Caveat emptor: I did absolutely none of the drumming in this piece. ANOTHER WORLD PREMIER! FIRST RECORDING OF THIS PATTERN - EVER! My friend Kokou "Alex" Yemey delighted me with another visit this evening. He played "Aju" - all 5 tracks…

Caveat emptor: I did absolutely none of the drumming in this piece. ANOTHER WORLD PREMIER! FIRST RECORDING OF THIS PATTERN - EVER! My friend Kokou "Alex" Yemey delighted me with another visit this evening. He played "Aju" - all 5 tracks…

Caveat emptor: I did absolutely none of the drumming in this piece. WORLD PREMIER! FIRST RECORDING OF THIS PATTERN - EVER! My friend Kokou "Alex" Yemey called me a few days ago with some urgency in his voice: "I must record this before…

Conga improvisation. 4/4 200bpm

Conga improvisation. It could really use some vintage surf-style guitar work... 4/8 180bpm.

Improvisation on congas and very fragile, clay Moroccan bongos (which my brother found for me from an African display at some zoo!). These bongos are basically clay pots with permanent, very thin goat skins stretched over the top - they can not…

Improvisation on Gon-Bops congas, while thinking of future days gone by. 4/4 180bpm. LYRICS A cool wind brings the fall And the season starts to change. Outside the sky's steel grey. Inside my heart is too. And I don't know how to…

For this Mother's Day week, a conga improvisation dedicated to Saint Monica and all the other mothers who surreptitiously provide for and incessantly pray for their children. Thanks Mom! ** this could really use a tasty melody to go with…

This is a 3/16 Bembe on tuned congas, played with mallets. I've arranged it (at the very kind suggestion of Vaisvil & ReefWalker) in a verse/chorus/bridge/capo fashion to get away from a straight pattern - I think this sort of arrangement…

Rumba Columbia is a traditional Cuban pattern in 6: the "go-to" pattern for 12/8 - if you have only heard one Afro-Cuban rhythm in 12/8, this is probably it. As an energetic Afro-Cuban dance, Rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it…