Photo Series: Bongo Man

Photo Series: Bongo Man

Meet the Bongo Man. He just wants to bang on the drums all day. Look at his bandaged hands, you can tell he is dedicated to this craft, and he is good too. Bongo or bongos are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other.

The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra (female) and the smaller the macho (male). It is most often played by hand and is especially associated in Cuban music with a steady pattern or ostinato of eighth-notes known as the martillo or “hammer”.

Bongo Man Photo Series ©2011 Eric Wells Hatheway All Rights Reserved