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Miguel “Angá” Díaz (1961-2006) was a valuable and prolific Cuban percussionist. With his explosive solos and the creation of five conga toques, “Angá” was widely acclaimed as one of the world’s great congueros.

One of the mainstays of Afro-Cuban rhythm in recent times, Angá played with a multitude of jazz stars, from Chucho Valdés, Chick Corea or Steve Coleman, to Roy Hargrove, Minino Garay, Chano Domínguez and Herbie Hancock, among others.

The claim that he was one of the best percussionists in the world is backed up by the Grammy awards he won, his participation in such important projects as Buena Vista Social Club and the Afro-Cuban All Stars, and his status as sideman of geniuses like Tito Puente, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana or Danilo Pérez, as well as his membership in legendary groups like Irakere, according to Más i Más, the organizer of his concerts in Barcelona.

Father of three daughters – the eldest living in Cuba and the two younger ones in Paris – Angá never stopped searching for new forms of musical expression, experimenting with the fusion of different styles, such as jazz, African sounds, rock and hip-hop.

He was committed to the development of the conga, breaking the traditional barriers of percussion, to introduce them into classic Latin rhythms while preserving their distinctly Cuban roots.

He played with several Cuban artists, including Irakere, Afro-Cuban All Stars, Buena Vista Social Club, Omar Sosa, Omara Portuondo, Tata Güines, Rubén González and Orishas.

At that time he recorded and toured frequently with international musicians such as Steve Coleman, Roy Hargrove, Baba Sissoko, Ry Cooder, Pascal Coulon, Mezzadri Malik, Montgomery Buddy, Pascal Coulon and John Patitucci. Angá’s musical journey was a personal quest to investigate and create new sounds and rhythmic fusions.

More than just an artist, Angá demonstrated his commitment to the development of his instrument, teaching master classes at various schools and universities in North America and throughout Europe.

For Paris-based Argentine percussionist Minino Garay.

“He is indisputably one of the great percussionists of his generation; the greatest of all. His death causes me enormous sadness, as if it were a story that did not end,” lamented Garay, who will not attend the funeral this Friday, due to the fact that on that day he will give a concert in Vance, in the south of France. “I will certainly dedicate it to him,” he added.

Angá Díaz received his formal education at the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba, and after joining the Latin jazz groups Opus 13 and Irakere, where he perfected his conga playing technique, he moved to Europe, where he devoted himself to exploring the fusion of styles, bringing Cuban music closer to other musics and thoroughly investigating the relationship between Afro-Cuban polyrhythms and technology.

In the summer of 2005, Angá released his first solo album EChu Mingua, which the musician himself described as “a musical religious mass. Spiritual music is when the spirits are invoked to come down to earth, inviting them to a party or to talk to them”, and that is “the whole concept of the album”.

Transgressor of conventions, Angá emerged as an independent, free and committed musician with a wide variety of projects, from experimental jazz with Steve Coleman and Roy Hargrove, and hip-hop with the Orishas, to his participation in Omar Sosa’s tours, in addition to participating in numerous alternative projects with musicians from all over the world.

Angá’s musical trajectory was a tireless search, whose main purpose was to explore and create new sounds, as well as rhythmic fusions.

Source: jornada.com.mx

Miguel “Angá” Díaz

You can read: Freddy de Jesús Ortega Ruiz “Coco & su Sabor Matancero”

On November 4, 1926 in the Los Sitios neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Carlos “Patato” Valdés was born. Known as Patato, he is, quite simply, one of the best percussionists in the history of music.

Patato was born into a very santera and very musical family, his father was a tres player of Los Apaches, the port germ of two illustrious sonera groups: the Sexteto Habanero and the Sexteto Nacional.

He learned to play the tres and the botijuela before turning to percussion, first on the cajones and finally on the congas.

He was an extraordinary percussionist of outstanding participation with the “Conjunto Kubavana”, “La Sonora Matancera”, “Conjunto Casino” and the “Orquesta de Tito Puente”, among other groups, both Son and Latin Jazz.

Formed in rumbero gatherings and carnival groups, Valdés became a professional in the early forties, after trying his luck as a boxer and dancer.

He played with Conjunto Kubavana, La Sonora Matancera and El Conjunto Casino. He accumulated nicknames: Zumbito (for his performances at the Zombie Club), Pingüino (for a dance he did on television) and Patato (for his small size), and in those days, dedicating oneself to music in Cuba guaranteed hardship. Besides, Patato wanted to experiment and that was not possible playing for dancers or tourists.

In 1954, he emigrated to New York, like his leather friends: Cándido Camero, Armando Peraza, Mongo Santamaría and the pioneer Chano Pozo (murdered there in 1948).

He immediately began working with Tito Puente. His first recording in the United States was the album Afro-cuban, by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, which opened with the intoxicating Afrodisia. Those were good times for tropical music.

He was the first percussionist to improvise “Solos” with 3 or more Congas at the same time. In addition, he was the creator of the “Congas Afinables”, instruments on which he would ride to dance making them sound rhythmically.

Patato Valdes was an excellent musician, an unforgettable person. Nervous and diminutive, he spoke with an impenetrable Cuban accent; he dressed elegantly, hiding the necklaces and bracelets of Changó and other “orishas”. He looked like a living caricature, but when he hit the percussions he became a divine creature: he had power, spectacularity, sense of melody.

Those skills made him an ambassador of Afro-Cuban rhythms in the jazz world, although he will also go down in history for his extraordinary rumba recordings.

In 1956, Patato appeared in the film Y Dios creó a la mujer, teaching the dances of his homeland to Brigitte Bardot. A great moment, although an implacable Guillermo Cabrera Infante criticized the actress’s movements: “she seems to commit suicide by dancing a cross between mambo and chachachá, a really toxic cross between mambo and chachachá”.

A flexible musician, Valdés sounded as comfortable playing with Machito’s big band as with Herbie Mann’s group. However, he felt indebted to the “rumba de solar” and in 1968 he recorded a revolutionary album with his friend Eugenio Arango, alias Totico.

The exuberant Patato & Totico had genuine Havana flavor, but enriched the basic percussion instrumentation with Cachao’s contrabass and Arsenio Rodriguez’s tres.Patato expanded the creative possibilities for percussionists by playing with three or more congas.

He also made their lives easier by developing a tunable conga: fed up with the traditional method (heating the leather over fire), he installed a metal hoop and keys for tensioning.

The LP company mass-produced his model, which was to become the standard for conga players. To promote it, he formed the Latin Percussion Jazz Ensemble with Tito Puente, Jorge Dalto and Alfredo de la Fé, among others, an orchestra that would end up becoming Puente’s big band in the early 80s.

It was during this period with Dalto that the album we have chosen for today began to take shape. It was titled “Patato, Master Piece” and it synthesizes all of Patato’s genius.

“Masterpiece” is an album that travels first class through tango, jazz, descarga, guaguancó and bolero, always in a masterful way and with a luxury crew made up of names like Jorge Dalto, Artie Webb, Michel Camilo, Jerry and Andy González, Nicky Marrero, Ignacio Berroa, Joe Santiago, Néstor Sánchez, Vicentino Valdés, and Sabú Martínez, among others.

The Art of Flavor.

Unfortunately Dalto had already passed away when in 1993 the project was released by the venerable German label Messidor, the same label that had already financed some impressive sessions of Patato with Mario Bauzá or Bebo Valdés, with whom he would later record the famous El Arte del Sabor.

In fact, the great Argentine pianist had to be replaced for the last recording sessions that were made 6 years ago since his illness was too advanced, but he left us some incredible arrangements that were kept in the great majority of the themes.

Dalto left us in 1987 when he was only 39 years old. His replacement was nothing more and nothing less than a very young Michel Camilo.formed by 9 cuts among which we especially want to highlight the huge versions of Cute and Nica’s Dream, Masterpiece is an essential album for all lovers of Latin-jazz with capital letters and that is why we wanted to share it on a day as special as today.

Already recognized as a legend, Patato became more visible in the last 25 years: he had his own band, Afrojazzia, although The Conga Kings, with Cándido and Giovanni Hidalgo, turned out to be more popular.

He even made his way onto the modern dance floors, with a remix of San Francisco tiene su propio son. Just as he was returning from playing in California with the Conga Kings, his breathing began to fail.

The plane he was on had to make an emergency landing in Ohio to admit him to a hospital. The 81-year-old percussionist, a heavy smoker, was on his way to his beloved New York, but he would never get there. According to his relatives, he held out until December 4, the day of Santa Barbara, the Afro-Cuban equivalent of Changó, when the cables and tubes that kept him alive were removed.

Valdés died in Cleveland, USA, on December 4, 2007.

Fuentes: http://www.herencialatina.com/Patato/Patato_Valdes.htm

Imágenes: Martin Cohen de Congahead.com

Carlos “Patato” Valdés

You can read: Irakere was a Cuban group that developed an important work in Cuban popular music and Latin Jazz under the direction of Chucho Valdés