate.
Let me switch over, bro.
Come up that man.
Oh hey, how you doing.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you for having me, man, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
My pleasure, my brother, how you doing, how you
been.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Everything is good, man.
It's funny that you'rementioning a Tito Neves.
He's from the area too.
I know his mother's father.
We grew up together.
I hung out mostly with hiscousin.
He played timbales, etolatraand we will.
You know, we grew up.
There's a lot of musicians inthe scene here that that I seen
grow up.
Man, we're all kids and westarted together and Tito was

(00:40):
one of them and I got to playwith him for about four or five
years.
So he's a brother from anothermother in the neighborhood of
Red Hook, you know.
But everything is good.
China, stay alive and and andkeep busy and and China, you
know, and I would die of amodicine, you know.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Word man.
Those are some beautiful conguys behind you, bro, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I got about 14 pairs of con guys.
This is only the ones I have upin in my home studio that I
used to record tracks for Forpeople who who needs like, like
percussion tracks and stuff likethat.
So I do that home here.
So Mike's in my setup over hereand these are always here.

(01:30):
I have another setup in in mystudio in the basement in the
bottom where I rehearse my band,so I got another four over
there.
No, the three upstairs.
Sorry, we had go.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I got a Now, now, do you have your own line of con
guys?
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
No, no, no, not that famous yet.
They're waiting for, bro, whatthey waiting for.
You know I've been with LP 43years, Nunkka, and I see guys
who joined yesterday.
You know, you know, you knowwhat are you gonna do.
I mean, you know it's what itis, you know, you know, didn't
get his line until he was like95.
I don't want to wait that long,but you know, LP Made some, you

(02:13):
know, candido con guys and healways liked those white drums,
you know those white fiberglasscon guys.
So they just put a stick on hisname.
He's nothing like a fancydesign or anything like that,
but you know he had his linelater on.
But you know, company have beensold to different people, so
there's different.
Every time they do that I haveto reintroduce myself to the

(02:37):
artist's relation, you know, andall those people and and now
that the line is in Californiais not over here on the East
Coast any longer they deal witha lot of musicians from there
that are mostly like in the popfield and rock.
You know, some Latin you know,but mostly those kind of guys
that are, you know, gettingpushed.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Ahead.
Now, you know, with that, orstand, or spike, yes, I mean,
then it's hard to reintroduceyourself because, number one,
the beauty of what you've doneover these years, right,
nobody's gonna understand that,yeah, I know I Mean, although
you get the point across, butit's gonna.
You know, take a lot, weunderstand where, where, where.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know where I was coming from and how, how, the
background and and and and andand the resume that I have, you
know, and they were people whoknow he's, he's on black, he's
some guys who just doing it as ajob, don't know the roots of
our music, because this is acorporation that only sees us as

(03:41):
a commodity and pushes it asFar as that, you know, but not
with the Knowing what thisinstrument means to us.
You know and and and what we dowith this instrument.
We take it around the world.
You know, and and show thepeople how it's played and and
what to do with this, with thisitem.
You know.
So you know, and I see it thatway too but it gets tiring

(04:04):
because they're tiny, selling,you know.
You know.
That's why I don't push thatanymore, because you know you
got to keep like chasing theseguys and I just go along.
Just give me two drums and I'mgood.
You know.
So if that happens, it happenseasy, no, palante you know
that's it.
You let your work speak foritself, man, because yeah you
know they got to see what I didis gonna be or it's over 50

(04:27):
years now that I've been doing.
Is it so at 40, at 42 or 43years with a we're like
percussion, you know which.
You know it was very hip in thebeginning.
Martin calling, you know hetook care of all of us here and
all his staff, the people theywere sad when they, they had to
move out and Got sold and stufflike that.

(04:50):
You know, but you got to keepdoing it, you know.
You know you got to keep doingit.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I had some great memories up there during his
birthday parties and and thosetype of things and I should have
put this photo up.
We, we were part of a big photoat his last photo shoot yes, up
in the Bronx.
I posted up later, but that was.
That was a great time and thatwas a 40th anniversary.
Alhuacin and that canido waswas there.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, everybody everybody was there even people
who, not without people, they'reaffiliated with him as a family
.
Yeah, who was in the circle?
You know that that alwaysrespected all the drummers, all
the percussionists from LP andthat we work with all the
pianist they're some of the bassplayers were there.
You know all the other people.
You know horn players that thatwere affiliated with Martin.

(05:42):
You know they were there, so itwas like more a big family.
I remember that shot.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Amazing shot, an amazing setup he had.
You know he had these guys putup.
You know Martin's a master atthe photography part.
Oh yeah, I was happy to be partof that, that that photo, and
and I'm not a percussionist, Igot in, I guess, because I'm a
photographer and I would helpout at LP and you know.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
So that's how he Respends that also.
You know that's he.
You're in his field and, andbesides photography, with the
videos and now the book, youknow he has history and I was,
you know, you know I met him.
You know my first photo shootwas in 1982, you know, with him,
you know, and he always wasVery helpful and helping, you

(06:26):
know, throughout my career, youknow so, and he was always a
friend, always invited me to theparties and you know you know
those parties were.
You know, oh yeah, bands andfood.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Is who is who we show up.
Man.
I mean, yeah, yeah, he went tohis house and you know we was
walking around and playinginstruments and all the
beautiful photos like you said,you know, like a Disneyland for
percussionist man.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Shout out to Martin Cohen.
We were at the.
Was it a Tito Puente MamboDiablo concert a few weeks ago.
Okay so, but speaking of youknow those, those years was your
years of music.
You know who influenced you themost in terms of you know who

(07:12):
was the first percussionist.
You saw that you said, yo, Ihave to do this.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, it's funny.
It's funny that you say thatbecause I always have this story
that you know, being raised inBrooklyn and everything we used
to go every Sunday.
You know, the family used to goto the station wagon and on a
Sunday morning and go to ConeyIsland, everybody pack it in.
You know your mother, come onout.
I think when I will yada, oh,with the cover, yeah, don't

(07:42):
watch, you, don't keep it overand stuff, you know, and
everybody's in the back with ababy.
So the kids on the back and Iwas, I think, about nine, ten,
it could be about even more, inthat, about nine to ten.
And you know we saw the ConeyIsland and there and the next
bay, there was always a rumba,you know, and I'm here, but he,

(08:06):
all those drums have it as a way, wait.
After we said we settled down, Iran over there and I stood
there most of the time.
You know, I didn't get it tothe water and when I, when I got
close, I see these, thesegentlemen playing these rumba, I
said wow, that shit is killing.
You know that's killing it andyou know, and the one that that
was there playing it was a popopen.
So when I seen Papa when Iheard him play and he was with

(08:32):
Johnny Zemard.
He had a lot of good friends.
He's from Brooklyn also.
His brother was from Brooklynat the time, so they would jam
every Sunday there.
And when I see Papa I say, man,I wanna do that man the way he
did.
I was hitting the drum a littlebit because my uncle had a drum
.
He lived next door to us in theprojects and after school I used
to take this Mexican drum to myhouse because his wife, my aunt

(08:55):
, had a top eight day with aplant on top of it like a piece
of furniture, you know, and thecorn on top of the conga.
So I took that out.
Hey, you know so I was justbanging on it.
But when I heard Papa play thenext day, I went home.
The night I went home and Ilocked myself up in the room and
started practicing for the next40 years.
You know, wow, you know, papawas a big influence.

(09:18):
Later on I had guys who took meunder their wing and they seen I
had a little bit of talent andI studied with Tommy Lopez,
little Ray Romero, you know.
They were in the neighborhoodlater on, you know, hanging out
at this conga shop on Brooklyn,skin on Skin on Smith Street,

(09:38):
yeah.
And so Tommy moved in the areaand I was there every day almost
.
And then you know all of us, acouple of young guys were
hanging out at the shop at thetime.
They had a room in the back andTommy used to hang out.
So the owner of the shop, hesaid why don't you take these
kids in the room in the back andcharge them five dollars and
get a lesson?
You know you make some moneywhile you're here.

(09:59):
So this is how I started takinglessons with them.
Then, after that, you know Iwould I saw this house.
He went to Roomba's Little.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Ray.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Romero.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
For people who don't know.
Tell the people about TommyLopez.
You know Tommy.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Lopez, you know, was the conga player, the original
conga player, the EddiePalmieri's La Perfecta the
original La Perfecta, which is aband with two trombones and a
flute, and they were from the60s, the 1960s.
Eddie Palmieri, tommy Lopez,was the conga player there on
all those classic recordingsthat you hear now that are being

(10:39):
redone.
But the original band was LaPerfecta and he had many okendo
and timbales.
So that was the combination theBali conga, no bongo, but many
okendo playing timbales anddouble up on bongo.
So this was something thatnobody was doing at the time
either doing two instrumentsthere at one time, you know,

(11:02):
switching back and forth.
He had Dave Perez on bass,George Castro on flute, barry
Rogers on trombone, joseRodriguez on trombone.
Mae Imaepintana was the singerthere at the time, you know so,
and he is the father of, youknow, the famous Chuck Lopez,

(11:24):
the bongo player that we callEddie later on, you know.
So, chuck, we grew up almosttogether like brothers, you know
cause we hung out a lot andstuff when we were younger, so
you know he would go see his dadand we were just hanging out,
so you know.
So he comes with a family oftradition and at that time Tommy

(11:45):
was hanging out with guys likeJulito Collaso, Fatalto, tautico
, kako.
You know, these are guys whoare the roots of New York
percussion.
You know, afro-caribbean,afro-cuban, afro-portuguese
percussion, wow.
You know I got to hang with allof them, you know, and Tommy
took me all the way, all thetime to all those hangs, and

(12:06):
this is how I kind of blended inand started learning and
started checking out otherpeople.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
What did Tommy Lopez teach you that you know stuck
with you the most in terms ofplaying la conga?

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, the main thing that he taught me was once he
put that drum in between hislegs, he repeated the respect
that he had.
I seen him address the drum,like you know, he respected that
drum first before you play.
Is that just?
He didn't teach me licks likethat and started banging away

(12:41):
and stuff like that.
But the attitude you have withthat drum as one once he played
that drum, he was one personwith that drum.
So when he sat down and I said,oh man, I just I just seen that
, you know, it just kind of wentlike this and you know he
approached the drum, where heapproaches the drum and address
the drum before he played, a, a,a, a.

(13:03):
You know, like a person like hewas like okay, we're going to
work together, cause you can'tbeat the drum, the drum is going
to beat you, the drum will kickyour butt, you know.
So he had that respect in orderto before he started playing
and it went.
And then, when it went, hisdubao and his timing and his
control, you know that's whatblew me away.

(13:23):
You know the whole, the wholeAfinke, the whole respect that
he had for that drum.
And then he started.
Then he started, you knowtaking off.
On top of that, you knowBuilding up the initial sit down
.
You know, like, like, like,saludando al tambor primero.
You know how you doing blah,blah, blah, blah, like, like,

(13:46):
like, like.
You know.
You know.
So when I see that and itwasn't anything said, it's
something I seen that.
I I seen a few guys do that,not just grab the drum, okay to
tocar, but you know he stood atime there.
You know they do a golpe aqui,otro acar.
He looked at it, positionedhimself straight back.

(14:07):
You know ready to play.
You know and and and that's.
You know I grew up that wayprofessionally.
You know when we go to gigs andyou know kind of come from that
school, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, yeah, what a beautiful school and it was to.
You know that opportunity youhad with with Tommy Lopez.
I got to see his, his son, onceat the old timers day and I
took a video of him.
You know, I had never seen hisson, or unfortunately I never
got to see Tommy play, but justwhen he sat down to play, like

(14:41):
you said, there's somethingabout you know the way those
guys play.
Right, I'm getting goosebumpstalking about it, but you know
that that's something that I'msure that you never forget.
And and and anybody for peoplewho don't know, chembo also
teaches.
Okay, chembo, yes.
So remember when you, if youever reach out to Chembo for a
conga lesson or something, howwe, out of this pandemic, and

(15:03):
probably probably doing you knowyou can do some in-person ones
Remember where this is comingfrom.
Remember his lineage of youknow teachers here and what
you're getting if you ever arelucky enough to get a class with
, with Chembo.
Now let me ask you growing up,you know the Brown Brothers
around you, and, and, and, andLouis Boussot and Pavlito El

(15:25):
Indio, and you know, barrette,what tell us when you met Ray
Barretto?

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Ah well, during that conga shop.
It's called Skin on Skin was aconga shop in Brooklyn and there
is where I met Barretto Mongobecause all the congettos
started coming down.
It was interesting what arethese guys making, these
handmade drums?
You know they're bending theiron.
There's not a machine thingthere.
You know, you know and and andI seen.

(15:53):
I seen a drum how it's been madefrom the staves of the wood.
I seen a rod turning to hooksfor the congas, how they cut it
and then they bend it and threadit.
You know they're makinghandmade, you know everything.
So I bet a lot of a lot ofpeople congettos masters.

(16:13):
They passed through the shopthere and I got real, real, you
know, introduced to them.
I got real close to them.
I got introduced to them.
You know I was one of the kidsthat were hanging out there that
loved to play and I rememberthat I said go with my money so
I can get two drums from Skin onSkin and they were almost ready

(16:36):
and then the varnish had a dryand the good thing about that
that I like that I helped makethat drum.
I, after he cut those rods andtwisted it, I was making a
thread.
It's a little instrument thathas a thread on.
So you put it in the beginningof that rod and you start

(16:57):
spinning around and it makes athread.
And then you bring it back, youknow you oil it.
So I made my own threads there.
So I seen how the drum was puttogether, glued and everything
like that, you know, which is awhole different.
Other respect when you see thedrum, I know how it's made.
I could tell by looking at it.
You know what the craftsmanshipis.
So my drum was getting driedand I waited about three months

(17:22):
for them and Brella walks in andthey're on the shelf.
Brella walks in and say, okay,how much of a drum is that right
there?
You know he couldn't wait tothree months to get a drum.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
I'll take those right there.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
He said, no, no, that's this guy here, this kid,
and they took him to the side.
He said, no, no, we're about toget.
No, no, he didn't sell it.
He didn't sell it.
You know, that's his, that'sChamberlain's drums, you know.
So that's what we kind of hesaid who the hell are you?
But later on then we knew, youknow, we got, you know, we got
more friendly and everything.
He should go see us.
When I played with Ray Vega atCabajal's back in the early

(17:55):
nineties, he come visit us,visit me, and he was sitting and
play with the band and he wouldlove to play drums, not congas.
He did congas a couple of times, but he's a jazz drummer, so he
would like to play drums withRay Vega's band, you know.
So we got a nice report.
But I met a lot of guys Mongocame down, chete, other rumeros,

(18:18):
you know, and the people therewere on the scene playing, you
know, and the salsa sceneplaying at the time.
I met a lot of guys who werethere.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I remember I used to hang out with a musician I see
this all the time musician namedHarry Adorno.
Oh yeah, and Harry used to takeme the first time.
I'll never forget that thefirst time he took me to JCR,
you know, like you said, theyhave those factories and he had
all the photos on the wall andjust you know they used to sell
timbaleros and bongoseros, goingto JCR and buying, you know and

(18:51):
who's who Some of them weregoing on tour, they were going
to drums, things like that.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, a lot of people from Puerto Rico all around the
world.
They go there.
You get two or three bellsbecause they got to go to
colleagues and now one of hisbells are worth, you know,
hundreds, you know, if notthousands.
You know, for the bells that hehas now, because those are
classic bells, a lot of friends.
I got a couple of friends ofmine that are making their own
bells, sort of similar, you knownow, to the sound.

(19:17):
But Gali is Gali, you know, andanything with his label on it
they are collective items, youknow no-transcript.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
That's incredible.
I got to meet, luckily I got tomeet Riveretto at Madison
Square Garden and I also saw himat the, at the Latin Quarter,
when Rafi had the Latin Quarter,like one night, you know, and I
got to hear you know that shit,that, that, that you know.
You know I'm talking about thegoods, you know, let me, I never

(19:48):
forget that night, you know, Iclose my eyes and I just, you
know, I felt like I was at thecheetah, even though you know,
but just his sound.
You know, just close your eyes,I do the Pomeri too you know
yes.
Eddie playing yes.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
I was playing at those times and I was in the
cheetah where when they had thatthat, the historic recording
there I was at Yankee Stadium in73, when when Fanny also is
when Yankee Stadium and I usedto, you know, also in the
neighborhood, I know of youheard of Tuffy Sanchez.

(20:25):
Tuffy is it was a rough Macau.
Yeah, yeah, right here, man.
He didn't let nobody into thedoor.
You know nobody.
No, he's not here but so so helived there.
He did the Red Hook man, youknow, and he was.

(20:45):
He was like family with us too.
He's like a second father to us.
So you know he was working withRalphie and he gave me two
tickets.
He said you want some ticketsfor the thing for free?
I say, oh, yeah, I had to go tothe Bronx at midnight and paste
up those palesters, thoseposters, with the bucket of glue
in the brush.
So we're like about five kids.
You know he had a station wherethey were putting up posters at

(21:09):
three o'clock in the morning,you know, for the, for the event
, and I got two tickets, youknow, to get to to see, yeah,
the family, all stars.
But this is what I did and it'sa funny story.
But you know Tuffy was alwayscool with me, you know, he was
like family, you know he's seenus grow up, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Do you remember where you sat for the funny?

Speaker 2 (21:30):
No Close, and he was like towards the middle
somewhere, but it wasn't too far.
I seen a lot, but it was somany people there and it was.
It was chaos.
You really was.
You know, once they startedplaying, it was nothing like I I
seen before.
You know, the only feeling Ihad something like that was the

(21:52):
first time I played with MadisonSquare Garden, with Bobby
Rodriguez in la compañía, when I, when I went to Madison Square
Garden to play this is like 77,79, almost 80, we did think of
with Ralph MacArthur, each ofthrone, all the salsa dances all
the time, all the salsaconcerts, all the time, and the
crowd there was so packed, itwas so noisy.
I like all I heard was noise,you know, and and everything was

(22:16):
dark and roaring, not only infront but behind you, with the
people behind you too, and westarted playing and I don't know
, man, I was so scared, yeah,like so overwhelmed, like wow,
you know, I never forget thatfeeling.
That's how I guess the finalorder felt at that time, because
it was overwhelming.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
What a beautiful time , man.
Oh yeah, I'm.
I Met Chumbo on a person levelduring the Tito Rodriguez junior
rehearsals.
For those of you that don'tknow, chumbo is part of it.
Tito Rodriguez junior big band.
For how long now have you beenin the big band?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
I Was on and off because I did Some tours with
him to Turkey, germany.
We did a tour of Europe andthen after that I Get to play
with him to about maybe a yearbecause he had other guys
playing with him and then asteadily now for the last, going

(23:17):
on three years or so, andGeorgie was in the band to
Georgie Gonzalez recipes.
He was, he was with me in theband when I got in there and we
were together in Georgia.
I knew, you know, we wasyounger too.
I know for a long time, youknow, as he grew and progressed.
Also, speaking of Georgie, youknow.
Yes, Georgie was was also in theband, you know, and he had a

(23:39):
great Podcast with his brotherlast week.
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Thank you, can you see that right there, that pop.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
No, you got to read it.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
I got my so Ricky Ricky's joining us.
He says I'm a huge fan.
Thank you for coming to mybrother's week, oh.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yes, yes, okay, ricky , yeah, no, no, it was.
He's a pleasure man.
I.
I kind of had to take a doublelook.
When I see, when I see Ricky, Isay wait.
Those what he has here, youalready walking around here.
You know, they were like twins,you know, yeah, totally man you
know so.
So no, no, I was glad I met himthere and you know he's, he's

(24:25):
got a sweetheart, just likeGeorgie, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, um, I.
So the night of the he bet theSanta Rosa concert that Tita
Rodriguez, he bet the Santa Rosaconcert at hostos.
When you sat in the dressingroom we started talking, you
mentioned when you started therewas a Sixth hat that you part
of, called to and company.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
The first band was called Zee and company and
company.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
You know I wrote to and it's a Z.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
For there were three brothers in the band and this
every product, your key was sobecause he was a sex take with
vibes and stuff.
Zee and company, the threebrothers the last name was
servos, their father was Greekand their mother was Puerto
Rican.
But they went to the land side,one of them saying One play
vibes, you're gonna play piano,and it was a sex tech.

(25:23):
Zee and company was fromBrooklyn.
That's one of my first likeneighborhood bands really.
You know, I played with otherneighborhood bands when I
started playing, but then thisis like the V band, I'll play
with C bands now.
Yeah, the V band, over here Iwas playing with these guys and
we so open up a lot of theseplaces in Bay Ridge, the Riviera

(25:48):
, the red plum, you know placeslike that that we open up for
Bobby Rodriguez.
He la company out, which iswhen was the hottest band, one
of the hottest bands out at thetime, and we open up for them.
So Zee, company and then byRodriguez and company.
You know we're the companybands.

(26:08):
So anyway, this is also whereBobby see me play and then
offered me the gig a littlelater on For by Rodriguez, a
company, a band, so he see mewith that group was Zee and
company.
You know a lot in a similarcorner checking me out and my,
my, my friend, charlie Salinas.
We were working in in some Bbands in the Bronx.

(26:31):
I should drive up to a Bronxsometimes to play with some
bands up there and and Charlieused to come down to Brooklyn
sometimes and play with somebands here.
So he kind of recommended mefor the for the gig and then
once I got on there it wasstraight up, you know playing
with over all the top bands.
You know alternating with heckthe law, go by, check, or
Everybody, everybody, because wewere the house man in the

(26:53):
course.
So at the time you know where'sthat?
Three, four times a week.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Alternate with everybody, you know, and this is
where I got a chance to playwith the other bands, because
some of the conga players, likeLittle Ray, was played with
Machito and he was taking atwo-way vacation he asked me to
cover for him with Machito.
So I played with Machito twoweeks with the father.
You know, graciela, you know,and I know, and, and I and Tommy

(27:20):
and Chuck, he was playing bongoand his son is playing team
ball is.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
But we're right there .
So okay, cuz that's thatpercussion section, before you
go any further.
All right, you got Mario Grilloon team ball, right, no fun
conga.
And then you have Chuck.
Okay, so what, what?
What's?
What's going on there, bro?
What was that?
Like that dynamic?

Speaker 2 (27:45):
That was, that was my , my boot camp.
I, that was my boot camp onplaying where you're supposed to
play and playing the music.
That was there, noera,inventando nada.
You know, you had to tighten upyour belt and you had to play

(28:06):
and you had to concentrate.
You know, noera, not happystuff and throwing this and this
and this all around and startedthrowing licks and stuff.
It's all una marcha like it waslike an elephant coming at you,
you know.
You know like jogging on you,you know like trotting, you know
, and you know, with Machito itwas an experience and a half.

(28:29):
And then I got to travel withthe big three and then we played
with Mario some of his music,which I grew up listening to.
Also in Coney Island.
We did that with the big three,with Tito and Machito playing
some of their music.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
What a story bro.
Yeah yeah, graciela, so youdoing boleros yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Beautiful, boleros, beautiful.
The best things I love forthose big bands is when Tito
Rodriguez boleros, you know, youknow they're like, you know
they're like Cortabena's, youknow yeah.
And the way Roberto sang them,you know the way the father sang
them.
You know, yeah, you know, andthis is not only with my Tito.

(29:14):
You know, I got to play withTito Puente because I went on
tour with them when he recordedhis 100th album, giovanni,
playing conga zia, and he hadother commitments and then I got
the call from Johnny Rodriguezto to go on tour with the South
America and a couple ofcountries there in South America

(29:36):
, you know.
So I got to play with them.
Travel, we'll get that Broadway.
We went to Colombia, toCartagena.
Everybody I don't know who elseeverybody had to let me.
I got to to sit in a couple oftimes, you know, in some of the
clubs.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Be quick.
What was, what was Machito likeas a band leader?

Speaker 2 (30:00):
You know he was like your father.
He was like your father.
You know he was business, butyou know he was like I was.
I felt like I felt like I washome Speaking to a relative, you
know, like he had the samerespect for you and everything
like that.
Yeah, I never seen him mad atanything like that, you know.
Or you know he was such a happy, old, lucky, and he made

(30:21):
business.
You know, you know, once, onceyou get it a play, you know you
got to play.
You know, and don't know him,and he got it and it goes on the
papers, on the paper.
You know you took it, I, youknow, and at that time I was
also, you know, learning how toread music, which was helping me
out a lot now in the, in thelater future.
You know, luckily, I glad I hada friend of mine, a ref Lee

(30:44):
Tiano.
When I went on we went on tourswith Jose Bejo.
I joined Jose Bejo's band, refLee Tiano trumpet player.
He played with the level, so hewas a trumpet player, jose
Bejo's band, and on tours hetold me to buy this syncopation
book and we took it and he wasmy roommate.
Yeah, after the gigs we spenthours just going over it, you

(31:05):
know, and it kind of stuck on mebecause he would test me the
next day and I would answer him.
You know me the simple notes,you know, and it was just I kind
of carried on from there, whichis helping me now a lot, you
know, with the things that I'mdoing.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, and with Bobby Rodriguez, I mean.
The other day I was listeningto one of his albums, latin from
Manhattan, and the piano solos,man, you know, in those, in
those albums I mean, and we Idon't know what the photo is,
but the name of the piano playerdoesn't come to me.
Now, because I'm excited, I'mtalking to you Aldorsi, aldorsi.

(31:43):
So let let let, for those againwho will never know, or if
their name will come up again,you play with Aldorsi right,
yeah.
What was it like playing withAldorsi and give a little bit of
his history?

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Aldorsi.
He, he was African American,pure African American player.
He had a brother named RalphDorsey, who was a famous
percussionist conga player.
His brother, ralph Dorsey,played a lot with the, with the
jazz scene, like who's the otherconga player at the time, like

(32:21):
Ralph MacDonald, you know,playing the pop and then, and
you know, and that kind of stuff.
So, aldorsi, I met him when Ifirst joined the band and and
he's one of the original membersof the band, he was a great
player and they came out becauseby Rodriguez played clarinet

(32:45):
also, not only saxophone andflute, so we had like a
Dixieland sound, you know, inLatin.
So he put that in there.
We started doing a lot of stuffin English like what they are
doing now English salsa, youknow what happened, what
happened, man, you know, andsome other stuff, suddenly kind

(33:05):
of love, you know.
So we were doing that Englishstuff back there in the 70s and
late 70s and the 80s.
You know, I was a big part ofthe band.
Besides Toti Negron on bass, wehad Joe Wallace on trumpet,
Eddie Iglesias Hernandez ontrombone and Bobby was on flute,

(33:28):
clarinet and tenor and tenorsax.
Junior Coloan was singing, joseAcota was singing Coro.
It is myself and Charlie Salinaplaying timbales doubling up.
I came in after after the Latinfrom an Indian album.
I recorded two albums with himthe Force of the 80s.

(33:49):
I can't change the routine.
It's the second record Irecorded, so I came in a little
bit later after, not theoriginal.
There were like two guys beforeme and then I came in, but I
think I lasted about four orfive years with him.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Wow, Absolutely.
And also you got to travel.
Did you travel the most withBobby Rodriguez right?
Where did you guys travel to?

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well, you know, living in Brooklyn, in Red Hook,
I was still living with mymother and I never took a plane
out of there.
You know, I never took, youknow, the first year I joined
and we're like going to Columbiafive times that year.
You know, and it was kind ofweird because I'm going, I'm
going inside this plane for free, I didn't buy a ticket.

(34:36):
I'm sitting down in this plane.
I'm saying they're going tocatch me and throw me out any
minute.
I didn't know that the promotersbuy the ticket and we're
already taking care of you knowthe plane started taking off.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Oh, I got old one, oh my Lord.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
But I didn't know, you know.
You know I never flew out ofthere.
I went to Puerto Rico once ortwice, but nothing like to go to
to perform in Columbia.
We did a lot of San Francisco.
A lot of good friends of oursin San Francisco, los Angeles,
they loved this over there a lot.
We did once or twice in PuertoRico.
We did all around, all around,you know, but mostly in Latin

(35:16):
America, venezuela, you know,and we're like one of the
hottest bands at the time.
You know, we were young and wewere all young and crazy, you
know, but we had three or fourgigs a day, you know.
We talked about the whole week,you know.
Maybe one or two on Monday andone on Tuesday when it was a

(35:36):
through Sunday.
Three and four, you know, gigsfor three or four years in a row
, you know.
So I'm training there, you know,with my hands you know, because
I was playing a wooden drum andwe didn't have no microphones
for us.
So the brass got the mic on thesingers.
So we really had to dig intothat drum, you know, into that
wood drum, you know, and youknow, and it would have rubbed

(35:59):
floor, it would have muffed thesound, you know, this is how we,
you know, we had to do it.
So we had to make our jobeasier.
So there's ways and techniquesbreathing techniques that I had
to use and not stress too muchbut get a good sound, you know.
So I was figuring out how tomake my job easier, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
And plus you're traveling and you need to use
your hands every night and allthat stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Every night.
Yeah, every night, every night,and it was.
I remember one mistake I didthat we're in the course of and
we were coming from a third jobthis is the second and we got
one more after that and you know, I had a.
I was soloing every place weplay I had at least a solo all
the time.

(36:41):
So so we're in the back and myhands were like throbbing and in
the back of the course.
So they had this in Nevada,like if they make ice, you hear
it, you hear ice drop, you knowthat kind of stuff.
So I opened it up, I stuck myhands in there for a while in
between sets.
You know that they were hurtingand I thought I asked Bobby.
I said, bobby, maybe you knowthis set.

(37:03):
You know.
You know, don't give me a soloset.
You know my hands are okay,that's cool, don't worry.
So if you start playing thefirst number, he gave me a solo,
but I can't hold on.
I said, okay, I'll be okay.
How your hands feeling today?
They fine, but I learned fromthere.

(37:26):
I never said that, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
There was a con me player back in the day with a
canario, have you said,gentlemen?
I forgot his name because it'sbeen a long time since I've seen
him or juicy played with him.
No, he was older than juicy,though.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Let me see what play with him man.
He had a lot of guys.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah, he was heavy set and I remember no, no three,
no three.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Yeah, would have go to play with that group.
O'chentas, I forgot his name.
Yeah, and I'm even a big old, abig Colón.
He knows him.
Yeah, yeah.
I know the cat, yeah, yeah,yeah, and Dedo, dedo was always
with him for years.
You know it's a compaio, youknow the canario timbalero.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah, I remember at the Copa, one time he just came
over to me and he showed me hishands, and his hands.
Well, you know, he had tape onhim, but it was cut up.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, yeah, you still .
That's how it was.
That's how it was at thosetimes.
We didn't have these syntheticheads that we use it now.
You know that makes your jobeasier.
You know that came recently,you know, but we had to dig on
this and especially if he washumid they would get mongol.
You know they said when are youlike a third?
And you had to keep tuning them.
You know, and it's a wholedifferent thing with your

(38:39):
instrument that you had to takecare of and you had to adapt to
in order to get the fulladvantage, you know, of the
sound.
You know the weather.
You know it's a whole lot offactors.
And then you imagine inFebruary, when it's 20 below
zero, then you had to play wherethe place is hot and your hands
is just taking that one extremeto the other to bang and when

(39:00):
it, when they hot, then youbring it straight to the, to the
street, and I call weather.
You know that hurts you becauseyou get like a windburn.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
You know you know, it's a whole different thing.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
So you got to wear gloves, you got to make sure you
have gloves in there and takecare of and protect them.
You know all that little thingsyou know, and you got to know
how to play.
You got to know how to play.
That's number one.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
I got an opportunity one time to to.
I used to take bongo lessonswith Louis Campana.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Oh, my boy Right.
You know, louis is a good guy,man, louis, that's my brother, I
don't know when he was growingup to.
He's from the neighborhood too,from Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
I got to get him on the, on the podcast.
I'm sure he has someoutstanding stories, but he got.
He got me a chance to sit inwith people and then play one
goal.
Oh, south G C Port, when these,when Raffi used to have the
parties at the South G C Port onthe boat, yeah.
So I sit down and he counts thenumber.
I think it was do second, dosay something like that, and I

(39:59):
start hitting these.
Number one I didn't know shitabout sound technique, you know,
but I wanted the experience youknow, give it a little Pete.
And, and I remember, man, Istarted busting veins like crazy
bro, and I'm like bro, I would.
I see what are you going to donow?
Yeah, you know, by the time Ifinish, it was time to grab the

(40:21):
belt.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
He was out.
Yes, a lot of people think it'sjust to hit the bottom of the
hit the con guys.
So it's such a primitiveinstrument but it's so modern
and you know you treat it like apiano or violin.
You know it's just as delicate,you know.
So there's also techniques toeverything.
You know everything you do isalways a technique and I'm like
I'll let you say, go play alittle brutal stuff like that.

(40:44):
You know there's a lot ofthings that you got to learn
when you play an instrumenttuning, taking care of it.
You know what scans who are.
You know it's a whole lot ofthings.
You know you have to maintainyour instrument so you could
just have your job, you know,you sound good, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, so I'm speaking of Peter Konde.
Give us a bit of Konde story.
Tell us you know by your time,with Peter Konde we got better
you know, kind of recommended mefor Peter Konde.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I did a couple of things with his seat.
I was so happy.
We did some, some, some gigs ata Broadway 96.
A European place of me, mongoMove Tambien.
You know he can play somebangles, you know, I think he's
like a bar.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
A hero, a by land, you know.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
You know we got tiger .
You know she does my friend andFrancis, her mother the rest of
these, you know.
She was always nice to me andyou know he liked the way I
played all the time.
He's always, like you know,shaking my hand when I finished
the gig.
You know he was beautiful, acantal man like you know yeah.

(41:58):
I was going for one yeah youknow people's.
I love them too.
You know a lot of guys areunfortunate that I got to work
with, and he's one of the guysyou know we have speaking to see
that she's here.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
She's listening to the podcast.
Oh, hold on one second.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
She said don't stop, no stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
She says.
He says listen, chamo is my boy, he knows it, I love him a lot.
She's talking about the congafrom before.
You know, manifesting ofrespect, playing before the
conga.
Jose Cruz says lots of history,see, is he.
Rodriguez says last time I sawBurrito was a night at LQ.
Amazing, I was me.

(42:41):
And is he standing next to eachother at night at the Latin
Quarter to watch the play andthen see that this?
You know things we were talkingabout before it's up.
He was no joke.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
He knows.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Okay, hold on, we'll come back to this question.
Second, I'm a river.
It says I'm a mustaludo.
Chamo is a family musical.
Let's see here.
Jose Cruz asked let's see,let's see where you go.
Sorry, man.
Okay, do you still have yourtrio?
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
As a matter of fact, we had a gig on Friday at
Brothers Smokehouse in ParamountNew Jersey this past Friday.
What is it Today?
Saturday, yesterday.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Today.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Sunday, sunday, friday, we played there and it's
also part of the poor callingtrio, so we kind of share the
band.
You know, when they all want meto put my trio, I work with
Paul Collin on Tenor Sax andAlex Ayala on bass.
So it's a trio with sax, bassand conga nama.

(43:57):
So there's no piano, there's no.
You know, we work at any works,you know, and we recorded an
album and right now we're goingto record, next month, our
second album with this trio andI work in different, you know
situations and I'm working withthis guitar player, juan Ma
Morale, that we do.

(44:18):
I'm doing a lot of work withhim.
The last two years, three years, I've been with him.
We're doing a lot of littleclubs and stuff like that,
little restaurants, and that's atrio with the guitar, conga and
saxophone.
So it's a different combination.
Juan Ma sings also and plays.
You know guitar and you know.
So you know it's kind of nicebecause I can work from a trio

(44:44):
to my quintet and to a big band,you know, like Tito's, you know
.
You know, and I think formyself that each one has a
different style of playing.
You know the conga, you know,like.
You know you don't play likeone salsa style to all of these
bands.
There's a way of playing withbig band.
There's a way of playing withthe caranga band.

(45:07):
You know caranga is more thanone conga and a timbal.
Conjuto is a conga and a bongo.
So you know no timbal.
So there's different structures.
You know, if I'm going to doLatin jazz, I can open up and
play three, four congas.
I can't do that.
I play in a caranga, you know.
So you know when you adapt tothe style, you know you have
Latin music but there'sdifferent styles of Latin music

(45:30):
when you have to adapt to eachone and play that style.
If I'm going to play with OkitaBroadway, I'm listening to
Aragón Acaño.
You know the way it's played.
You know, I know double rolesand all this.
You know it's an all-op.
Even.
You know, when you do someLatin jazz, some Jerry Gonzalez

(45:51):
stuff, I can open up.
You know, and I love thatbecause it gives me more freedom
to play my drums, not only berestricted and play salsa, but
it gives me the freedom to do,to open up and explore.
And this is what jazz is about,because it's improvisation.
So I'm doing the Latin jazzthing and to try to keep it true

(46:12):
, into the nature of the drumand of the genre that I'm
performing with, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Speaking of the drum, you have a beautiful set of
drums back there and he was kindenough to tune them up.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Did I.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, so he was going to go.
He was going to go that way.
I was going to play the guitarand Bro I mean Johnny Rodriguez

(47:04):
has high-touching in my housefrom Vegas having fun doing the
show way after he bet theconcert with Tito Rodriguez Jr.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Man.
Let me tell you about JohnnyJohnny Boy Johnny's one who put
me on that Tiro Puente tour.
As a matter of fact, I waslucky enough to be at the right
place at the right time whenJohnny was playing a gig in
SOB's, I remember, with MitchFrome and we had a big mambo

(47:32):
dance group that he put togetherfor editorials, I think it was,
and we played there and Johnnywas playing the go.
Johnny I knew for many, many,many, many years and he's always
a mentor to play with him.
Playing that music with TitoRodriguez Jr that we did that
night is one of the highlightsof my career because I grew up

(47:56):
listening to that music and tohave Johnny who recorded there
and play with them.
You know he's a master, youknow, and I respect him so much
and God give him a long life andgood health for him, because
he's one of the pioneers, one ofthe real living legends of this
music and I learn from him allthe time I see him and he does a

(48:20):
lot and he's still active nowand doing a lot of good things
for the instrument, you know,and for the music and I'm glad
for him, I'm super glad.
And Yamil Kurey that was on mybucket list to play with Johnny,
with Tiro Rodriguez Jr andHibeto singing.
He was there, you know.
I think that had to be one ofthe best concerts of the year.
You know, those videos that youtook, you know, and the other

(48:45):
videos.
When I hit that music, you know, you know, and take it.
True, I studied that, you know,I had the papers a you know,
yeah, I was, I was me, I wasdoing my homework, because the
hardest things for those bigbands, for me is Is the boleros.
Yeah, I'll be orchestrated.
You know the arrangement.

(49:06):
The arrangement is made likelike, like kind of a cinema,
kind of a thing they had theyhad To be triplets and they had
little pauses that you had tostop with everybody to not play
through them, you know.
So I just try to, you know, bylistening to the original record
and looking at the chart.
So I did my homework, man, youknow, and I want to those
boleros to be just like therecord.

(49:29):
You know, play right through it,you know.
But I want to hit those littlehits, those iron voices, the
little little effects, you know,and the way, in the style, in
the style of big band, you know,and, and to me that was
challenging and I loved it, man.
I think we had a good time andI thank Johnny for for being
there, man, and it was apleasure for me always to see

(49:52):
him and to play with him evenmore.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
What's it like playing next to John Danny
Rodriguez.
Forget it heaven.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Heaven.
I mean, you know I play a lotwhere a lot of other bongal
players that you know you knowis is.
You got to know.
You know what to do and when todo it.
You know not to throw stuff inthere when it's not no lo pide,
you know it's um.
You know he played to the formof the music.

(50:24):
You know when you go to adifferent section, you know how
to fill it there with a singersinging you back up a little bit
.
You know it's like anythingelse.
You know there's a place foryou where you put those accents
in there.
And then when you come in thebell, what, what pattern bell,
if it's mambo bell or if it's aLatin jazz, you know you would

(50:44):
change the combination of the ofthe hits.
You know but you know to knowthe, the, the way of of using
your instrument to that and andthe sound you're gonna sound
that Johnny's got.
You know all my albums.
I have six albums out.
My third album things I wantedto do Luckily got a nomination,

(51:05):
a Grammy nomination, on my thirdalbum.
Now I released my latest one,artistas music, or see poet us,
which I have for the producee,another doing some spoken word,
and I got to record my this tune.
I always love the palmieri.
A Palocha too, oh yeah.

(51:26):
So we recorded that.
Nice arrangement would have themarketing young playing piano.
He did your management, palocha, you know.
And we got a Felipe Luciano dosome spoken word on on a support
tree.
On there Is my L East Carloalso doing some spoken word
there, you know.

(51:48):
So we got a lot of cats, a lotof friends of mine.
We did a tribute to don't punchOteri, volando con don't punch
Oteri.
He recorded with me in 2014before he passed away and I had
the tracks in my hard drive andwe kind of cleaned it up and we
took it out this year and wededicated.
You know he was a good friend.
I met him in Cuba, you know.

(52:09):
I went there about three orfour times and we kind of hit it
off and his son recorded on myfirst record, junior Terry, on
base when he came from Cuba.
I met him in Cuba and alsoLanded sentence Is is an album
that that recorded in 2016 andwe featured his friend of mine

(52:33):
is girl singer.
She's very great, she's out ofour Berkeley and she does
theater and stuff like that catgang and she sang lush life,
which was a highlight for me, toalways include a ballot.
You know I tried to a jazzballot, to you know, in a
volatile form.
You know, and also I invited mygood friend James Zola on

(52:57):
trumpet.
We played together back in theSouth of war African American
guy jazz, very well-known jazzplayer now, and a bought him
back and he did a couple ofsongs with me also.
And on this one we had the bandwas Frank Fontaine on tenor sax
and Darren or Gator on piano onthat album, ian Stewart on base

(53:22):
and Joel Mateo on drums.
So that was the quintet at thattime and a beautiful album.
You know.
All my music is beautiful, youknow.
You know.
So what I tried to do is likemy next album.
My next record has got to bebetter than the last one.

(53:43):
So this is how I had to keep upthe par.
Those are all my records there.
This is afro blue bunk with a.
Lovia Franca and Jimmy Owens, Ibelieve, was on a.
La hija de mongo sang afro blue, wow, santa Maria.
So I played out for blues andand she sang, she wrote the

(54:05):
lyrics to that.
Mungo was supposed to record itbut he passed away and I did a.
I did a production at theFlushing Town Hall dancing with
the ancestors.
Attribute to mongo, a to Tommyand all of the other people.
Channel, you know.
And and I got a Iliana.

(54:27):
She wanted to sing afro blue.
Say what's this?
He said no, my father wanted meto write songs in Spanish for
Afro blue and he never got torecord it.
So I had the honor to record itand I asked for permission and
Her mother came out to thestudio and she she was there for
the session in Iliana reallydid a great job.

(54:47):
If you got to, if you get achance here afro blue monk, afro
blue, iliana, santa Mariasinging and their beautiful job
and you know, and I was honoredbecause mongo was supposed to be
quoted Wow, I got a chance todo that.
So, instead of letting go tothe side, I asked for permission
and then she gave it to me withgreat honors.

(55:08):
I say, yeah, let's do this, youknow yeah.
I'm out, you know, to the studioyou to witness it also as you
record it.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Oh say cruises, I love that song.
Afro blue, it's a jazz standard.
Yeah, yeah, did you ever asalsa band, you know, did you
have that?
Good, I was in all stars.
Did you ever have like a?

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Salsa band.
I never had, whatever.
What I did was I played withall these salsa bands.
So I wanted to do some otherthings because what I was
figuring that you know playingmy drum, you know if you do a
salsa or you're doing is playingtime for the dancers.
You know, yes, I might try iscool, it's cool.
I want to open up more.

(55:49):
So that's why I got into theLatin jazz with Ray Vega and
Chris Washburn back in the 90sand stuff, and then I like that,
you know, I got a third drumand I started messing around and
I feel a little bit more freer.
But you know I never made asalsa band.
Some guy asked me that last year.
Say man, you're roots are insalsa.

(56:10):
You know why don't you record asalsa album?
So it was interesting.
So what I did?
I took out a single of SiameseMajoral and Victor Garcia, que
tiene un grupo que se llama laSan Juan era en Puerto Rico, and
Victor always recalls where hebuilt all like some Duals with a

(56:34):
lot of bands in Puerto Rico.
I love his band, a San Juan era.
I used to hear him a lot in SanJuan when we were as a go-to.
All the time I see him at thelounges and killing band.
I think David Cuba is playing asteamboat on there.
Oh yeah, in the group and youknow, and I always like his, his
Congo.
You know he sings and plays hispiano like well, god, they

(56:56):
don't sing the places base.
You know like two separatepeople in one.
You know okay, can't a sonnette, a cosa.
So I had him sing as as asonata mayoral.
So I just threw that out there,see to see her reaction.
People like it.
They're not pursuing like but aSalsa, you know record yeah.

(57:19):
So I never had a salsa band perse.
You know we've had like somelight jazz.
We do some what that cast offof a say when he called me for
that.
I get that.
You know what are you handle.
You know you are good here.
Get the guys Vamos a retro a toeverybody got the routine.
You know you know pay.
Pero as far as having somethinglike that to make some
arrangements and and to, youknow it's kind of hard.

(57:41):
You know it's hard with fiveguys.
I got over here and I'm gonna bewith 12 or 15 guys, you know.
Trying to get a sub, you know,for this guy can make you this
guy.
You know it's not like before.
You still put one band yearsago and that was your band.
You know you played with thembecause we had worked for
everybody.
But I don't want to talk,freelancing even more than
before.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, I mean, I remember going to rehearsals and
I don't know how the bandleaders did it.
You know you get a, get a guyon the phone hey, I'm on the
bridge.
You know I'm stuck, or.
You know there's a lot ofdiscipline there with those and
a lot of patience you know, yeah, it's hard, it's hard, I get it
.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
I get it with four guys, you know, and you know,
luckily I managed to keep itwith that with the same four,
rigidly.
Matthew do one or twice.
You know different guys, butthe nucleus is always there.
My music is hard and and Ican't just can't everybody, you
know to come in here and justplay this.
We play not meters, we do stuffin five and it's seven, we do

(58:42):
six, eight stuff.
We go into straight ahead, youknow.
So it's a lot of changes in, inthe, in the arrangements of the,
of the music, because I like toventure out and try to push the
envelope and try to test myselfAlso.
Yeah, so I got to learn thisstuff, I got to learn to play in
nine.
You know what is this, you knowit makes me go out there and

(59:06):
attack it.
You know and study it and onceI conquered I feel good.
You know that I'm doing it inthis, in this instrument, you
know, and and it's somethingdifferent, it's not gonna be a
regular.
You know Latin jazz and no forfor Intro, the body solo, the
mambo and our old songs, thesame.
You know, we try to make a Kindof a journey, musical journey,

(59:29):
if you, if you will yeah.
If I'm beginning to the end withdifferent feelings and
different time signatures, youknow, and and try to get the
best solos is out.
You know, at the time too also,so you can appreciate, you know
.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Okay, let me ask you this for people who are getting
into Percussion now, talkingabout the young people, somebody
who's been, you know, with thebest of the best, what's your
advice?
For?
You know, let's say, in NewYork City, new York City's is,
sauce has changed in New YorkCity.
Obviously, you know, I don'thave to tell you but Somebody

(01:00:07):
who's starting, you know,starting out and saying you know
, I want to want to try this, Ilove congas, I love.
You know, what's the bestadvice you can give them when it
when it gets tough you know,when it gets tough until they're
getting hired, or yeah well,first of all, they don't have to
think about Getting hired orgoing to a gig and want to do
this.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
They got to concentrate first and getting a
sound out of that instrument,you know first is first.
You know all that other stuffcomes later on, once you
gradually Accomplish, one stepat a time.
You got to get a sound out ofthe drum.
You know there's four soundsfor basic sounds.
You got an open tone, you got aslap, you got the bass and you

(01:00:52):
got a muff.
You know they got to be clean.
You know, with those foursounds, then you can do which is
your tombow, which is that's90% of the top of the of the

(01:01:15):
time, that that rhythm that'sgonna be played on 90% of the
music is that 4, 4 to Bobpattern.
But you got to play the sound.
If you can't get a sound, it'snot gonna sound like that.
So you know I start fromscratch, you know.
You know from the bottom, get asound.
If you know they want me toteach you, oh, I'm gonna say
what one call.
You can't even get a sound, youknow.
You know, show me what one call, show me a slack.

(01:01:36):
You know it is a political this, or and that's how I know the
people who are gonna be seriousThey'll continue and they'll get
frustrated.
They'll try to work on thesound, you know, first, and then
I see that they're coming backand they're working on it.
They're not, you know.
I progress on rhythms, timing,you know, and then once they got

(01:01:56):
a nice little to bow and theytry to do other rhythms and then
start sneaking a little at atime.
You know learning to read basicmusic.
You know even his quarter notesand eight notes, you know.
You know, because that's alsopart of the package.
You know you can have your,your, your, your, your,
sentimental, you know, but youhave the technical part.
If you want to want to work,they'll go higher.

(01:02:17):
You were in a studio becauseyou can beat, not because you
can play good, but you're savingtime because they gonna give
you a try.
You look at it, you do write itdown once or twice or whatever.
You look at it, you're notclear.
You work it out and you record,you know, but all it's all part
of it.
So it depends on the person andand each everybody is different
, you know, and nobody has.
You know, if you have patienceand time and everything like

(01:02:41):
that.
But when I was growing up Ididn't have YouTube.
I was listening to the record Iput back to the needles.
I hear a little mongo and Iwould like that.
So I put the video over here onYouTube.
You can learn how to play onYouTube Anybody I got.
These kids are playing already.
They play and they butts offand there's a lot of people
showing all the more advancedstuff.

(01:03:02):
But stick with the basic firstand get that down, because it's
like building a building thefoundation has got to be strong,
or else you're going to build,you're going to finish the whole
thing and it's going to sink.
You got to go back to squareone and straighten out your
foundation again, so you'regoing to wind up doing that
later on Because you couldn'tget a slap or you got the wrong
technique, and then you get abad habit To break out of.

(01:03:25):
That bad habit is going to betwice as much.
So you got to have patience anddo it the right way from the
beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Mira, tito Rodriguez says bye, El Bravo.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Tito's retired now.
Now you can hang.
God bless you, tito man.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Look at this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Mira eso, mamá Mira eso.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
That's what I got on my screen saver.
I mean it changes, it changes,but that's one of the pictures
anyway.
That's one of the.
But it was a great opportunity.
Man To play beautiful musiclike that is great.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Bueno guys, this has been the Mambo in the City of
South of Podcast.
First of all, we want to thankChembo for coming on and sharing
his stories, so many stories.
Chembo's done a few podcasts.
We try to go a little differentand get his insight on things
and we appreciate you playingthe drum for us.
I mean, come on, man.

(01:04:34):
I mean I know James Vélez, he'sgoing to appreciate this
podcast because, James, that'syour boy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Yeah, he's kind of busy now.
I think he went to thisbombasso or something like that,
so he would have been ABC allthe way down.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
So where can people follow you?

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
in terms of you know, I have my Facebook page Chembo
for Daniel.
I got Chembo for me, quintet.
On Instagram, chembo Role, myrecord company Chembo Role, and
then my website,chemboforanielcom that.
I just refreshed it.
I got some newer pictures.

(01:05:17):
I got pictures now with my whitehair because I wore my pictures
before I had black hair, see,so I had to change your ego.
That's the new website thatMisha DeBerge is doing.
Is handling that for me, doinga great job, put that all
together for me, freshened it upfor that.

(01:05:38):
My website before was like 12years old, but Misha is one of
Chris DeBerge, who's apercussionist for Groove
Collective a good brother ofmine also so he designed all
that stuff for me.
You can hear it.
Click on any iTunes, spotify.
You can hear the album andstuff like that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
What a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
And I want to know.
This is something for thatCandido used to do.
That's all.
That's what, candy man, thankyou.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Chembo.
Thank you so much.
Guys Follow Chembo on hissocial media, his website, and
again, many thanks to ChemboCullenin for coming on and
hanging out with us so much.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Thank you and thanks for everybody who stood around
and listening to my crap, butthank you for having me here and
you got a great podcast.
I'm going to say can't wait tosee who's next.
You know I'm into it now, soyeah, nice.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
I mean I've been talking to Peter Korn, I've been
talking to Emilio, I've beentalking to the other day I was
talking to at the texting withRay Sepulveda, so maybe that
will happen.
But, you know.
Many things to come, my brother, and again I can't wait to see
you play again live and Ypalaand happy holidays to you and

(01:07:18):
everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Christmas and New Year's, hanukkah.
Kwanzaa.
Salud a todo mundo y have ahappy New Year and a prosperous
New Year Coming in a lot of work, a lot of money, good health.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Thank you.
God bless you, brother, I surethe great Chembo Cullenin guys.
Thank you so much.
Reprecia que muco la tura.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Mira que muco.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
You started that one, bro Cuidate.