Farewell to Legendary percussion master Candido Camero.

The legendary conguero and multi-instrumentalist Candido Camero has passed away at the age of 99. Candido was one of the most influential and revered congueros who was sought after and worked with giants such as Machito, Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, Tony Bennett, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus among others. He was an innovator on his instrument who had the talent to play various instruments including the Cuban tres. “Candido had a striking presence… tall and meticulously dressed. He was deep…very humble, kind and soft spoken” said renowned musician/educator John Santos who performed with Candido in New York..

He immigrated to the United States in 1945 arriving in New York before Chano Pozo. Not only was Candido a phenomenal conguero but he was the pioneer that played with different set of combinations such as playing a set of congas while soloing on the quinto with his right hand and playing the tumbao on his left hand. He was the first conguero to play both the conga, bongo and a cow bell attached to a foot pedal simultaneously.

According to Bobby Sanabria’s article on Candido written for his 99th birthday on April 22nd stated that “while appearing with Puerto Rican pianist Joe Loco’s band, he was the first to perform on three congas, each tuned to a specific pitch.“I had seen the New York Philharmonic perform, and paid attention to the timpanist,” Candido says. “I thought to myself, ‘I can do the same thing with the congas.’ I began to tune them to a dominant chord so I could play melodies in my tumbaos and solos.” Evidence of this innovative approach can be clearly heard on the Joe Loco rendition of “Tea For Two.” Candido plays the entire melody on three congas and a tuned set of bongós. He eventually incorporated as many as six tuned congas, though his standard would be three.”

Candido became a well known presence representing Afro-Cuban percussion on television appearing with Duke Ellington on “The Woman Is A Drum“, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Steve Allen Show and appeared with the likes of Jackie Gleason, Patti Page and Pat Boone. Combined with his soundtrack and studio work, Candido became one of the most recorded conga players in history along with Ray Barretto and Ray Mantilla. He also put out his own recordings in Jazz and Latin music such as “Beautiful” and “Inolvidable”, his collaboration with Graciela Perez (Machito’s sister and vocalist). In the late 1970’s, Candido also put out a couple of percussion driven disco music albums. His 1979 version of the Babatunde Olatunji classic Jingo (that Santana recorded in the 1960’s) became a huge dance music hit.

Candido would continue to add to the music landscape going into the 2000’s as part of the percussion super group “The Conga Kings” with fellow Cuban conga giant Carlos “Patato” Valdes and the younger Puerto Rican phenom Giovanni Hidalgo. These legendary recordings for the Chesky label are collector items and have served as further inspiration for generations of percussionists. Candido was also featured on Israel Lopez “Cachao”‘s last live recording “The Last Mambo” on his own tour de force “Descarga Candido“. His influence has spanned generations of great Latin, Jazz and Pop recordings for decades. RIP Candido…Thanks for your music, Maestro!