Library presents celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Hispanic Heritage Month was commemorated by the Bloomfield Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 21, with a music program by percussionist Manny Montanez, who played the congas. A small but appreciative audience heard him perform for an hour as he sang mostly in Spanish, accompanied by a selection of prerecorded instrumental tracks.

“My entire family came from Puerto Rico, but people say I don’t look Puerto Rican,” he began, while beating a pulsating rhythm on two conga drums. “I have the broad nose and kinky hair of Africans. But there’s a significant African presence in Puerto Rico.”
Montanez’ grandmother came to America in 1948 and settled in the heart of black Harlem, he said.

“That was one of the greatest experiences that could happen to me,” he continued. “This was where I could identify with my African heritage.”

Because of his grandmother’s influence, only Spanish was spoken in the house. Montanez said he eventually moved to the Bronx, around the corner from Hunts Point Palace, a well-known venue for Spanish musical talent.

He then put on the first track and the singing was under way with a version of “Black Magic Woman,” the signature song of musician Carlos Santana. When finished, Montanez went right into the next track.

“I’m taking you back to 1972, when I got back from Vietnam,” he said, and the instrumentation that came on was the lovely “Suavecito,” made popular by Carlos Santana’s brother, Jorge Santana, with the group Malo.

Between songs, members of the audience shouted out questions with the boisterous informality that takes place at all the monthly BPL musical programs. One woman asked Montanez who had taught him to play the drums. He said a brother had taught him when he was 6 years old. She remarked that with all the terrible things happening in the world, his music was uplifting.

“This music is such a pleasure to come here today and hear this happy music,” she said. “It’s lifting this weight right off my shoulders.”

Montanez then sang “Besame Mucho” or “A Kiss is a Kiss,” then “La Rebbelion.”
“That’s a love song, believe it or not,” he said, and explained that the story describes the Spaniards’ arrival in Puerto Rico with African slaves.

“A slave owner mistreated a woman,” Montanez said, “and a man calls out to him not to hit his woman.”
He then sang “The Twist,” the monster hit from 1962.

In addition to his solo work, Montanez is a member of a 10-piece band and apologized to the audience if his singing was a bit too loud at first, but he had performed with this group the night before.
“I was here last year and it’s a pleasure coming back,” Montanez said. “I wish there were more people, but if you’re one or 100, I enjoy singing for you.”

Following the show, he talked about his drums, which had 11 and 12 inch heads; one skin was cowhide, the other synthetic.
“I prefer cowhide,” he said. “You get deeper resonance.”

The drum head is hit in three different ways. First, there is a “slap” in which one hand slaps the drum while the other rests on the drum head to dampen the sound; second, is the “tone,” in which one hand slaps with the other hand lifted off the drum head, producing an unmuffled sound; and third, is the “heel-toe,” in which the base of the hand hits the drum first followed by the fingers. Montanez said the basic conga rhythm is: tone, tone, slap, slap, heel-toe, heel-toe.

“That’s the basic strikes of playing the instrument,” he said. “The rest is practice.”
When instructing a new conga student for the first time, Montanez said he has them practice producing clear tones. Drummers who do not master this will later in their playing careers produce rhythms that are cluttered, he said. A student of the congas must also practice the “tumbao,” or downbeat.

“It keeps the jam session or drumming going,” he said. “That’s basically the first thing a student should play. It’s connected to practically all Latin dances.”

Montanez commented that Tito Puente said the “clave” is the basic rhythm of the salsa. For the salsa, this beat is: one, two, three, one, two. Or reversed: one, two, one, two, three.

“Everything is about timing,” Montanez said. “With the drums, the clave keeps you there.”
He said that when he was in college he learned that people begin to develop emotional attachments to songs at about 9 or 10 years old. For Montanez, this information has been invaluable when selecting songs to play at senior centers.

“I learn a song by remembering the story it is telling,” he said. “The songs are about something that happens to someone. I try to connect myself to the story that the song is telling.”

That he achieved, connecting all in his audience to Hispanic Heritage Month.

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