{"id":101525,"date":"2022-03-14T11:58:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T10:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=101525"},"modified":"2022-03-22T11:48:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T10:48:20","slug":"candido-dancin-prancin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/candido-dancin-prancin\/","title":{"rendered":"Candido: Dancin\u2019 & Prancin\u2019 (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A look back at the bongo innovator and thousand finger man, C\u00e1ndido Camero Guerra\u2019s, 1979 Afro-Cuban disco masterpiece.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

C\u00e1ndido Camero Guerra known simply as Candido is one of the pioneers of Afro-Cuban jazz and an innovator of the conga drum. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1921 to a father factory worker and stay at home mother, Candido showed a prodigious penchant for rythme, beginning drumming at the age of 4 by beating condensed milk cans. Tutored by his uncle who played the bongos, Candido became a professional musician at just 14 playing in nightclubs and street parades around Havana. Throughout his life Candido would innovate how one played the bongos and after moving to America, an entire movement of Afro-Cuban jazz; playing rhythm with one hand and soloing with the other, playing multiple bongos simultaneously, tuning the drums to play melodies, and inventing a device that allowed him to play the cowbell with his foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candido\u2019s 1979 classic Dancin\u2019 & Prancin\u2019<\/em> with the aptly titled track \u201cThousand Finger Man\u201d is a wonderful and funky display of the drummer\u2019s contagious virtuosity. The album pushes Candido firmly into the disco generation with the swinging groove accompanied by the stabby riffs of a Rhodes piano and clavinet. Released on Salsoul Records and full of the era\u2019s most talented studio musicians from Latin trumpet player Joe Cain, vocalist and drummer Woody Cunningham or pianist Louis Small, the 4 track LP is a dense dance epic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candido\u2019s congos are of course the defining feature. The drums can carry the melody, rip into new rhymes and often break into solos. \u201cJingo\u201d is certainly a high point for the drums, though \u201cRock And Shuffle (Ah-Ha)\u201d which features the infamous foot-cowbell, and the title track aren\u2019t to be ignored. Overall the disc is a dancefloor surefire and a sweltering example of the amazing mash of Afro-Cuban percussion and the emerging disco generation. Candido, Rest in Power! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to Dancin\u2019 & Prancin\u2019<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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