El Negro.....

[YamahaPlayer]

Word, not very relvent to most American players. But holy moly, being able to play that other stuff ON TOP OF the left foot clave, is pretty unreal. Stupid was the word?

Yamplayer. How do you say potato? Like potahhto or potayeto.

It's pronounced: cul·tured [kuhl-cherd]

[David Bouet]

El Negro's book "Conversations in Clave" is amazing.

Another cat here in Europe who's has got the left foot clave down is Gabor Dornyei who is currently touring with Thriller LIve.
He once told me he seriously studied Horacio's book.
Can't wait to have a lesson with him!
I beleive some members here are friends of his.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pH3yFx08EI

Horacio's book is the most musical 4 way independence study imo.
There is so much to learn from it without even touching the left foot clave stuff which is very advanced(for me anyway).
It is all about acheiving freedom with melodic lines in order to improvise against cascara and bell patterns with right or left hand lead.
Similar to the way we approach jazz independence in many ways only that the ride lines are more syncopated and both hands potentially lead.

Any tips from those who are studying this book would be greately appreciated btw.

Cheers,
David

[Matus]

It's a love/hate situation for me with his playing. There are times where he goes for a more straight forward approach while still retaining the whole cuban flavour to it and that's where he really gets my attention. The rest of the time he's just wailing around displacing everything on top of the clave, sounding like 5 guys playing timba and I can't stand that stuff with a gun to my head. Not that it's bad at all, but I just can't get through a whole song.
Fine examples would be his MD2000 performance with a quintet as opposed to the Collective 2002 trio. They might seem the same but I just enjoy his playing more with less space within the music to fill.

[sjj123]

What is Horacio up to? He kills me....seems he's been out of the lime lite a bit

http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/horaciohernandezmd2000.html

[amoergosum]

What is Horacio up to? He kills me....seems he's been out of the lime lite a bit

2013 >>>

[sjj123]

DW Not the right gig for him to me

[captainziltoid]

I found the same video about a month ago and flipped out! I was on YouTube after a friend of mine had just been at a Rosenblatt clinic and it made me think of "On Fire", which I had first heard in my Freshman year of college. It was mind blowing then with Joel and it's STUPID with Horacio. This has just got colossal energy and it's a very inspired performance.
Yeah, the left foot clave is def not something we're used to hearing here in America, and it's always there, but it's a huge part of the
music and culture. I think it's marvelous. Not something I ever aspired to do, but I can dig it and the cats that do.
Great clip!!
And what's with the "retard" comment? Can we come up with a better way of describing a player? I mean, c'mon...

Is this the one you're talking about with Joel?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdEMnJ6OXjQ

[sjj123]

Thats Cliff....

[Morgenthaler]

Side note: Virg is recording with Watanabe and Berlin as I type this. Honestly I had a hard time imagining them fit together,
but after their recent trio tour, apparently they wanted to record with Virg. Gonna be interesting how that works out.