Latin Percussion - a company Background

Latin Percussion, or LP as they are commonly regarded, ended up one of the first businesses Musica en linea Colombia set as much as mass manufacture percussion instruments from around the globe, driven via the musical enthusiasm of Martin Cohen, a young engineer and eager photographer. In the mid fifties Mr Cohen commenced to repeated New Yorks Jazz clubs and found the well known Birdland club, which is when he 1st read Latin Jazz. He shortly turned a regular customer and was encouraged by percussionists these kinds of as Jose Mangual, and via the early 1960s he turned hooked on studying the Bongos. Because of the US trade embargo with Cuba, superior top quality bongos ended up difficult to find in america, therefore the resourceful Cohen decided to generate his have, inspite of possessing minimal expertise in wood-working. After a couple of attempts he bought the result he was on the lookout for. Other musicians commenced to take observe of his drums and he commenced earning bongos and cowbells for other percussionists, welcoming their suggestions in order to fine-tune his merchandise.

Word of his devices unfold amongst the Latin tunes community, and need grew. He began to create cowbells for the Rogers Drum Enterprise, as well as commenced to pay attention to suggestions from doing work drummers outside the house from the Latin community this sort of as Tv set session participant Specs Powell, who asked him to make a set of bongos that may be mounted on a stand as opposed to performed amongst the players knees. Cohen came up that has a alternative, a mounting bracket to the drums that did not include drilling into your wooden, and Tonight Present drummer Bob Rosengarden then asked Martin if he could develop a contemporary variation with the conventional jawbone with rattling teeth.... very a challenge but Cohen formulated the Vibra-Slap, an influence that remains well known to this day. The Vibra-Slap was also his very first patent. The following improvement (yet again initially designed for Bob Rosengarden) was the Afruche-Cabasa, an additional sturdy present day edition of the ancient and frail instrument. Martin Cohens talent appeared to generally be changing these outdated standard instruments with fashionable versions built of sturdy modern components, but devoid of sacrificing the tone... these new instruments had to audio as authentic given that the originals. He still put in quite a few hrs hanging around the Latin songs scene, gaining know-how and gathering each of the comments that he could on his items, some coming from popular percussionists these kinds of as Carlos "patato" Valdez and Tito Puente, who both went on to be extensive standing household good friends. It genuinely was a situation of discovering what the players wished, then rendering it occur.

In 1964, Cohen commenced the Latin Percussion Organization, originally executing the vast majority of perform by himself inside a tiny unheated garage. In time Cohens wife and daughter turned associated with the business, and the corporation commenced to export goods. Progress was immediate and LP shortly became a globe popular brand amongst percussionists. Cohen arrived up together with the idea to create congas from fiberglass, giving the drums more volume which was perfectly obtained, specifically as Latin instruments were now turning out to be additional mainstream and getting into well-liked songs. Finally LP would turn into the worlds major producer of percussion instruments, using a listing of endorsers which include best percussionists these as Giovanni Hildago, Jose Madera, and Armando Peraza. Quite a few of those terrific gamers have set their names to many of LPs products these given that the LP Tito Puente Timbales, and Giovanni Hildagos signature sequence, the LP Galaxy Giovanni Bongos and Congas.

By 2002, Latin Percussion was bought by Kaman New music Corporation, the worlds largest unbiased musical instrument distributor, making it possible for additional advancement with the LP manufacturer all over the world, and Martin Cohen gained a specific recognition award from your Intercontinental Latin Audio Hall of Fame, for almost 40 a long time of innovation in music. Certainly its not easy to envision how each one of these devices would've at any time obtained this kind of attractiveness with no enter and determination of Martin Cohen. The corporation carries on to produce a tremendous catalog of congas, bongos and timbales, in addition to countless numbers of hand percussion devices from claves to bells, wind chimes to woodblocks, caxixis, shakers and far way more.