R.I.P.: Armando Peraza

One of the greatest percussionists in the history of music. A GIANT! From George Shearing to Carlos Santana, from jazz to rock, pop & beyond.

His performances on Santana's most-oriented fusion albums like "Borboletta", "Illuminations" (alongside Alice Coltrane, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette), "Welcome!" and "Lotus" are simply extraordinary. Not to mention several videos, LaserDiscs and DVDs like "Viva Santana!", full of several haunting moments from live concerts with Santana.

Despite such a monumental body of work, it's easy for me to say that my very favorite Peraza track is "Promisses Of A Fisherman," the celestial Dorival Caymmi tune that Carlos picked up for his 1974 "Borboletta" album (5 stars on page 16 of the December 5, 1974 issue of DownBeat magazine). Alongside Carlos on guitar, Tom Coster (Hammond & Fender Rhodes), Stanley Clarke (bass), Airto (drums) and Flora Purim (vocals), Armando Peraza does the best bongos performance I've ever heard on a jazz-rock/fusion recording. Rest in Peace.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/armando-peraza-world-recognized-drummer-dies-at-89/2014/04/16/44ff6fe0-c5b1-11e3-8b9a-8e0977a24aeb_story.html

Armando Peraza, world-recognized drummer, dies at 89
By David Colker, Published: April 16

Cuban-born drummer Armando Peraza, a self-taught musician who transformed himself from a homeless orphan in Havana to a world-recognized bongo and conga expert and who performed with Carlos Santana for nearly two decades, died April 14 in a South San Francisco hospital.

The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Josephine Peraza. Mr. Peraza had also battled diabetes for many years.

(Larry Hulst/Getty Images) - Armando Peraza circa 1970.

Officially, Mr. Peraza was 89, but he admitted that he made up a birth date to give to authorities when he came to the United States in the late 1940s and was never sure of his exact age.

Mr. Peraza, who also played with pianist George Shearing and other jazz greats, was known for combining a blindingly fast drumming technique with a flamboyant style that audiences loved.

Mr. Peraza was born, according to public records, in Havana on May 30, 1924, although his wife said it could have been as early as 1919. When Mr. Peraza was 3, his father died of pneumonia, and at the age of 7 he lost his mother to liver failure, according to a 2004 account in Latin Beat magazine. He stayed with relatives until he was 12 and then was out on his own, selling fruit and vegetables on the street.

“I was sleeping on the street,” Mr. Peraza told Latin Beat. “I grew up with a lot of violence.”

As he grew older, he played semipro baseball and taught himself to play drums. “I never had a chance to learn everything,” Mr. Perez told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009. “In the streets, nobody showed us nothing.”

His break came when a baseball teammate’s brother, a singer with a pivotal group called Conjunto Kubavana, was in sudden need of a conga player and gave Mr. Peraza the chance to perform. He later played alongside percussionist Mongo Santamaria for a dance troupe known as the Black Diamonds. “A big specialty number would be a dance solo with Armando’s playing following the moves of the dancer,” said John Santos, a San Francisco bandleader who organized concerts in tribute to Mr. Peraza in recent years.

In the late 1940s, Mr. Peraza made his way to New York, but his flamboyant playing didn’t fit with Latin dance orchestras of the period. “The attention was supposed to be on the lead singers,” Santos said. “What he did overshadowed them.”

Instead, Mr. Peraza gravitated to jazz ensembles, joining groups headed by Shearing and multi-
instrumentalist Cal Tjader. Over the years, he also performed with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Dave Brubeck and Art Tatum, and saxophonist Charlie Parker, and eventually with pop music stars such as Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt and Eric Clapton.

His relationship with Santana began in the early 1970s. “He knew Carlos’ father before he knew Carlos,” Josephine Peraza said. Santana’s father, Jose, was a mariachi musician in San Francisco.

Among the Santana recordings on which Mr. Peraza played are “Caravanserai,” “Blues for Salvador” and “Freedom.” Mr. Peraza traveled extensively with Santana’s band until about 1990, when his diabetes made life on the road too difficult. He continued to perform on recordings, including Linda Ronstadt’s 1992 “Frenesi” Spanish-language album, and at occasional concerts.

Besides his wife, Mr. Peraza is survived by a daughter and three grandchildren.

— Los Angeles Times