#151 Ludwig Afonso- Drummer for Richard Bona, Spyro Gyra, Eldar Djangirov & More!
Ludwig Afonso was born January 21, 1978 in Havana, Cuba and came to Miami, Florida in 1980. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Studio Music and Jazz Performance from the University of Miami in May 2002. As a student of the University of Miami, Ludwig was given the chance to play in the school's top ensembles, performing with Maria Schneider, Tony Mendoza, and Bob Berg. While in Miami, Ludwig also performed with such artists as jazz legend Ira Sullivan, Latin Grammy-winner Nestor Torres, Sammy Figueroa, and Othello Mollineux.
Ludwig moved to New York in 2003. Shortly after arriving, Ludwig began performing and touring with Spyro Gyra. He appeared on their Grammy-nominated CD Wrapped in a Dream, as well as the Grammy-nominated recordings The Magician by Sammy Figueroa, and Hector Martignon's Second Chance. Ludwig has also performed with Giovanni Hidalgo, Joshua Redman, John Benitez, Dave Valentin, Pedrito Martinez, The Rodriguez Brothers, Manuel Valera, Mark Murphy, Juan Carlos Formel, and has recorded with Deana Martin.
Ludwig has conducted clinics and workshops at the University of Miami and the Escuela de Musica y Audio Fernando Sor in Bogota, Colombia.
Ludwig is currently working with various artists including Richard Bona, Martin Bejerano, Yosvanny Terry, Samuel Torres, and Grammy-nominated Sony recording artist Eldar Djangirov.
Gig Alerts for this week
Marcos will be playing at Murphy’s Law in Bridgeport, CT on Wed Nov 27th. From Nov 29-Dec 16, Marcos will be playing at the Pregones Traveling Theater in Manhattan for the show Guaracha.
Friend of the show Jacquelene Acevedo, is on Broadway as part of the David Byrne show, “American Utopia”.
PASIC Recap
Damon went to PASIC, and his first stop was the Rhythm Discovery Museum.
Here is the list of artists that performed and/or gave lectures or masterclasses and clinics.
Educational Spotlight for this week.
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Product Reviews for this week.
The Welch tuning system for your drums was really cool to see.
There was also a new vibraphone by the Malletech company specifically for gigs.
It came in a couple of colors…..
The Love Vibraphone Damon mentions with the vibrato system you can control with your foot.
The resonators Damon mentions are on the Gig Master vibraphone and also a marimba (pictured below)….
Some of the prototype cymbals Damon mentions can be found HERE.
Iconic Recording this week.
“Corta El Bonche” by Tito Puente off of the ‘Carnival in Harlem’ album.
Music News for this week
The Latin Grammys (shout-out to Tony Succar and friend of the show, Samuel Torres for winning) were this week, as well as, the CMAs and the Soul Train Awards (shout-out to Brian Frasier-Moore and Aaron Draper for being in the house band with Adam Blackstone). The nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced. Go and VOTE for your favorites to be inducted! There are streaming services everywhere! Disney + is the newest one to launch and there were musicians protesting for fair wages as well as royalties and residuals for the music they have created. Taylor Swift has been in an ongoing battle with Big Machine Records. They have agreed to let her perform her songs on the upcoming AMAs. There are also a bunch of celebrities to support her in her fight. Amazon Music has announced the launch of a free, ad-supported version of its music streaming service that it hopes will compete with Spotify’s free version, which has close to 140 million users. A report from NPR and Edison Research shows Americans are listening to more spoken word audio content. The report defines spoken word audio as podcasts, news, sports, talk radio, and audiobooks. That category of audio listening has increased by 20% since 2014. Time listening to music has decreased by 5% over the same period. Organizers of the Clockenflap music festival, which is Hong Kong’s largest, announced that they are canceling the event, citing the increase in the violence in the city because of the ongoing political protests. Alanis Morissette’s Broadway Show ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Crosses $1.1 Million in Its First Week. If you need therapy, Damon suggests Talkspace. Ja Rule Dismissed From $100M Fyre Festival Class Action Lawsuit.
The song leading into the interview is “Exposition” by the Eldar Trio.
Ludwig is back at school getting a masters degree from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music.
One of Ludwig’s first musical influences was his dad and then Steve Gadd. One of the things Steve Gadd was known for was his ratamacues and six stroke rolls around the kit.
Ludwig talks about making the decision to play music vs. baseball at a relatively young age.
Ludwig talks about how his dad named him, and got his mom to agree to it.
Damon tells the story of how he met Ludwig for the first time on a wedding gig with other great Miami musicians, like Martin Bejerano-piano, John Sullivan-bass, Mike Rodriguez-trumpet in addition to Damon’s friend from high school, Mark Small-sax.
Ludwig started his undergrad at FIU before transferring to the University of Miami.
After his father, Ludwig’s first teacher was the great Jonathan Joseph.
Ludwig talks about how he prefers to listen to material to build his vocabulary as opposed to learning from a book.
He also talks about moving to a city where he had friends as well as a musical challenge.
Ludwig talks about how he prepares for rehearsals and his ability to adapt to what is needed for the music and also how the artist/musical director prefers to hear things.
Damon and Ludwig talk about Yosvanny Terry’s chekere playing and how Yosvanny’s dad (Eladio “Don Pancho” Terry Gonzales) is one of the greatest chekere players alive today.
Shout-out to friend of the show Obed Calvaire for recommending Ludwig to play with Richard Bona.
Ludwig talks about how he got the gig playing with Spyro Gyra.
Marcos brings up Manuel Valera, and Ludwig talks about what it was like to play with that band as well as how he prepared by recording the rehearsals to go home and practice with.
Ludwig plays Yamaha Drums, Vic Firth Sticks, and Murat Diril Cymbals.
You can follow Ludwig on Facebook and Instagram.
The music leading out of the interview is by the Eldar Trio and the song is called “Blackjack”.
