Cándido de Guerra Camero 1921-2020: Master of the Congas and founding father of Latin Jazz

Master of the Congo Drums

Cándido de Guerra Camero 1921-2020

Cuba lost one of her sons yesterday who changed Cuban music forever. Cándido de Guerra Camero died in New York City on November 7, 2020. He was 99 years old. Prior to Cándido only one congo drum was played at a time, and he changed that playing three congas with different tuning.

His influence on music over the past 79 years is striking. Diario Las Americas summarized his early years as follows: Born in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro on April 22, 1921, Cándido began playing the bongo at age 4, made his professional debut at age 14 and settled in the United States at 25. He was quickly hired by the pianist Billy Taylor, later by the trumpeter and composer Dizzy Gillespie, he was a soloist in Stan Kenton's big band, and he traveled successfully through prestigious music venues in the country accompanied by his güiro and introducing the use of three congas across the United States. One of his last albums was, The Master, from 2014.

 Cándido Camero, moved from Cuba to New York City in the 1940s and avoided the censorship visited on other artists who fled the dictatorship of the Castro brothers. He would play with many of them such as Israel Cachao López (who left Cuba in 1962), Mario Bauzá, and Arsenio Rodríguez, who had all suffered the wrath of the communist dictatorship. Along with other artists such as Celia Cruz and Olga Guillot.

Below is a 2006 documentary about his life titled "Manos de Fuego"  (Hands of Fire):

Cándido also had a great influence on another great percussionist and Cuban, born in Havana, Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez. They were also bandmates.

Mongo is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All Stars, etc. He was an integral figure in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with R&B and soul, paving the way for the boogaloo era of the late 1960s. His 1963 hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. With the cover of "Watermelon Man," Santamaria found himself garnering the acclaim of his former mentors. He would even visit the pop charts once again - a feat that, among his mentors, only Prado ever accomplished - in 1969 with "Cloud Nine." And he recorded prolifically through the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, before slowing things down in the 1990s. 

Cándido de Guerra Camero

He was a founding father of Latin Jazz, but Cándido's music extended into other genres such as Disco and House music. This musical giant changed music not only in Cuba, and in the United States, but around the world.

Requiescat in pace maestro.