Latin Beat Magazine: Desde La Bahia

TAMBORES BY THE BAY! As we celebrate this Percussion Issue, let me share my brief perspective of how Afro-Caribbean music and percussion weaved their way into the musical fabric of the San Francisco Bay Area. The story began around the turn of the 20th century, after the Spanish American War, when a number of Puerto Ricans transplanted to Hawaii's sugarcane fields and subsequently made their way to the Bay Area by ship and rail, in search of a better life. Many established small colonies in San Francisco and Hayward. What they sang was jíbaro music, whose lyrics expressed their feelings and struggles.

Güiros, maracas and perhaps panderos were the initial percussion instruments used by these groups to compliment the voices, guitars and cuatros (Puerto Rican folkloric guitars) at social functions. One of the first bands to circulate among the Puerto Rican community in the Bay Area of the 1930s was that of Julio Rivera, the step-grandfather of drum master John Santos. He played Puerto Rican and Cuban-based music around the SF Mission District for El Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco, the oldest Latino organization in the U.S. (incorporated in 1912).

Latin percussion received wider acceptance in the 1940s, when the society bands of Xavier Cugat and Enric Madriguera made their way west. The rhumba craze of the 1930s, sparked by Don Azpiazu's El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor), opened the door to Latin music in vaudeville. San Francisco was the gateway to the Pacific and boasted beautiful entertainment emporiums along Market Street, such as the Golden Gate and Orpheum theaters.

The appearance of singer Miguelito Valdés at the Golden Gate Theater in 1942 was a turning point for the new Caribbean sounds after WWII. Valdés, originally from the pioneering Cuban big band Casino De La Playa, made his big U.S. splash with Xavier Cugat, and recorded with Columbia Records. The Cuban singer--allegedly of Mexican-Spanish descent--greatly influenced Luis Alcaraz and other Mexico City-based bandleaders.

The repertoire that Alcaraz culled (comprised of danzones, boleros, guarachas, rumbas, fox trots, blues and swing tunes) was the first to add Spanish lyrics to North American pop tunes. It was only a couple of degrees hipper than Cugat but it was a formula that pioneer Bay Area Latin big band leader Merced Gallegos (1904-1956), a double bassist from León, Guanajuato (MX), would follow.

Gallegos arrived in the Bay Area in the 1920s and started his band in the late 1930s. He ushered in the mambo era at Oakland's popular dancehalls in the 1940s. His repertoire consisted of stock arrangements of popular Latin and North American favorites of the day. His theme song was Santa, a beautiful bolero by Agustín Lara, but he kept a varied book of rancheras, danzones, boleros and guarachas. A classically trained musician, Gallegos was a strict taskmaster who not only led his own band but also played in the pit band of the Curran Theater. His musicians had to read well, so he used players from the Musicians Union's Local #6. His lead trumpeter was Alan Smith, who went on to play with Duke Ellington. An important member in giving the band an authentic Latin kick was the Puerto Rican-born conguero/singer Nod García, a student at San Francisco State University.

A youthful Mexican American audience packed his shows, allowing him to bring in big name artists from Mexico, Latin America and the East Coast. In 1950, Gallegos promoted the first appearance in the region of Pérez Prado (who introduced the mambo to the Bay Area).

Both Benny Velarde and Armando Peraza occasionally worked with Gallegos but Velarde had another early 1950s gig in Oakland at the California Hotel's Sunday afternoon Mambo Sessions. His group, The Panamanians (featuring Velarde on timbal and Carlos Federico-Smart at the piano), catered to a largely African American clientele. Around 1951, Velarde moved to NYC and Federico took the gig, with a group that included timbalero Willie Vargas, a superb musician who left Federico to join Pérez Prado.

A 17-year old percussionist-singer named Pete Escovedo soon filled the opening. Escovedo was part of that Mexican American teen generation embracing jazz and Afro-Caribbean music in the Bay Area. Along with his brothers, Phil and Coke, he felt the vibe of the West Oakland blues scene and the hippness of the San Francisco jazz scene. Pete and his brothers had heard vibraphonist Cal Tjader's first Latin-jazz experiments in the mid-1950s with Velarde (timbal) and Edgard Rosales (congas). But most importantly, Armando Peraza took them under his wing and taught them.

The omni-presence of Armando Peraza in the Bay Area has been air important foundation for every percussionist who followed. Cal Tjader recruited NYC drummers Luis Miranda (from the Machito Orchestra) in the mid-1950s and Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaría (from Tito Puente's band) in the late 1950s.

In the 1960s, The Copacabana Nightclub brought the NYC bands of Tito Puente, Machito and Tito Rodríguez, as well as L.A. kingpins Modesto Durán and his Charanga. The Cable Car Village in SF also featured the singing conga player Juanita Silva, a.k.a. Juanita La Chiquita, who in the 1960s played in a band with Armando Peraza.

Another flash point occurred in 1957, with the arrival of conga and batá great Francisco Aguabella to Oakland. While he was a featured drummer with the dance troupe of Katherine Dunham, Aguabella met his future wife Maribel Martin, a dancer with the company. In 1957, after touring Europe and appearing in the film "Mambo" (with Anthony Quinn and Shelly Winters), they both decided to leave the troupe. Arriving in NYC, Aguabella stayed a few months and did pivotal recording sessions with Tito Puente on the album Top Percussion. Tito also recorded two of Aguabella's compositions on the mega-selling album Dance Mania.

Upon his arrival in the Bay Area, he headed for The Copacabana and met Benny Velarde, who introduced him to Duran Brothers--Manuel, Carlos and Eddie. He played with the Duráns in SF and traveled to Los Angeles to play with René Touzet and Pérez Prado. In December, 1958, he went into a SF recording studio with Mongo (who was now living in SF as part of Cal Tjader's group) and a cast of LA drummers (Modesto Durán, Carlos Vidal, Pablo Mozo) plus the legendary jazz bassist Al McKibbon. The result was Yambu, issued by Fantasy Records: a pivotal recording of Afro-Cuban folklore.

Aguabella performed and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Peggy Lee. He also recorded the LP Dance the Latin Way (Fantasy, 1961). In the 1970s, his presence at César's in North Beach, as well as with the Latin Rock group Malo continued to inspire percussionists. Aguabella's knowledge of the sacred batá drums and the Yoruban-derived santería drumming rituals raised interest and blessed the caliber of Afro-Cuban percussion in the Bay.

The SF Bay Area is truly a marvelous place for drummers. From the days in the 1950s when beatnik poets recited to bongó drums to the 1970s drum circles at Dolores Park, Aquatic Park, Lake Anza and Lower Sproul at UC Berkeley, the drum has served as a unifying force that has brought together percussionists of all nationalities and genders.

Kudos to Bay Area drummers Benny Velarde, Armando Peraza, The Escovedos (Pete, Coke, Sheila, Juan, Peter Michael), Walfredo de los Reyes, Orestes Vilató, Louie Romero, Willie T. Colón, John Santos, Michael Spiro, Karl Perazzo, Raul Rekow, Jesús Díaz, Roberto Borrell, Carlos Caro, Chepito Areas, Michael Carabello, Leo Rosales, Bill Summers, Teddy Strong, Butch Haynes, David Frazier, Roger Danilo Paiz, Jorge Bermúdez, Chalo Eduardo, Harold Muñiz, Ester Godinez, Carolyn Brandy, Edgardo Cambón, Ray Martinez, Héctor Lugo, Tito García, Sylvia Sherman, Suki, Cathy Ramos, Julio Areas, Javier Navarette, David Flores, Richie Vélez, Eddie Borreros, Alberto Torres, Pedro Fernández, Patricio Angulo, Phil Thompson, Sage Baggot, Derek Rolando, Tony Flores, Mio Flores, Tony Mangavar, Gibby Ross and those I may have left out. chuyvarela@aol.com.Paz.