Maraca con Nengue at Yerba Buena - Jammin at Hadley's

What a weekend. Its incredible, what we get ourselves into.

Free show at Yerba Buena Gardens, fun in the sun. Karabali, and Maraca, no less.

I hooked up Maracas percussionist with Matt Smiths number, guess he's ready to upgrade from the LP's he plays. Matt Smith is one of the best conga makers of our day. Its a trip. Some cat called me this morning to say 'Maracas conga player wants to talk to you, see him at the show' . How this cat got my number?? who knows...

The show was great. The audience was full of heavies. It was a grand pleasure to see Marcus Gordon there. He is one of the first people to bring the bata to SF. He is also a mentor and spiritual guide to me. One day, i will tell you the stories he told me about the history of Cuban folklore in the bay area... simply groovy...

I met a brother at the show who gave me two Gon bops Congas to restore, so after the show, we headed out, with gon bops in hand to the east bay for a Rumba at Hadleys.

We parked the van down the street from Hadleys as the whole block was closed for the party.

We played some really fat Rumba with Hadley on Piano. It was rippin'.

Trevino Leon , Ricky Agular, and I played till late. ripped on all kinds of things, timba latin jazz, straight ahead, bop. Hadley can play that piano!!

So, after the party, late... we headed back to the van to find it broken into. What was i thinking leaving some cats congas in the van!!

Thank Obatala! for some wild reason, this person took the sterio, but left the drums!!!!!

Oh man, that would have sucked. I would have owed this cat around 600, not to mention losing the 300 i stand to make on the rebuild!

Anyway....

Rebuilt the congas today, Mahogany beauties. Ill finish them tomorrow, skin them the next day and we are done with yet another project. I love to rebuild old instruments. These old tubs will probably be passed on to the players of tomorrow and be played long after we are gone.

...just played the dance class in Napa. We played Comparsas, a Bembe, Bomba, Makuta, and Palo.. an hour and a half class flies by... a good workout for all.

Tony