CORTIJO

Cortijo was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, on 11 December 1928. He was a significant figure in the history of Latin music and noted as a percussionist, (timbales, conga, bongo, maracas and other percussion), bandleader and composer Cortijo. He was the musical hero of the common folk of Puerto Rico and Latin America; admired for his qualities as a creative and talented musician. He took the bomba and plena out of the slums and with his all-black band, and introduced them into all levels of society in Puerto Rico and abroad. His early childhood was filled with the sounds of the drumming and singing of pleneros like Cornelio and Maria Teresa. He learned how to make the timbas from them; the barrel drums which he used to entice a young Ismael Rivera to join his descargas at the beach. For the next three decades, these close friends lived a life in read more...