CMP is pleased to announce that it is the U.S. distributor for:

Método para la Enseñanza de la Percusión Latina
(Instruction Method for Latin Percussion)

by Roberto Vizcaino Guillot

  Quite simply the finest book of its kind ever published, this is Vizcaino's master work. El Método is the key to Roberto's playing secrets. The conga chapters include 1- and 2-drum technical exercises, improvisations, popular and contemporary rhythms, and rumba. The timbale chapters include technical exercises, popular and contemporary rhythms, improvisations, and tons of breaks. 

The last third of the book contains the best of Vizcaino's concert works for Latin Percussion. In these pieces he has raised the genre to a new level, writing complex compositions worthy of the recital hall. They include the duets, Soneando and Soneando 3, and the trio Soneando 1, and the solo works,Para Ella, Timba Son, and A Cuatro Congas. If you've ever wondered what, exactly, Roberto plays in his amazing solos, you will find the answers here.

     Lastly, El Método comes with 2 CDs. The first covers almost every exercise and rhythm in the book. The second contains recordings of Vizcaino playing his amazing concert works. They are recordings of the master at his prime.

Método para la Enseñanza de la Percusión Latina
124 pages and 2 CDs 
$65 + $5 S&H

The Contemporary Music Project
P.O. Box 1070
Oak Park, IL 60304
708 524-8605

Overseas customers and those wishing to pay by PayPal, please email us before placing your order as the total will be slightly different.

Contact us

http://www.contemporarymusicproject.com/

Retail only

Those customers wishing to purchase both El Método and Batá Drumming can take $10 off the price (Total $100 for both. P&S included.)

Batá Drumming

The Instruments, the Rhythms, and the People Who
Play Them

by Don Skoog and Alejandro Carvajal

Hardcover, 200 pages, 8 1⁄2” X 11” $40 (+ $5 S&H)

     is the most comprehensive study of this important Cuban musical tradition, and the first to explore the people who created it, how it developed in Cuba, and where it fits in relation to the other folkloric traditions on the island.

     Who were the slaves brought to Cuba? What belief systems did they carry with them? How did the various Afro-Cuban religions grow from these systems? What types of music evolved from these religions? What is Santeria, and how do the batá drums function within it? Part One answers these questions.

     Part Two examines the history of the drums: how they are taught, learned, and played, explaining their role in the ceremony and the structure of the music. These discussions incorporate the latest scholarship as well as the ideas and concepts of respected Cuban and North American batá drummers, resulting in a more well-rounded study of the tradition as it is practiced today. 

     The center piece of Batá Drumming is the Oru Seco, a set of playable, musical transcriptions of twenty-two rhythms dedicated to the Santeria gods. This transcription set accurately notates the rhythms of the Papo Angarica “school” or performance style, which is very influential in Havana-style drumming.

     Batá Drumming is the first book not only to notate the rhythms, but to connect them to the people who preserved and recreated them, “in the unrelenting face of displacement and oppression.”

     Don Skoog is an American musician and writer who has devoted two decades to the study of Cuban music. Alejandro Carvajal Guerra is a respected Cuban batá drummer, Santeria priest, and educator who traces his family heritage back to the Yorubas of Nigeria. Their ten-year collaboration has produced the most comprehensive book to-date on the history, sociology, anthropology, theology, and musicology of this powerful drumming and the fascinating people who play it.

Ships January 1, 2010!

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