Los Oviedo - La Familia del Timbal

timberamayor

timberamayor

Son Montuno
Percussionists might appreciate this. When I first got into timba, I had no idea how well I would eventually get to know the Oviedo family. I don't quite know where I want to begin this story (warning it may get long). Calixto Oviedo is one of the great drummers of Cuba. In fact he is great at all percussion. He had two boys in Cuba, Yulién and Yarién Oviedo. Yulién quickly showed the same interest in percussion and as a child was on Cuban TV quite often playing with his father. Yarién also learned percussion but has leaned more towards vocals, and does rap, timba and traditional Cuban music. More recently here in Sweden Calixto became a father again...twice. First a little boy named Adrian who is showing the genetic predisposition for percussion. And most recently in November 2010 a baby girl who is not quite old enough yet to know.

Calixto was a prodigy as a child, learning to play by hanging out with musicians at the Cabaret Parisiene at Hotel Nacional. His father ran the laundry room at the hotel. By the age of 9 he had memorized the entire show and was allowed to sit in with the band. He was admitted to the school of music when he was 8 or 9, after first being rejected for having 'no aptitude for percussion' LOL.

Jump ahead to the early 90s when Calixto was drummer for NG la Banda. BTW I Love this song la Bruja.
youtube.com/watch?v=ditQMDiW8gw

Here are a couple of fun videos of Calixto on Cuban TV with his oldest son Yulién from about this same time, playing timbales.
youtube.com/watch?v=6kda24hwPiQ

And here is a little percussion game they would play at home.
youtube.com/watch?v=gKuIkhCAuRw

At 16 Yulién was picked up by David Calzado for his new Charanga Habanera after the breakup (a great story for another time) where he played timbal with kick drum. Here is a video of a timbal solo from 2000 when Yulién was 18. You have to wait until 7 minutes. First there's piano, congas and bongo solos.
youtube.com/watch?v=qT6KaMMF49c

But of course the singers get the most chicks so Yulién started singing with the Charanga as well. Here is a clip from the documentary Popular! about La Charanga Habanera with the song "La Gorda", one of the songs Yulién sang lead on.
youtube.com/watch?v=qiugnTvr5PE

But eventually he decided to strike out on his own and is now quite popular for his reggaeton. Sadly some of the song lyrics have gotten quite vulgar, as with most reggaeton. He has also sung with some bachata group, so I expect he's making more money now than ever, but some people feel it's a waste of talent.
youtube.com/watch?v=gln2Vyzebz8

But what actually inspired this post is a video from the Nordic Salsa Experience festival in Drammen where Calixto's family played. His wife has a band La Sonora Clásic and during a chachacha medley little Adrian came out and started playing timbal on the monitor. That kid cracks me up. When you put on an old NG La Banda video he stops whatever he's doing and just stares in concentration at the TV. He will be a monster percussionist. The singers are Whitney Hernández, Lily Hernández and Yarién Oviedo. Adrian comes out at about 2.20
youtube.com/watch?v=KeX2rEkY7aI

And here he actually plays the timbales in another concert at about 7 minutes
youtube.com/watch?v=qDFuFXphrQ4
 
timberamayor said:
But what actually inspired this post is a video from the Nordic Salsa Experience festival in Drammen where Calixto's family played. His wife has a band La Sonora Clásic and during a chachacha medley little Adrian came out and started playing timbal on the monitor. That kid cracks me up. When you put on an old NG La Banda video he stops whatever he's doing and just stares in concentration at the TV. He will be a monster percussionist. The singers are Whitney Hernández, Lily Hernández and Yarién Oviedo. Adrian comes out at about 2.20
youtube.com/watch?v=KeX2rEkY7aI
Click to expand...

I was at this concert this weekend at the Nordic Salsa Experience. The concert with La Sonora Clasica de Lilly & Calixto Oviedo was great! I liked their sound and variety a lot. At times they would sound almost timba'ish and other times very classic cuban and even New York salsa-son'ish.

Lots of nice solos, the dude on the piano was really exciting, as was Calixto on timbales and the trombones were blazing. I love trombones!

Adrian also got on the timbales in this concert, both alone and doing a 'duet' with Calixto!
That was great fun :-)
 
Great story of a musical and percussive family. I loved the way little Adrian made the breaks in that cha perfectly in time. Priceless. And I'm glad his parents are protecting his young ears. The decibel level can be very high on stage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top