Jazz Articles about The Conga Kings

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The Conga Kings: Jazz Descargas

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 1, 2001

On many levels, The Conga Kings’ Jazz Descargas is authentic Afro-Cuban jazz.

For starters, Carlos “Patato” Valdes and Candido Camero have been Afro-Cuban music pioneers for decades. Patato is recognized as one of the first to tune his congas to a song’s dominant chord, which contributes harmony to the song’s melody as well as to the rhythm of a song (noteworthy because there is no piano, and therefore plenty of melodic space, on Jazz Descargas ), and has played with ...