#41 Ralph Irizarry- Grammy winning Timbalero for Ruben Blades, Ray Barretto, Timbalaye & More!

This episode was recorded before finding out about the passing of Grady Tate. We will talk more about how influential he was as a musician next week.

Not only is is National Hug a Drummer Day, but Monday the 9th was Indigenous People's Day. As promised, here is the video clip explaining some more details on how horrible Christopher Columbus was. 

Spirit of America is having their 17th annual Day of Percussion. It is FREE and you can get more details here. Some of this year's clinicians include: Scott Johnson, Heidi Joubert, Danny Seraphine, Keith Aleo, & J. Andrew Porter. 

To continue the grassroots efforts in helping Puerto Rico, you can donate to Artist Julian Grimes, or Tainas Unidas, and there is always Unidos Por Puerto Rico. We also mentioned Tito Puente Jr's percussionist Chino Ramos. Here is the most recent flyer about the efforts he was doing with his crew of angels to help......

Marcos will be playing at La Marqueta on Saturday the 14th for this event.....

He also mentions the Acoustic in Bridgeport on Sunday the 15th of Oct with Rick Reyes & the Cosmic Jibaros

Music News starts with the Rock and Roll 2018 Hall of Fame nominees. You can read more about them and vote here. YouTube adds restrictions which can affect content creators with the external links that may be used. Apple iOS 11 has been giving everyone problems. There are more details here. These are the top 50 most requested lyrics with the Alexa device. Here are the top 15 music business schools as of 2017. This is the copyright lawsuit involving Taylor Swift and Sean Hall and Nathan Butler (Co-writers for 3LW among others). As promised, here is the Tina Fey/Taylor Swift feud timeline. 

This is the English drinking song that the Star Spangled Banner was based off of. Here is the transcription from NPR's All Things Considered talking in more detail about that. These are the top five songs that almost became the National Anthem of the USA. 

These are the four songs Ralph wanted to include that he felt were a good representation of his playing. The first one is "Cosecha Lo Que Has Sembrado" by Steve Khan. Next is "Agua De Luna" by Ruben Blades Y Seis Del Solar. "Rampa Arriba" By Ralph Irizarry Y Timbalaye & "Rhythm of Life" by Ray Barretto. 

You can read more about Ralph from his Wikipedia page. 

Ralph brings up the great Tito De Gracia towards the beginning of the interview. 

We couldn't find the kitchen scene from The Mambo Kings, but here is one of the scenes referred to that features the Late Tito Puente trading solos with Armand Assante.....

Ralph mentions Tito Puente, Orestes Vilato, Jimmy Sabater, Nicky Marrero, & Louis Romero as huge influences in his playing as he was growing up in NYC. 

The Afro-Venezuelan rhythm Quitiplas is mentioned and here are two videos showing how it is played on the street with bamboo tubes (one end open, the other closed) while using your hand over the open end to adjust the pitch. Video 1, Video 2. 

We talked about Cali Rivera of JCR in the Bronx who recently passed away as well as Martin Cohen, founder of Latin Percussion instruments.

Playing "double bells" is a technique of playing mambo bell patterns in one hand and bongo bell patterns in the other hand. You can play them on two different cowbells, but in this video Marc Quinones demonstrates it on one cowbell.

This is a link to the Fania All Stars video from 1972 that Ralph was in the audience for. And this is the album Rican/Struction that Ralph was on that he tried to walk out of. 

Below is a video of Ralph playing with Candido Camero, Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Bebo Valdes and Paquito D'Rivera.....

Ralph uses Tycoon Percussion, Remo Drumheads, Zildjian Cymbals, & Vic Firth Sticks

You can follow Ralph on Facebook.