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Bongo Drums & An Eight Sided Conga
By bohus
Bongo drums are one of those cliched images of “retro”
thanks to their association with the 50’s – 60’s Beatnik scene. Watch any sitcom from that time, and I'll bet you see at least one Beatnik moment - bearded guys at a coffee house poetry reading, with silent
moments punctuated by bongo hits.
Bongos remain an important part of Latin music and Latin
culture (and let’s not forget their recent turn as a controller for
Nintendo’s Game Cube). These bongos are
an old set that I inherited – probably bought as a souvenir while visiting our
good neighbors south of the equator. The skins on it are dead, dead, dead. Despite this, I have used these congas in recorded music, but I won’t pretend that
they sounded very good. Perhaps these
were only ever made to be a souvenir as it looks like it would be rather
difficult to replace the drum heads.
I’ve got another Latin percussion “souvenir” – an unusual octagonal
conga drum. I don’t know if it’s
technically correct to call it a conga since there are many
classifications for a long handheld drum like this. It's got a handle, it looks like Ricky Ricardo's drum... so I'm saying it's in the "conga" family. The weird shape has earned it the name "octa-conga"
Because of its size, I’m guessing that it’s more decorative than rhythmic. Good thing too as the skin on this one is even more dead, and looks even more difficult to replace. Now where am I supposed to find an octagonal cow?
Related:
Beat out electronic rhythms with Hit Stix
