#38 Reinaldo DeJesus- Percussionist for Antibalas, Lauryn Hill, Dispatch & More!

Today's banter starts with talking about touring. This is a great book by the music business guru Martin Atkins about touring and minimizing mistakes made on the road. Damon has used this book as a guide with a few bands he toured with and thinks its a wealth of knowledge. 

Music news features Spotify's new app allowing you to share songs through imessage. Waze has integrated with Spotify so you can adjust your playlist without leaving the Waze app. 

Berklee College of Music is stepping up with the city of New York to save the legendary Powerstation (aka Avatar) recording studio.

The Hand in Hand telethon event went down in NYC, L.A. & Nashville. You can still donate here. If you would rather donate to the Red Cross, you can do that here.

A gaffe with the Emmys is that they mistakenly thought Rickey Minor was RuPaul. This isn't the first time that a mistake has been made with personalities. 

This is more info on the new Roland SPD-SX Limited Edition Percussion Pad. 

Reinaldo went to Escuela Libre De Musica in Hato Rey, P.R. and then got into the Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico studying classical percussion first. 

This is the program that Berklee has with schools in Puerto Rico. Some of the artists Rey played with in P.R. before coming to the US were: Fransisco "Pirulo" Rosado, "Pupa" Santiago , Eric Figueroa, Humberto Ramierez, Luisito Marin, Obie Bermudez, Charlie Cruz, DLG, Cultura Profetica, & William Cepeda. 

This is one of the early conga videos Reinaldo posted.....

The late David "La Mole" Molina Ortiz was a highly respected player and teacher in Puerto Rico. Here's a video of Mariano Morales Y Pikante with the great Paoli Mejias on congas. This video features Paoli as well as Javier Oquendo on bongo. This is the YouTube channel for Conga Borikua.

Tony Escapa is referred to a bunch and he and Matt Kilmer were the connection to Rey auditioning for Lauryn Hill. Miguel Zenon applied for the Jazz Ambassadors which later became the Rhythm Road through Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

One of the first gigs Rey got upon his arrival to NYC was with Ralph Irizarry Y Timbalaye. This is the video posted by the sax player Ivan Renta with Rey playing some of those breaks with Ralph. 

Reinaldo played with Dispatch at Madison Square Garden and this is a view from behind his percussion rig.....

Antibalas was the band originally for the show Fela on Broadway. 

This is the great Richie Flores demonstrating some of those rolls and rudiments Rey talks about on the podcast.

Yoruba Andabo is the rumba group that Reinaldo has been listening to the most recently. He also likes Timba and the group he mentions is Havana D'Primera, as well as the reggaton band Los 4, and the Unmortal Orchestra. Pancho Quinto is always a favorite (as well as a lesson).

You can follow Reinaldo on his Website as well as Facebook & Instagram.