I had just finished an interview with
Pedro 'Pupi' Pedroso, the keyboard player of Havana's famous timba band,
Los Van Van. It was raining all morning, but the group was going to
work on a new recording anway. As luck would have it, on hand at El
Tropical was the percussion maestro and former timbal player with Los
Van Van, Changuito! I asked if he would be willing to sit for an interview.
Gracious soul that he is, Changuito said of course! Off we went, sitting
on the edges of wet chairs in the patio of El Tropical, situated in
the Marianao neighborhood of Havana. Behind us were all the Tropical
dancers, talking and waiting for their reharsal to start. Q: What are you up to?
Changuito: Well, right now I am studying a lot, experimenting a lot. First of all, I feel at peace spiritually, in my soul, it's amazing. I am now free from all the bad stuff that used to be in my mind. My mind is clear, I feel happy with myself and, mainly, I am studying a lot and I want to study even more. Why? Because I have a motto, I say: "At twenty I have to play more than at nineteen". On the 18th of January, God willing, I will be fifty one years old. And what does that mean? That at fifty-one I have to play more than at fifty. It's my motto. And this means that I have to develop myself more, and more, and more. I have to keep making progress. This is the most important advice that I give to my percussion students. One has to study, always study, and excell oneself constantly in order to progress in percussion, because percussion is very moving, but also very tricky. One has to keep studying percussion constantly. And apart from that, I will soon travel to Chile, where I am going to receive an award, because I made a book and that book got five stars in the United States through Warner Brothers. And Warner Brothers sent it to me through the Model Bronx, where it came out. So I am going to be in Chile very soon, and I will perform at the University, and I will also play in some concerts with a big band and with a group named Iraz.
Q:
You
must be everybody's guest.
CH: Of course.
Q:
Do
you have any plans for touring the United States this year?
CH: There is a possibility to go to
a city, I don't remember the name right now, to teach some classes.
Maybe I can take advantage of this opportunity to visit San Francisco,
I am dying to go there!
Q:
And
we are dying to have you there!
CH: I have a lot of students there,
and many friends, and a lot of memories from La Peña and from
everything. Sometimes I play the video of my stay there and I feel
very moved seeing all my students from the workshop I taught. I would
like to be in San Francisco, even if it's only for a couple of months,
to share and to offer my knowledge, because I have new things that
I could teach. And I also want to try out something. I have explained
this to Rebeca [Mauleón], I have an idea for an experimental
recording.
Q:
With
her?
CH: Me, Rebeca, and the percussionists
from San Francisco.
Q: Such as Orestes Vilató?
CH: Exactly! He is a must!
Q:
And
Walfredo [de los Reyes], of course!
CH: And Walfredo. I want to try out
an innovative concept with all the percussionists. I already have
the ideas, based on the same movements that I teach. I want to create
something beautiful, but I need to be there, in San Francisco. I can't
wait to go! And you have a person who makes it possible for us to
get there, a great person that I really cherish, Bill Martínez.
Q:
The
whole city is waiting for you.
CH: They love me there, don't they?
Q:
Yes.
What did you do last year?
CH: Last year I recorded three very
good CDs in Guadalupe with Roy Hargrove's group, Crisol. And that's
about it. I've been here, studying, and I will now travel to Chile,
God willing.
Q:
And did everything work out well at the [International]
Jazz Festival [in Havana]?
CH: I had a great time at the Festival.
I was lucky enough to meet a great master who was very surprised when
he saw me. Apparently, he already knew me and he gave me a big hug.
His name is Jack DeJonette and he is a great drummer and an awsome
person. He gave me a cymbal with his name and he wants me to go to
the United States to carry out a project with him. Me, him and mi
compadre Giovanni [Hidalgo] (see photo to the left) shared
many good times, talked a lot, and I was really very happy, because
I had only seen him in magazines and videos, but I had not had the
chance to meet him personally. We were crazy about each other and
it was a very inspirational encounter. We played together, me, him
and Giovanni, at the Teatro Nacional, and it was beautiful, really.
And I also met another great master, Max Roach, a very famous drummer,
and he was very glad to meet me. We exchanged ideas, talked, and so
on and so forth. We could not hold lenghthy dialoges, because he was
very busy. At least I got to know the great experimental master from
the 40's, Max Roach, one of the few that remain alive, because we
have lost a lot of figures, such as Art Blakey, etc.
Q:
Did
you play together?
CH: No, I could not play with him. In
Los Angeles I met Elvin Jones, and everybody says I look like
him, and that I am the Cuban Elvin Jones. He invited me to a concert
and I was backstage with him and his wife, who I believe is Japanese,
and he was extremely warm with me because he had already heard of
me. He also told me that he wanted to work with me in the United States.
Meeting these kind of people is the most sacred for me, and I will
carry it in my soul as long as I live: Elvin, Jack DeJonette, Max
Roach, and also many more, such as Dave Garibaldi, who is my student,
my friend, my brother, a great musician, a great percussionist, a
great innovator who follows my line, and I love him dearly; [others]
such as RayHuerta, Greg Bisonet, who was also my student, Denny Chambers,
who has not studied with me, but he is my friend and we love each
other, we were together at the Jazz festival in Canada, but I didn't
have a chance to share with him my knowledge about songo, about drum
combinations. And so on, and so forth. So that's why I want to go
back to San Francisco, to see Dave Garibaldi again because I love
him, and Mike Spiro, who is an incredible person, who always remembers
my family, my wife, everybody, I admire him a lot. And what can I
tell you about Rebeca [Mauleon]? She is like my niece, I cannot even
start telling you about her. I want to go to the United States because
I want to achieve something big with percussion and I will make it!
With Rebeca's help, because this white girl is not white, she is black,
she is Blacker than an African, she is awsome!
Q:
When
you have a chance, do you play for rumbas or at bembé?
CH: I play everything. Rumba, bembé,
everything. Some people cannot understand that I play quinto, that
I play drums in jazz. They can accept that I am a timbale player,
a conga player, but they cannot fathom that I am a jazz musician or
that at some point I can even play drums with a rock band. They cannot
understand that I play bata, quinto. But it is not my fault to be
able to handle everything, be that jazz, later quinto. I was born
with this talent, I was born form the drum, and I play everything
and can handle everything. Nature gave me this, the God who is in
heaven gave it to me. The same happens to mi compadreGiovanni
Hidalgo, the only percussion instrument that he does not completely
master is the drum, but he masters everything else. Right now I am
working on my second CD. It's played with the three bata drums, but
in each oro. I have to play a solo, and this is very difficult, it
has never been done before, and I am going to make it. I already did
a concert, and now I am going to record a CD.
Q:
I don't
know much about your history. Can you tell me about it?
CH: I started to play professionally
when I was eight years old in [the club] Tropicana, with a big band
named Habana Jazz. I started in 1956, playing congas.
Q:
Did
you go to the United States with this band?
CH: No. I worked there for about a year.
My dad was the conga player of this band and I was his substitute.
My father's name is Pedro Luis Quintana Corona. He is alive, he is
seventy four, and he is a great percussionist, he has amazing speed
with the congas, awsome. I kept studying constantly, but I was self-educated.
I played bongó even before 1956, when I was only five years
old, and my father did not teach me, I learned everything on my own.
Q:
What
about recording with other bands?
CH: I made several recordings in Switzerland
with a Brazilian woman, I recorded qith another group, I believe it
was called Camaleón, I recorded with Billy Cobham, with Giovanni
Hidalgo, with Flora Purim, Victor Moreira in England. I made a recording
that never came out with [Orlando Rios] Puntilla and mi compadre
John Peña in L. A., at Chick Corea's studio, we made
a CD called Abelen, but it has not been released, I am waiting to
see what happens; and so on and so forth. As a guest I have been in
several recordings.
Q:
Do
you ever rest?
CH: While I rest, I am mentally studying,
experimenting, even when I am taking tetracicline or Alka-Seltzer-that
is to say, drinkimg beer or rum-I am studying mentally.
Q:
I would
like to go back to your history. What happened after the Tropicana?
CH:
I kept studying and I would substitute my father in a band
of gallegos called Quinteto Tomei. They were around ten musicians
and they used to play in Soanish parties and I would play percussion,
for instance, congas. After that I entered a band called Conjunto
Cubamango, then I was part of the Rebelliou Army, and then I worked
in lots of cabarets and clubs, here in Habana, and in 1974 I started
working with Armónicos Pele, which played Latin jazz, the best
band around here in my opinion and with a great master who was the
one who first named me Changuito, Felipe de Eusebio. Then I was a
drummer for Orquesta Musica Moderna de Pinar del Río, and I
also was part of Orquesta Souvenir from Artemisa, and from there I
went to [Los] Van Van. I stayed with [Los] Van Van for twenty three
or twenty for years, and now I am on my own.
Above: Pupi & Changuito
Q:
But
not alone.
CH: Well, [Los] Van Van are still playing
and they are my people, but I am on my own. And apart from this, I
was nominated for a Grammy in 1997, and I just won a Grammy recently
with Roy Hargrove and Crisol.
Q:
Do
you live here in Habana?
CH: Yes, in an area called Reparto Guiterra,
towards the east.
Q:
I went
there to visit Pío Leyva.
CH: Close to the house of Pío
Leyva's daughter there is a place where I always go to drink my beer,
I am the godfather of that place. And I live close to Pío's
house.
We ended here as Changuito was being called to work in the studio
at El Tropical. The rain had started up again. Full of energy, always
studying, this percusion giant smiled and again metioned how he looked
forward to returning to San Francisco. Well, we are all waiting!
Interview and photos © 1999 by Julia
Sewell.
Transcription and translation © 1999 by Contextos.
No reproduction without written permission.