The World's Best Congueros

While he was alive, Miguel 'Angá' Díaz, a Grammy-winning Cuban percussionist, played five congas with unparalleled brilliance and mastery. He died unexpectedly last August, in Spain, at the age of 45. What a loss!

Here he is soloing with Irakere in 1994.



The reigning King of the Conga now is Giovanni Hidalgo. Check out this mindboggling solo from the Festival Jazz Plaza 2000, in Havana, Cuba.



Related links:
Ray Barretto
Salsa Night
Jammin'

Salsa Night!

Eeeepaaa!! Last Saturday we found a neat little place in Delray Beach with a live salsa band. It's a restaurant called Brisa Atlántica, off East Atlantic, in what used to be a little house. The place was packed to the gills, but we managed to find a table. There are tables outside too. All were filled and people milled around inside and out, windows and doors open, music wafting into the humid night air. No air conditioning! Fortunately, the nights are starting to get a little cooler, but it's still balmy and very South Florida warm.

The musicians were crammed into a little corner, just inside the entrance. I don't know how they fit all their equipment and themselves in that little space, with any elbow room to play. In the picture above you can see the conguero, the timbalero and the sax player/singer. Out of view are the pianist and the female singer. They were excellent! Wow! No real dance floor, just a walk space that everyone scrunched into to cha cha and mambo. You can see how warm it was from the sax player's shirt. It looks like someone poured water on him.

The lovely Latina in the picture below just stood out of the crowd with her beauty. Ah, to be that young and pretty!



If you want to listen to the best salsa on the planet, check out Alma del Barrio on KXLU in Los Angeles. It's on from 9:00AM til 9:00PM EST every weekend. Click on Listen Live and enjoy!

And if you're in the West Palm Beach area next weekend, be sure to check out the Pachanga LatinFest downtown at the Meyer Amphitheater. The fabuloso Tito Nieves is the headliner on Saturday night.

Jammin'

Just listening to friends jammin' in a hole-in-the-wall bar. Something a blueberry living in a red state has to do for her sanity. That's Angel Pagán on the congas, Renée Solis on guitar and vocals, and Troy Solis on sax.

"What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?"--W.C. Fields