Early 1997 - Café Cantante-
piano: Emilio Morales
bass: Frank Rubio

This is a bonus track. To give you some history. Paulito recorded "El bueno soy yo", the album before "Con la conciencia tranquila", with the same 3 percussionists: Tomasito, Yoel Páez, and Coqui, but with Frank Rubio on bass instead of Joel Domínguez, and Emilio Morales on piano instead of Sergio Noroña, who at that time was playing synth and singing coro. Prior to the big personnel switch, two songs which would wind up on Con la conciencia were already being worked out -- the title track and Y San Toma qué. This recording gives you a glimpse into the way many Timba groups developed their epic arrangements.. As you can hear, the piano parts are very primitive in comparison and there's no cuerpo yet -- the first parts to be created were the coros and mambos. This is not unusual -- Manolín did this all the time as well. The groups would try out their new ideas on audiences to see how they went over and later add cuerpos and create full-blown arrangements. By the time they got to the recording studio, the band would have played the song live many times and probably even recorded a "radio demo". If your Spanish is good you can hear Paulito explain the lyrical basis for the song to his audience, for whom this song was at this point very much an estreno (debut).

MONTUNO PREVIEW
16 - piano tumbao
40 - marcha
mambo 1:
16 - marcha de mambo
breakdown 1: bueno, a ver...
76 - breakdown
coro 1: San Dame San Dame, ¿San Toma dónde está?
4 - marcha
18 - bomba
mambo 1:
8 - marcha de mambo
8 - bomba
coro 2: ¿dónde está lo mío?
8 - pedal
8 - bomba
mambo 1 reprise:
8 - marcha de mambo
8 - bomba
breakdown 2: eso es, y San Toma ¿dónde está?
32 - breakdown
coro 3: ¿qué te pasa?, te veo lento, éntrame con eso...
4 - marcha
16 - bomba
mambo 2:
8 - marcha de mambo
16 - bomba
coro 4: por aquí, por aquí, éntrame con eso
8 - pedal
8 - bomba
mambo 3 w/ Ceruto flute solo:
8 - marcha de mambo
8 - bomba
8 - marcha de mambo
coro 5: pa' allá y pa' allá...
4 - pedal
8 - bomba
mambo 4:
8 - marcha de mambo
coro 2 reprise:
6 - marcha
10 - bomba
coda (2 bars)

For further reading, see: The Tomás Cruz Conga Method, Vol. III -- This is the final volume in a series of method books that Orlando Fiol, Mike Racette and I wrote based our studies with Tomás Cruz, the conguero of la Élite from 1996 through 1998 (and on all of the recordings linked to this article). In additional to more technical explanations of gears, it analyzes various other songs from Con la conciencia tranquila, gives the exact conga parts in written notation, and provides a DVD with Tomasito demonstrating each marcha at full speed and in slow motion. Tomasito is also available for private lessons in the Miami area. Send inquiries to kevin@timba.com.