Aug 14, 2026 · 47 min · 11 segments
Raúl Fernandez joins Rebecca again to pay tribute to one of Cuba's greatest congueros, Carlos "Patato" Valdés, in honor of the centenary of his birth. Songs played: La Conga del Casino, Conjunto…
Raul FernandezGuest
Rebecca BodenheimerHostI've taken classes with a number of Cuban percussionists, and most of them will say, "This is the way you play X or Y," you know? And then you...
But then you'll have... take classes with another one, and they'll tell you something different.
Um, so I, yeah, I, I just feel like that is... th- that's kind of the way that...
It's probably the way it works in most of the world, but definitely the way it works, uh, in Cuban music.
By the, by the way, there is a very famous album, uh, speaking of that, by Mongo Santamaría called, uh, Mongo in Havana: Bembé, you know, there in, uh, 1960.
And it's a great album that has a lot of, uh, Santería music by Batá on one side, and then r- rumba or guaguancó on the other.
And the, uh, and the s- santo part, one of the singers is a, a very famous, uh, uh, Cuban singer, uh, uh, Merceditas Valdés.
But the other one, the male singer was a guy named Luis Santamaría, who was cousin of, of Mongo.
Because again, you know, as you know, the Santería religion, again, is, it's not like a Catholic church where the Pope says something and everybody follows, and that's not even true.
I've taken classes with a number of Cuban percussionists, and most of them will say, "This is the way you play X or Y," you know? And then you...
But then you'll have... take classes with another one, and they'll tell you something different.
Um, so I, yeah, I, I just feel like that is... th- that's kind of the way that...
It's probably the way it works in most of the world, but definitely the way it works, uh, in Cuban music.
By the, by the way, there is a very famous album, uh, speaking of that, by Mongo Santamaría called, uh, Mongo in Havana: Bembé, you know, there in, uh, 1960.
And it's a great album that has a lot of, uh, Santería music by Batá on one side, and then r- rumba or guaguancó on the other.
And the, uh, and the s- santo part, one of the singers is a, a very famous, uh, uh, Cuban singer, uh, uh, Merceditas Valdés.
But the other one, the male singer was a guy named Luis Santamaría, who was cousin of, of Mongo.
Because again, you know, as you know, the Santería religion, again, is, it's not like a Catholic church where the Pope says something and everybody follows, and that's not even true.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
