World Percussion And Rhythm is a wonderful magazine. It's a free publication and great reading. I feel very honored to be a part of this educational magazine. My dear friend Terry Reimer is Editor and Founder of the magazine that has been existence for 10 years now! She has started a wonderful Drum Community Magazine with Interviews, Pictures, Poetry, Paintings, Educational Articles, CD/Video/Book Reviews.


She did an interview with me when I performed in Puerto Rico for the Percussion Fesival in San Juan, 2002. You can check out my interview and the magazine online at:
www. RhythmCommunity.com/WPRmagazine.


I started to do interviews for her beginning in the Spring/Summer 2005 Issue. I did interviews on Jerry Gonzalez and Las Chicas de La Habana. I also did an interview on Gino Gamboa Afro/Peruvian Percussionist in 2006.


I invite you to read the Spring 2008 Issue of World Rhythm and Percussion. This issue I am especially proud of several articles that I wrote and would like to share with you. They are on Anacaona, Obini Bata, Eduardo Cordova, Tata Guines, Anga and Patato Valdes. These are our legends in Afro-Cuban music and I am very happy to have been given this opportunity to let you guys know about these very talented and legendary people. Anacaona is the first female Son group to form in 1932. Obini Bata is the first female group in Havana Cuba to play Bata since 1993. Tata, Anga and Patato are legendary Cuban Percussionists that have paved the road for us. Cordova is a talented sculptor/painter/musician.



You can also subscribe to her magazine for two years at $12 for 4 Issues.



Visit: www. RhythmCommunity.com/WPRmagazine


Click on World Percussion and Rhythm Online
Click on Spring 2008



You can also check out my articles at: www.melena.com/melenaArticles.pdf

Enjoy!




Blessings,
Yamile Music
Melena

Rhythm,

Women represent everything that has to do with Rhythm and LIfe.Our bodies are made like Drums and give LIfe. Drums are sexy! Rhythm, Timing, Tempo..... Rhythm before sound is the formulation of everything! So, drums woud not exist without woman! We move like the sound of the drums and cycles of life, naturally. It's our nature. Why would "society" say we can't play drums and that is a "mans instrument?
We represent rhythm and the cycles of life. We give Life. Life is built on timing, cycles, Birth /Death, Sun/Moon, Day/Night/ Ying/Yang.


Passion -----women are very passionate about what we do, especially in love. We give of ourselves completely and deeply. Drums represent passion, fire, sex and love. Spontaneous moves, sounds and syncopation. We could go deep with that! When you play drums, you play fire and passion. Passion/Female Energy!

Strength----Women are very strong. Maybe not physical strength like a man....but we know about pain in our bodies that a man would not be able to deal with. To play drums takes spiritual strength and technique not "a mans physical strength." You can be strong but if you don't have the spiritual feel....it won't sound or feel right. The most difficult aspect to develop on the congas is your sound. It takes the most discipline, patience, concentration, and comittment. It takes a lot of practise and time. It's not about how hard you hit it and your physical strength. In fact, just because your are a man and physically strong does not mean you can play a drum. So, yes you can be Feminine and play a strong instrument.

.


Talent is God Given. If God gives you a gift, it is a most beautiful blessing. How can anyone tell you that you can not do something because of your gender when it came from God?

So, when people trip out on me because I'm so "dainty,delicate and feminine". You play drums? Yes.....I am a drum. I am rhythm and I represent LIfe and I thank God for the blessing he has given me!!!

I've been so sad lately and I realize now why.
Rumberos de Sentimiento
Rumberos de Corazon
Tata, Anga, Patato, Mongo y mas....

They are our pioneers that laid down the foundation.
That gave La Tumbadora Life!
A Voice, A language for us to learn from.

Ellos son los gran Timberos que siempre estaran en nuesta alma
Ripiquiando, Hablando, Descargando y con una gran Humilidad.

I will miss you greatly.

I will let everyone know how much you are loved.



I feel very blessed that God has given me the opportunity to write a short article on our Masters Tata Guines, Anga and Patato. Please check out: www.RhythmCommunity.com/WPRmagazine


Also: www.myspace.com/tataguinesanga

Melena to debut new

material on Brownsville stage

BY SARAH WILLIAMS

THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD

Cuban percussionist Melena has traveled the world touring with pop luminaries like Macy Gray, Julio Iglesias and Chayanne. This Saturday, she'll get to perform on the same stage as one of her favorite musicians, Giovanni Hidalgo, at the ninth annual Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival's Night at the Copa.

"Giovanni Hidalgo is a big inspiration for all percussionists. It's a dream come true and a blessing to be able to open for him. That is something I feel very fortunate about," Melena said from her home in Los Angeles.

Like Hidalgo, Melena's percussion style is predominantly Afro Cuban, but she infuses that classic sound with elements of pop, R&B, hip-hop and other genres

"I want it to not just be Latin jazz, but also have more of a world wide influence," she said about her all inclusive style.

On Saturday, Melena and her Afro Cuban band will debut new material for an album she plans to record after the festival.

"I'll be able to see the reaction of the people for the first time. This is the first time I'll be performing with my band outside of Los Angeles, so it's a great opportunity for me," she said.

Melena said she hopes her music will inspire her Brownsville audience.

"Music is very healing. As a performer, music is something we can give to people; it's something they may need that they don't get in their life. I hope it makes them happy," she said.

She plans to open her set with 'Ellegua," a song about the guardian angel of Cuba. '

"We dedicated the first song in his honor. It starts out very lively, very syncopated, very percussive and exciting," she said. "I hope that the audience will get excited about the music and get a good feeling from it," she said.

Melena counts an on stage performance with Stevie Wonder as one of the most exciting times in her life.

"The fact that I was able to share the stage with him was an incredible experience that can't really explain in words. I stood very close to him on the stage and I was looking at him thinking, 'I can't believe I have the chance to be here,"' she said.

Melena has also toured Europe and Australia with Macy Gray She recorded a PBS Special with John Tesh on his "One World" tour and traveled all over South America and Spain with Latin Pop artist Chayanne.

She has made many trips to her home country Cuba to study with legendary percussionists Mario Jauregui, Regino Jimenez and Lozaro Ros.

I also did a clinic in Puerto Rico dedicated to women in percussion. It felt like going home to Cuba; it was a very memorable experience"

Melena said she would tour with her band once she finishes her next album. On Saturday she hopes to invite Hidalgo to record with her but her first priority is enjoying the crowd's response to her new songs.

http://melena.com/melena_article_online.pdf

I love the New Rhythm Tech Pro Tambourine!!! I have been endorsing Rhythm Tech Percussion for 11 years now. This is one of my favorite companies! I took a visit today and I had so much fun with Pam (Artist Relations). Just hanging and talking and catching up on what's happening. This company is so cool and hip. I love them.


I've always loved their original model tambourines but this new one is the bomb! As soon as I held it in my hands....I felt the lightness and balance and overall feel immediately. The handle feels great and the weight and balance on your wrists is wonderful. Very light feel! I thought the original was cool.....This new one is great!! I'm in love all over again.


I would greatly recommend this for professional percussionists as well as vocalists or any other musician who wants a really well balanced and great sounding tambourine. Oh.....and the cool thing was when Pam showed me all the new colors! They're all really cool....I think I'll get one in every color I like them so much. The cool thing too is that it comes in it's own individual case. I've had gigs where I play congas and a tambourine and I just throw it in the conga case and you hear it rattling all over the place etc. Well, now it has it's own case. Great again for vocalists to carry around ther tambourine.


Richard (tambourine designer and owner of Rhythm Tech) is a genius! Great, great idea....and the feel....is so nice. You could play it forever. Rhythm Tech will also be doing a give away Pro Tambourine for my clinic at this years Montreal Drum Festival. Thank you Pam!

Mami.....
I could write a book on her. So, this is going to be a little difficult. I'll try to do like I do with music sometimes, simplify but with beauty and wisdom.

I believe I'm writing this now because I realize how blessed I am with all of the wonderful opportunities that I have experienced and have yet still to experience. My history and experiences are an extension of hers.

Myrna Valdes Aparicio was born in Barranquilla Colombia to my beautiful grandmother Olga Aparicio Paez and my handsome grandfather Jose Eloy Valdes from Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. My grandfather loved to travel and was always going to Colombia. That 's where he met my "abuela" and married her. My grandfather was a simple man from the country and my grandmother also fell in love with the lifestyle of Pinar Del Rio so the family moved to Cuba when my mother was a little girl of four years old.

She was named after the actress Myrna Loy who was very famous in that era. When I see pictures of my mother, she looked like an actress. I have video taped her recently telling me stories of how life was in Pinar and when they moved to Havana, where I was born. She lived during the whole Beny More era and Carnavals and tells me wonderful stories.


My mother is artistic. She is an artist, a poet, writer and dancer. She is a rumbera at heart. She loves to laugh, dance and party! She tells me how her feet would leave her when she would hear music. That she would disappear from your sight to run towards the music!! She loved drums and played snare drum in high school. She loved modeling and she wanted to be a reporter but became an accountant because she was so good at it.


She is a visionary and has sacrificed and struggled. She believed in something and when everyone would tell her she was not making the wise decision, she stuck to what she believed. She did not accept the new Cuban Regime. When she had to make the most important decison in her life....she was called a worm. At the time she made this decision, people like herself were considered to be abandoning your own country, therefore you were a worm (guzano). Years later, these same people call her a butterfly! Her deep stories move me and the more I know of them, the more I know of me and where I come from. She is a free spirit. I'm in this country because of her. It was the most important and difficult decisioin she had to make. To leave your family and culture and maybe never see them again.


She enrolled me in every dance class you can think of when we first arrived from Cuba. She even got me my first drum instrument! I believe my passion for music comes from her. She said she would go dancing at the carnaval while she was pregnant with me. If I wasn't a drummer, I think I would have been a dancer. I love to dance and sometimes I wish I would have stuck to it.....but when I discovered drums....my heart was taken.

I've had so many wonderful opportunities to play with some great great people and experience playing so many styles of music. She has fully supported my dreams.
I realize, I am blessed and so thankful of her vision. She is courageous.

ISLA DEL ENCANTO

TU BELLEZA DE LA NATURALEZA
LOS RIOS, LAS MONTANAS, LOS ARBOLES,
EL MAR...

EL COQUI CANTANDO RUMBA
Y BAILANDO UN RICO TUMBAO

LA JENTE RIYENDOSE
UNAS SONRISAS ES ESTELAR
BAILANDO BOMBA Y PLENA
CANTANDO PARA GOZAR

LA JENTE TAN CONTENTOS
TIMBALEROS, BONGOSEROS
RICHIE FLORES, GIOVANNI HIDALGO,
PAOLI MEJIAS Y TANTOS MAS

ISLA DEL ENCANTO
QUE RICO ERES PARA GOZAR
UNA BELLEZA
TAN CONTENTO
Y LA FUERZA DE LOS TAINOS
SE SIENTE CON PROFUNDIDAD

UN SENTIMIENTO TAN RICO
UNA ISLITA PARA CANTAR
PARA BAILAR, PARA REIR,
PARA TOCAR TUMBAO

TU BELLEZA DE LA NATURALEZA
ISLITA LINDA
Y TAN ESTELAR
LOS RIOS, LAS MONTANAS, LOS ARBOLES,
EL MAR...

PUERTO RICO
PUERTO RICO
ISLITA BELLA
ISLITA ESTELAR

MELENA
JUNE, 7, 2002


I CONDUCTED A CLINIC IN PR FOR THEIR ANNUAL PERCUSSION FESTIVAL IN 2002.
THIS YEAR IT WAS DEDICATED TO WOMEN PERCUSSIONISTS. I WAS SO ENCHANTED BY THIS ISLAND THAT AS SOON AS I GOT BACK, THIS POEM WAS INSPIRED OUT OF ME.

Peru Negro....I am listening to one of their CD's right now and I'm so in love. Beautiful music and rhythms.!! Today, I practised three hours and the feeling and sentiment behind the practise was inspiring me to learn more. I really began to feel the cajon as a part of myself and as my drum. The rhythms are very African and just beautiful. I finally have begun to really appreciate and "feel" the cajon. Very pretty music. I met Rony Campos and the family in Peru while on tour with Chayanne. He told me of his father, Ronaldo Campos, founder of Peru Negro and how he is still keeping it alive. He is maintaining his fathers legacy with Peru Negro. Later, at his home his nephew about 10 years old peformed on the cajon for me. His legs still didn't touch the floor while sitting on the cajon. His little hands had "technique" and he moved from one rhythm to the next at ease. I bought a cajon from Alexis, atempo percussion and Rony also gave me a quijada "donkey jaw bone." I was very touched by their generous hospitality and also felt a connection with them. I've always been into investigating my family roots and culture.
This year 2006, my dear friend Gino Gamboa came to my house with a surprise. Peru Negro was here in L.A. and in the studio. I went to see Rony and the family and also met the other members of Peru Negro. Eventually, I was blessed and recorded Bata on a couple songs with them. I was in heaven and it all felt so right. It was meant to be.
I saw their peformance in UCLA Royce Hall and it was specatucular! The dance and drumming reminded me of Cuba. I believe we are the same people just different customs.
It was great to be in their presence and experience such a wonderful event.
I feel I have a very special feeling for Peru Negro and feel they are a part of me and I of them. This August 2nd I have been invited to perform with Eva Ayllon along with Rony Campos and other members of Peru Negro. It's such an honor and I feel so blessed.
They have influenced me tremendously. As I listen to their music, I get a wonderful feeling inside. I know we are of the same tree.
Peru Negro is a very special group. I would highly recommend seeing them peform if you ever get the chance. All the peformers are relatives of the granparents of Peru Negro. They are the third generation, and it is a very tight, tight performance!!!! Must see!!! For more information please check out their website: perunegro.org
Also, Eva Ayllon is a beutiful singer from Peru peforming at the Ford Theatre with members of Peru Negro. For more information:
www.evaayllon.net