Candido Camero's 82nd Birthday
featuring bobby sanabria & Ascension with special guests
Carlos "Patato" Valdes, Dr. Billy Taylor, Larry Harlow,
Ray Barretto, Nicky Marrero, Giovanni Hidalgo, Eddie Montalvo,
Ray Mantilla, Jimmy Delgado, Robby Ameen, Ralph Irizarry, and
others was held on Tuesday, April 22nd at Birdland in New York
City.
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Cándido Camero is living
testimony to the history of Cuban music and modern jazz. Born
in 1921 in La Habana's El Cerro barrio, he started his career
playing bass, guitar and the Cuban tres. Of note was his work
as a tres player with Conjunto Azul, a group that was led by
the legendary percussionist/composer Luciano "Chano"
Pozo. On bongo in this group was a boyhood friend who would later
become noteworthy in his own right, Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria.
Camero switched to the bongo and congas, becoming noted for his
progressive style on both instruments. This led to a six year
stint with the CMQ Radio Orchestra in Havana and another stint
as a bassist and featured percussionist at the world renowned
Cabaret Tropicana.
In 1946, Camero first came
to the U.S. with the fiery rumba dance team of Carmen and Rolando.
It was with this revue where Camero demonstrated an unheard of
technique in his conga drumming was playing a steady rhythm with
one hand while improvising with the other - thus becoming the
father of coordinated independence in Cuban drumming. This was
also the first time anyone had ever played two congas simultaneously
in any context. Soon thereafter, Camero was performing and recording
as featured soloist with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
Billy Taylor, Machito and his Afro-Cubans.
By 1952, Camero was hailed
by New York Jazz critics as the greatest Cuban drummer to come
to the U.S., since the spectacular Chano Pozo took New York by
storm before being killed in 1948. In 1954 he was the featured
soloist with Stan Kenton's Big Band and became known nationwide
on their coast-to-coast tour. He also appeared on Duke Ellington's
album, The Drum is a Woman, and performed on the Steve Allen
Show and the Ed Sullivan Show. Camero performs on hundreds of
other recordings with such famed artists as Coleman Hawkins,
Woody Herman, George Shearing, Errol Garner, Lionel Hampton,
Tito Puente, and Tony Bennett.
