Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum

6. The Future, What Comes Next?

132 * Umi * From Havana, the batá tradition has spread around the world, especially to Puerto Rico, Miami, New York, and California. Scholars discuss the important contributions of key drummers from Cuba who established batá drumming in the United States. Cuban expatriate drummer Julio Collazo is credited with introducing the batá drums to the United States, although he did not teach the tradition to others until very late.1 Collazo was born in Havana in 1931, where he began to play batá in his earlyteens.2Helaterjoinedthewell-knowndrummerNicolásAngarica, and after this early experience, he became a protégé of Pablo Roche and traveled with him throughout Cuba to play religious/ritual ceremonies. In the 1940s, Katherine Dunham, African American choreographer and anthropologist, hired Collazo to tour the world with her performance company. After leaving her group, he worked as a popular musician in New York City, where he played mostly for Latin jazz and dance music recording sessions with the likes of Mongo Santamaría, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and others.3 Only occasionally did he play for religious ceremonies. In 1961, Collazo led the drumming in the first ever batá ceremony on U.S. soil, and in 1976 he led the first U.S. ceremony to use consecratedbatá.4Heissaidtohavetakenonasmallnumberofstudents in the 1960s, to whom he taught basic batá techniques. In 1975, he built a batá set of his own. At the time of Friedman’s study, “those who currently play batá in New York . . . learned from Julio Collazo or one of his students.”5 The Future, What Comes Next? 6 The Future, What Comes Next? Umi 133 Collazo and Orlando “Puntilla” Ríos are mentioned among key figures in New York. Ríos was born in Havana in 1947 and died in New York City in 2008. He came to the United States with the Mariel boat exodus in 1980 and became known as a master batá and rumba drummer .HefoundedtheimportantfolkloricgroupNuevaGeneración(New Generation) and became a major influence for batá drummers in the United States. He worked closely with the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York. OtherCubanbataleroswhospreadthetraditionincludeOnelioScull in Puerto Rico, Pedro “El Negro” Rayat in Miami, as well as Alfredo “Coyude” Vidaux and Francisco Aguabella in California, especially Los Angeles. Aguabella was born in Matanzas sometime around 1925. He started playing rumba and other folkloric music in his home region. Later, in the 1950s, he moved to the United States, where he worked as a percussionist in Cuban and Latin jazz groups. (Like Julio Collazo, Aguabella’s U.S. debut was with Katherine Dunham.) He did a lot of important work teaching and performing Cuban music in Los Angeles , where he lived for many years until his death in 2010.6 Non-Cubans like John Amira (white American), Milton Cardona (Puerto Rican), and Eugene “Gene” Golden (African American) in New York; (African Americans) Yagbe Gerrard, Marcus Gordon, Otobaji Ngoma, as well as Peter de Jesús (Puerto Rican American, aka Piri Ochun), and Michael Spiro (white American) in California played important roles in spreading the batá drum tradition. Jazz musician Bill Summers has worked to extend the tradition in California and the South, especially in New Orleans.7 Since the publication of Yoruba practitioner John Mason’s seminal work Orin Orisa on Yoruba chants in the diaspora, with its in-depth tracing of batá drum tradition from Cuba to the United States, other consecrated sets of batá or fundamento have come to the United States under Cuban and non-Cuban ownership, and more African American drummers have emerged who are skilled enough to deserve the appellation of kpuatakí (master/teacher). Bill Summers brought a set from Matanzas called Añá Agueré, consecrated by Estéban “Chachá” Bacallao . I am aware of at least six sets of fundamento that have arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area since Mason’s work: Michael Spiro brought the Carlos Aldama’s Life in Batá Carlos 134 drums Añá Lade Odo Meji Ará Okó from Matanzas and Oke Bi Añá from Havana; José Francisco Barroso (Cuban) brought the drum Añá Lade (Añá Has a Crown) from Havana to the Bay Area; Eric Barberia brought another set from Havana called Añá Ilú (The Town’s Drum); CarlosMena(DominicanAmerican)broughtasetfromMatanzascalled Añá Abolá (Añá Brings Me Prosperity); and African American drummer Otobaji Ngoma created a set in Oakland called Iwori Jiwowo. David Frazier (an African American aka David Flavor) has emerged as a highly respected lead...