Michael League Ellipsis at SFJAZZ Center

Michael League Ellipsis 
SFJAZZ Center
San Francisco, CA
January 29, 2026

On an uncharacteristically balmy January evening, Michael League brought Ellipsis to the SFJAZZ Center, featuring Cuban conguero/batalero, singer (akpwón), dancer, and composer Pedrito Martinez. The ensemble also included famed Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez and Cuban keyboardist and synthesizer player Glenda Del E. League, known for his work with Snarky Puppy, organized the group's sound while anchoring its groove.

Collectively, these musicians have performed with many of the most consequential figures in jazz, Latin, fusion, rock, world music, and soul.

League initiated much of the program with deceptively simple, trance-inducing bass ostinatos that gradually drew the audience into an altered state—echoing the atmosphere surrounding bata drumming in Santería and Yoruba traditions.

All are formidable players. Sanchez delivered a solo so riveting that the audience roared, with several listeners rising to their feet. Del E played with lyrical clarity and kinetic joy; her movement was inseparable from her phrasing. League's harmonically angled guitar statements added bite and dimension.

But Martinez stood apart.

Many listeners experience percussion solely as rhythm. Years ago, when I asked the legendary Cuban drummer Armando Peraza how he achieved such expressive depth, he replied, "You have to sing." That insight clarifies what unfolded here. The conga and bata are not merely rhythmic instruments; they are pitched voices. On the bata, tones interlock primarily in melodic conversation, despite their rhythmic complexity.

Traditionally, bata performance involves a battery of three drummers who play the okónkolo (small), itótele (middle), and iyá (large) drum. The iyá signals structural changes; the itótele responds in counterpoint; the okónkolo maintains the timeline. Their parts continually cross in intricate combinations, demanding extreme independence between the player's hands and a voluminous amount to remember, because there are some thirty Orishas (deities), each having their own rhythms and several subsections for each Orisha. Moreover, the drum parts are not written down. They are transmitted by the master, lightly tapping the rhythms on the students' shoulders... Med school on congas.

Traditionally reserved for sacred ceremony, the bata has entered secular Cuban music in recent decades, though its spiritual gravity remains embedded in the Yoruba religion.

Martinez not only commanded all three drums simultaneously, but he also chanted while playing—virtually unheard of.

Several compositions originated as extemporaneous rhythmic exchanges between Martinez and Sanchez during the COVID pandemic. League later shaped those recordings into structured works, preserving their improvisatory vitality while giving them architectural form.

As we exited the hall, a seasoned and musically astute friend remarked, "This may well be the greatest musical performance I have ever heard." Judging from the response in the room, many appeared to agree.