Manny Oquendo

Manny Oquendo (January 1, 1931 – March 25, 2009) was a percussionist of Puerto Rican ancestry. His main instruments were bongós and timbales. [See: "Timbales Demonstration" (Manny Oquendo) and "The Martillo [Bongo] Pattern" (Manny Oquendo)].

Oquendo grew up in New York City and began studying percussion in 1945. He worked in the bands of tropical and Latin music ensembles such as Carlos Valero, Luis del Campo, Juan "El Boy" Torres, Luciano "Chano" Pozo, José Budet, Juanito Sanabria, Marcelino Guerra, José Curbelo, and Pupi Campo.

In 1950, he became the bongó player for Tito Puente. Following this he played with Tito Rodríquez in 1954 and Vicentico Valdés in 1955. He worked freelance in New York before joining Eddie Palmieri's Conjunto La Perfecta in 1962, where he helped develop the New York style of the mozambique rhythm.

He co-led Conjunto Libre (later simply Libre) with bassist Andy González from 1974 and had a worldwide hit with "Little Sunflower" in 1983. This Freddie Hubbard composition was included on their album "Ritmo, Sonido y Estilo." This album included a wide variety of Latin rhythms. The Cuban guaracha rhythm is represented by the interpretation of the song "Que Humanidad" and the Puerto Rican plena rhythm is employed by the tune "Elena Elena."

Oquendo's timbales solos were famous for their tastefully sparse, straight forward "típico" phrasing. The following five measure excerpt is from a timbales solo by Oquendo on "Mambo." The clave pattern is written above for reference. Notice how the passage begins and ends by coinciding with the strokes of clave.

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