Candido
The Havana-born conga and bongo player Candido Camero, who brought tuned multi-conga playing to American jazz and whose 1979 Salsoul record "Jingo" became a dance-floor standard.
Havana to New York
Candido Camero Guerra was born in Havana on April 22, 1921, in the El Cerro district, though one unattributed source puts him in San Antonio de los Banos. He started on tin-can bongos made by his uncle at about four and took up the tres at eight. At fourteen, in 1935, he was a professional on the tres with son ensembles, among them Arsenio Rodriguez's backing band, and he worked at Radio Progreso, CMQ and the Tropicana. In 1946 he went to New York with a dance team (one tribute says 1945), making his debut in the revue Tidbits at the Plymouth Theatre, playing quinto solo and tumbao at once so that it sounded like several drummers; the Percussive Arts Society says he settled permanently in 1952.
His first American recording, in 1948, was with Machito and His Afro-Cubans, and he worked with Dizzy Gillespie from about then, with the Billy Taylor Trio in 1953 and 1954 and with Stan Kenton in 1954. Around 1950 he reportedly became the first to play three tuned congas at once, and he invented a foot-operated cowbell; in 1957 he was an early user of fiberglass congas made by Frank Mesa. Bobby Sanabria said there isn't a conga player today that doesn't play something Candido first did, and the Percussive Arts Society calls him the father of modern conga drumming.
Records
His first album as a leader was Candido (ABC-Paramount, 1956), with Al Cohn; later records include Conga Soul (Roulette, 1962), Thousand Finger Man (Solid State, 1969, later Blue Note), Beautiful (Blue Note, 1970), Drum Fever (Polydor, 1973), and for Salsoul in 1979 Dancin' and Prancin' and Candy's Funk. In the 2000s he joined Patato Valdes and Giovanni Hidalgo as the Conga Kings for Chesky, which also issued Jazz Descargas (2001), Inolvidable with Graciela (2004) and his last album, The Master (2014). He also played on Duke Ellington's A Drum Is a Woman (1956), Tony Bennett's The Beat of My Heart (1957), Art Blakey's Drum Suite (1957) and Gillespie's Gillespiana (1960), and appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows.
He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2008, received a Latin Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2009, a Latin Jazz USA lifetime achievement award in 2001 and an ASCAP Legend of Jazz honor in 2005, and was nominated for a Grammy for Inolvidable. The documentary Candido: Hands of Fire dates from 2006 or 2008 depending on the source. He died at home in New York City on November 7, 2020, aged 99.
Albums
- Dancin' and Prancin' 1979 · Salsoul
His 1979 Salsoul album of four extended dance pieces, headed by "Jingo".
Songs
- Jingo Dancin' and Prancin' · 1979
Babatunde Olatunji's "Jin-go-lo-ba" as a Latin disco record: Candido's 1979 Salsoul version, a favorite of DJs.
Sources
- Candido Camero, Wikipedia
- Candido Camero, National Endowment for the Arts
- Candido Camero, Percussive Arts Society
- Remembering Candido Camero, WBGO