Conga

I can play the snare drum, bass drum, toms, timpani, congas, marimba, claves, bells, brake drum, cymbals, drumset, marching snare, triangle and many more percussion instruments! As a percussionist I love music and with a wide range of instruments. I love music and there are lots of artists I enjoy listening…

“Connection is the energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued,” according to research professor, Brené Brown. From a young age, I enjoyed helping others, especially when I could meet new people and forge friendships. It is this love of connecting with others that motivated me to travel to Managua, Nicaragua, this past summer. While preparing for this adventure, I was told this was not going to be an ordinary mission trip. We would not build houses or schools…

ever showcase their talent. Talent is something he certainly had. One of the best ballet dancers, if not the best dancer, was born in Miami, while his parents were on vacation from Havana, Cuba. The same city where Gloria Estefan, mastermind behind, "Conga", and Alicia Alonso, the dance tutor to the young child. Even with the talent, no one could know how amazing he could become. And fortunately, he showed just that. Mary Calleriro, a former dancer was the mother of Fernando Bujones, which…

music grew in a variety genres. Music like hip hop, jazz, soul, and funk started to take notice and it started to take off. Music was a big part of the world about this time. Jazz because very popular in the 1970s. New instruments such as conga, timbale, guiro, and claves, with jazz and classical harmonies played on typical jazz instruments. Armando Anthony Corea is American jazz and fusion pianist, keyboardist, and composer. John McLaughlin was an English guitarist bandleader and…

modern songs into a salsa format. It was a lively performance where many audience members danced along with the band, demonstrating the danceable feature of the music. The orchestra used many of the traditional salsa instruments, including timbales, conga drums, a cowbell, and a guiro. Mambo influences were also evident in the instrumentation. With the rise of big bands in the United States, the traditional flutes and violins were replaced with horns and saxophones, and this change was evident…

When my mother alongside my brother and I immigrated from Haiti to the United States, I can’t lie and say that although it did give me a chance at a better life I didn’t feel like a piece of my identity was missing. We moved here when I was three months shy of my fifth birthday and I was sent straight to kindergarten not having one clue in the world as to what had happened to the place I had called home for those years before. My mother had forbidden speaking creole in the house and only spoke…

Harris got up and introduced some of the procession, and drum set instrumentalist as well as talked about other traditional instruments such as congas, cow bells, maraca shakers, and all kind of other instrument’s that originated in the Caribbean. Dr. Harris wanted to keep the energy up with a more jumping around and dancing as they played a newer song which happens to be a favorite of the bands…

written by a North Carolina native, Ed Kiefer which, I think makes it more exciting for East Carolina University students to play. The piece is based on Latin music and had a great energetic rhythm throughout the whole song. The cowbell, maracas, conga drums and xylophone that started playing at the very beginning of the song set the tempo for all the other instruments that came in during later measures. I found the Chips and Salsa piece…

United States I was doing many odd jobs to support my family but I was eventually hired by Xavier Cugat who was considered the “king” of Latin Music in New York. I eventually left that job and formed my own Latin Band in Miami which brought the Cuban Conga Line to American culture. My music career brought me to…

Cuban music continued its dominant influence through ebbs and flows from 1920’s-1930’s and throughout the 1940’s-1950’s. Within the span of these thirty years of music came the births of such genres as the bolero, son, rumba, and the conga the (mainly) Cuban composers who were credited with these genres became extremely popular musicians among a wide spectrum of social sectors from all across the U.S. These waves of wildly successful movements are credited with sparking other powerful…