Musicians - Armando Peraza

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	Musicians - Armando Peraza

Armando Peraza is one of the greatest figures in the history of Latin music and jazz. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Chano Pozo and Tito Puente as a pioneer of the Afro Cuban art form, but through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing and guitarist Carlos Santana, he was the most internationally visible of all Latin percussionists from the 1950s through to the 1990s. Although primarily known as a bongocero and conguero, Peraza is also an innovative and accomplished dancer and composer.

Significantly, and uniquely amongst the great Cuban percussionists, Peraza has for many years been an important socio-political figure, a symbol of Afro-Cuban achievement through his virtuoso musicianship and his refusal to be defeated by racism. His work with Shearing and Santana brought him international fame.

Born in Lauton Battista, Havana, Cuba in 1924, he was orphaned by age 7 but made a living selling vegetables and gaining a reputation as a sportsman, being proficient at baseball and boxing. At one time he was a boxing coach. A natural musician, a chance encounter at a baseball game led to his first professional gig with famous local bandleader Alberto Ruiz. He then made his reputation as drummer and dancer playing with the cream of Havana’s small bands or “conjuntos”, the most famous being Ruiz’s Conjunto Kubavana.

He left Cuba for America in 1949 with his great friend, conga drummer Mongo Santamaria. They arrived in New York City where Peraza cut his first record date with Charlie Parker and Buddy Rich. He also recorded with fellow Cuban Slim Gaillard in New York in November 1949, a session that produced an exemplary virtuoso performance from Peraza on "Bongo City". After a period in Mexico City he returned to the US and settled in the West Coast. Here he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Gaillard and ran an Afro-Cuban dance review at the Cable Car Village club attracting a clientele that included Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando and Rita Hayworth.

In San Francisco he met British pianist George Shearing, a collaboration that found Peraza at the forefront of a new wave of popularity for Afro-Cuban music. Shearing’s music is now regarded as “light” in jazz terms, but the rhythms and harmonic structures Peraza introduced to the pianist’s music were unerringly authentic. It was during his time with Shearing that Peraza emerged as a composer. With Shearing developing Peraza’s nascent ideas pieces like “Te Arango La Cabeza” (a song perhaps inspired by boxing!), "Mambo in Chimes” and “Mambo In Miami” were recorded. These recordings were at the heart of the "mambo craze", which was sweeping the USA, and Peraza became highly visible, a major achievement for an Afro-Cuban.

Peraza’s extraordinary technique and expressive power as a hand drummer became a feature of Shearing’s performances. He toured America with Shearing and experienced persistent racism. For instance, in Miami during dates with Shearing and Peggy Lee in 1959, Peraza was not allowed to stay at the same hotel as the other band members on racial grounds. Shearing and Lee resolved the situation by threatening to pull out of the performance unless Peraza was “allowed” to stay at their hotel.

In tandem with this he worked with vibes player Cal Tjader and they cut the famous track “Guachi Guaro” which has recently enjoyed renewed popularity in the London Acid Jazz club scene. In 1959 Peraza joined Mongo Santamaria for the classic 'Mongo' album, one of the most important recordings of Afro-Cuban “folklore” music ever. It included conga drummer Francisco Aguabella, another contemporary and friend of Peraza, and “Afro-Blue”, a song that became a jazz standard once John Coltrane had recorded it.

Although Peraza's personality was best suited to being a member of other leaders' bands he did record one solo album in 1968. His "Wild Thing" LP on the Skye label features performances from pianist Chick Corea and Japanese saxophonist Sadao Watanabe. He had previously been featured as a solo artist on the 1959 album ‘More Drums On Fire’. His performance on conga and bongoes on the piece ‘Artistry In Rhythm’ was widely lauded as a standard-setting masterpiece.

Adaptability and an open mind are the hallmarks of Peraza’s approach, so that when rock took hold of the business in the late 60s, Armando was amongst the first Latin percussionists to add conga drums to a rock track, notably on Harvey Mandel’s 'Cristo Redentor' album in 1968.

In 1972 Peraza joined the Santana group, which was embarking on its most creative period. Peraza remained with Santana for nearly twenty years and played to millions around the globe, partnering other outstanding percussionists like Chepito Areas and Orestes Vilato. The profile of Latin percussion had never been higher. A very limited number of Peraza songs were recorded by Santana, the best known is probably “Gitano” from the album ‘Amigos’, and his jazz-inflected piece “Mandela” was cut on the ‘Freedom’ album. But Santana’s recordings did feature many outstanding performances from Peraza, notably his conga solos on “Hannibal” (‘Zebop!’), “Bambele” and “Bambara” (both ‘Viva Santana’), and “Mother Africa” (’Welcome’). And his bongo performances on “La Fuente Del Ritmo” (‘Caravanserai’), and “Flor De Canela” and “Promise of a Fisherman” (a sequence on ‘Borboletta’) provide strong evidence to support John Santos’ assertion that Peraza is “perhaps the greatest bongosero in the history of that instrument.”

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