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DESCARGA PI-MOZAMBI-SON
Cuban Music Jam Session

genres:  Chachachá, Son, Bembé, Batarumba, Conga
video type:  Demonstration
runtime:  68 Minutes
location:  Havana, Cuba
producer: Boogalu Productions

Descarga Pi-Mozambi-Son is a series of eight music sessions that reflect the depth and beauty of popular and folkloric Cuban music, as well as featuring new inventive forms

Descarga in Spanish means to unload. The tradition of descarga in Cuba is about unloading creatively in music - a special form where musicians can improvise and interact with more freedom. To this end, descargas often have stripped down arrangements of a repeating melody line, strong bass, and percussion. With this rhythmic groove solid, individual musicians have permission to solo, invent, and stretch out.

In the spirit of descarga, a group of exceptional Cuban musicians assembled under the leadership of Santiago "Chaguito" Garzón, the former musical director of “Rumberos de Cuba” and "Clave Y Guaguancó. For this project Chaguito invited a group of longtime friends, many from his native Guantánamo. Included are musicians from such legendary groups as Conjunto Chappottín y Sus Estrellas, Orquesta Sublime, and Pachito Alonso y Sus Kini Kini.

Descargas on the DVD
Bailalo Mi Negra - chachachá
Estrellas Del Son - son
Pi-Mozambi-Son - mix of rhythms in pilón, mozambique, and son
Ogún Guerrero Tumbaloya - bembé guantanamero
Timba Para Changó - batarumba
Tremendo Descargón - son montuno
Guarapacha-Son - mix of rumba guarapachangeo and son
A Paso Firme de Aqui Pa'Ya - conga

Musicians
Santiago "Chaguito" Garzón - percussion/voice
former musical director of Clave y Guaguancó & Rumberos de Cuba

Melquiades Fundora Dina - wooden flute
Orquesta Sublime (founding member 1956)

Tomás "Panga" Ramos - congas
Pupy y Los Que Son Son, Buena Vista Social Club Alumni, Cubanismo, Paulito FG

Armando Fuentes Silega - bass
Conjunto Chappottín y Sus Estrellas

Angel Laborí Hernández - piano
Conjunto Chappottín y Sus Estrellas

Juan Carlos Tito Rojas - trumpet
Pachito Alonso y Sus Kini Kini

Alberto Muguercia Ramos - timbales/voice
Grupo Reyes 73

Esconodio Padilla Pérez - tres/voice
Grupo Tradición 2000

Luis Enrique "Kiki" Romero - bongo/voice
Grupo Caña Santa

Reviews
Hector Garcia - Germany
I watched this DVD last night and it was a real pleasure! I am a bit of a conguero myself so that I really enjoyed the solos and watching and listening to the "real thing" made in Cuba, which always is a bit different to that played in the US and/or Europe, even when played by Cubans. It just has a different color to it, like a visual-acoustic perfume, only possible by Cubans in Cuba.

Clifford Brooks - Afrocubanchops.com
This is the first time that I've actually seen "snare drum rudiment techniques" being played on conga drums being used with really great tastefulness. It really figures that it took a drummer from Piner Del Rio to break it down for the folks. Usually drummers play high speed techniques very fast but linear and not very tastefully. I really really like the way the conguero plays.

Timbalero and bongocero solos were full of taste, taste and more tastefulness. No one was showing off, just playing with extreme tastefulness. I really like the way everyone interacted together as a group. they're pi-mozambi-son was very funky.

I really want to give a lot of credit to these very fine musicians. I've seen a lot of stuff out of Cuba but this is the first DVD or video that I've seen that didn't seem redundant. The camera work was right there on top of everything very clear and I felt like I was right there with the guys. Bajo was too funky, the piano, trumpet and flute was so very tasty. Wow, I thought I was just going to watch "another" DVD out of Cuba, I was really surprised.

Bruce Polin - Descarga.com
Ah, something I have been waiting for...
Here's a totally essential descarga jam session DVD - an informal series of performances that allow the players to stretch, and improvise, against a background of the most savory Cuban dance grooves. Filmed entirely on location in a well lit Havana courtyard, and led by percussionist and vocalist Santiago "Chaguito" Garzón (Clave y Guaguancó & Rumberos de Cuba), these extended descarga-sons capture the spirit and soul of the pristine rhythm saturated jam-sessions born in the late '50s and made legendary by names like Cachao, Peruchin, Niño Rivera and Walfredo Reyes. This is one, folks, rocks from beginning to end. A must-have. Very Highly Recommended.

Brian Dring - “The Beat” Magazine Volume 25, No. 1, 2006
Lovers of Cuban music should check out the recent dvd Descarga Pi-Mozambi-Son (Boogalu) which catches an ensemble of top-notch musicians from different groups assembled under the leadership of conga player Santiago "Chaguito" Garzon.

As with many of the "live" performance dvds issued by this label, this one was filmed as an informal session or descarga in what appears to be an outdoor courtyard. Chaguito directs and propels the seven or eight-piece group through a variety of Cuban styles with extended flute, trumpet and percussion solos which nevertheless never lapse into repetition or excess.

One of the revelations I came away with was that some Cuban rhythm patterns like the pi-Mozambi-son are actually constructed from rhythms that originated in two different parts of Africa and were hybridized over time into something unique and new. This may be the key to understanding the apparent complexity of some of Cuba's vast array of drum patterns.

Between songs, the musicians are captured working out impromptu arrangements, joking and pumping each other up. Their easy camaraderie is contrasted with their professionalism and an underlying self-awareness as musicians and keepers of their island's musical traditions.

Descarga Commentary by Myron Ort, Boogalu Associate Producer
Boogalu Productions is ever expanding its horizons to include more and more of those scenes you always wished you could see first hand.  Musically speaking, the descarga, or Cuban jam session, as it is often called, has long been a favorite of Latin music fans, record collectors, and autodidacts everywhere. That is a fancy word for people, like myself, who sit with bongos or congas in front of the stereo in order to teach themselves through the vicarious experience of playing alongside more advanced performers.  Not to say that a jamming descarga is not also  conducive to dancing or just a very exciting listening experience. Descarga tempos can be interpreted as "bailable".The extended solos and the fiery emotional release that this form can generate is both infectious to the participating musicians as well as the audience.  What could be more exciting than watching and hearing musicians doing what they themselves enjoy the most, "stretching out" as they feel it, to their heart's content, without the usual time restraints or "commercial" considerations?

With this current Boogalu project we have added the hitherto missing visual element to just such an authentic Cuban descarga recording. A picture is worth a thousand notes and now you have before you both the audio and the video. You can learn from hearing and from simultaneous seeing - and what a spectacle it is - the next best thing to actually being there. By the way, there are plenty of close shots of hands on instruments so you can really see what is going on. You will also enjoy watching the casual camaraderie among the musicians, before, during, and after each session. The emphasis is on instrumental solos, but not without some vocal elements and coro as well to spice things up and to keep a reference to the traditions. In addition to percussion (tumbadoras, timbal, bongo, bata, cajon, clave, campana, guiro, guira,  and shekere) there is piano, flauta, tres guitar, trompeta, and upright string bass. You will see and hear extended solos by the flute, the piano, trumpet, tres, bass, and, of course, all the percussion.  Some of the many highlights to look for are the advanced conga drum solos by "Panga" and the totally inspired bongo solos by the leader "Chaguito" who also composed and arranged the whole session.  Fans of the traditional wooden flute will hear one of its masters, Melquiades Fundora, who was an original member of Orq. Sublime in 1956!  Other highlights are solos by pianist Angel Labori, tres guitar by Esconodio Padilla, trumpet by Juan Carlos Tito Rojas, timbales by Alberto Muguercia, bongo by Luis Enrique "Kiki" Romero, and bass by Armando Fuentes. 

In addition to the cha cha chá (destined to be a hit in its own right), the son, the son montuno, and the conga, as take off points for these descargas, Chaguito has arranged many inventive combinatorial pieces which utilize an extended range of Cuban percussion traditions. This includes pilon, mozambique, bata-rumba with cajon, rumba guarapachangeo, and bembe. During the bembe piece, for example, you will witness something quite unique in one section - both Chaguito and Panga playing lead conga drum phrases with one hand while holding clave with the other.

After this gets out, I cannot imagine that every percussionist around the world will not be challenging themselves with this little exercise, to learn, as we always seem to be doing, from the many accomplishments of our Cuban brothers and sisters.