****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
According to a few unverifiable sources on the internet, you have Rogelio Darias on bongo, Carlos Mejia on tumbadoras. Darias, originally from Cuba, went on to play in Las Vegas for many years and died there in 2010. Carlos Mejia is a very obscure conguero who married a Mexican dancer and became her manager, ending his career as a musician. He used to be able to be googled, but as of this writing, I can't find him anymore. Considering what I hear on this recording, his obscurity is way out of proportion to his musicality. His playing is very advanced and unlike anything else of the era---comparable to Tata Guines in richness of conceptual development based on the son (la marcha). Some of the cuts on this recording also serve as important and rare examples of how a percussion section composed of only a bongo and tumbadoras functions---a little-recorded but richly-rewarding format for the listener.
