By Les Moncada & Marco Moncada There are individuals that are drummers, and then there are personalities that are drummers with heart, with the grand…
Les Moncada Chats with Master Conguero & Batalero Virgilio Figueroa
Tag: batá drum
Les Moncada Chats with Cuban batá Master and Conguero Román Diaz
Batá drumming is getting more and more popular these days. With a lot of the masters who transmitted the tradition of batá drumming having passed…
Jazz Bata 2, the Extension of an Inspired Journey
Chucho Valdés – Jazz Bata 2 (Mack Avenue Records, 2018) Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Chucho Valdés’s Jazz Bata 2 is a recording where…
Les Moncada Chats with Master Conguero and Batalero Tony Rosa
There are drummers, then there are drummers. Some go out of their way for exceptional things to happen to them. Tony Rosa, master conguero and…
The Fascinating History of the Ilú Keké Drums
Ilú Keké. Transmisión en la Eritá Meta (Sendero Music/Music Works NYC, 2016) Ilú Keké is an album dedicated to the batá drums, a set of…
Les Moncada Remembering Conga Bata Master Francisco Aguabella in 2016
Francisco Aguabella was one of the greatest Latin drummers. He was a conga and bata master, a Latin Jazz orchestra leader, and composer. Francisco was…
Les Moncada Chats with conguero and djembefola drummer Michael Pluznick
Francisco Aguabella once told me, “I do not play the drum, I have lived the drum”. Remembering that phrase, it’s great when one’s daily line…
Les Moncada Chats with MOPERC Company owner, Michel Ouellet
When you talk about drums, there are the handmade versions of drums and then there are also mass manufactured drums. Michel Ouellet the owner of…
The Batá Drums
By Mark Corrales, LAFI The clave beat, which lies at the heart of not only Latin music but also so much popular music around the…