#168 Edgardo "Yayo" Serka- Drummer for Lila Downs, Angelique Kidjo, Claudia Acuña & More!
Biography
Chilean drummer Edgardo "Yayo" Serka. Yayo is currently the drummer/percussionist with Mexican pop singer Lila Downs and Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo. He has also performed with Claudia Acuña, Bobby Watson, Frankie Paris, the Chico O’Farrill Orchestra, the gospel choir of the Walker Memorial Baptist Group, and various other artists.
Educational Spotlight
Vic firth has Free Online Lessons “Percussion 101” that you can use to practice your orchestral percussion!
Here is a download link to Orchestral Percussion Quizzes for your students Provided by Vic Firth. Take The Quiz
These lessons are available in English AND Spanish!!!
Social Soundbyte
We’d like to invite you to participate in the #LiveFromHome Challenge! These are totally bizarre times, but we think this could be a great opportunity to get at the heart of what we try to do each week at Live from Here – connect with each other across the whole country through incredible performances. We are just starting a social distancing-social media project with musicians and artists (writers/comics) that encourages people to stay at home and would love to get percussionists involved!
Nuts and bolts:
Just use your phone (non-selfie camera)
Post to your own socials
Use the hashtag #LivefromHome and tag @livefromhereapm
Tag 3 artists who you want to participate next in the challenge
Encourage your fans to share their own music and art while they are #LivefromHome.
Check out Rachael Price from Lake Street Dive who helped us get started. Since then there have been many to join in like Emily King, Sara Bareilles, Louis Cato, Kacey Musgraves and more!
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The song leading into and out of the interview is called “Hey” by Claudia Acuña.
Edgardo "Yayo" Serka Interview
The interview starts with Damon and Edgardo talking about the current situation in the world with Covid-19. Damon tells a story about how a bakery is a luxury in a city but it helps shape the community and relates it to music.
Damon and Edgardo talk about how touring teaches you about humanity. It helps you deal, work, and be proactive with people who you have nothing in common. Compared to social media where one can just delete/block someone they don’t like.
Edgardo was born in Chile. His mother was also born in Chile but his grandmother is from Croatia. There was two major migrations from Croatia, one after WWI and another WWII.
At 6 years old Edgardo lied to his friends saying that he knew how to play drums. His father would bring some vinyls from Miami after business trips. Some of the music he dove into first was R&B like Earth, Wind, & Fire. After moving to the North of Chile he kept the “Drumming” lie and joined a folkloric group of the school he attended. The instruments Edgardo mentions are Bombo Legüero and Zampoña. Shortly that at 15 years old Edgardo’s father bought him a drum set and he started playing in other cover bands like Rush.
Edgardo discovered Jazz while living in Santiago, the capital of Chile. In 1995 he was a student of Sergio "Tilo" González who was in the band Congreso.
At 19 years old Edgardo studied in Havana for 4 years during the “Período Especial” when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Edgardo didn’t finish his final recital due financial struggles and waited for another year to find a way to get back to Chile. Edgardo was in Havana from 1990 to 1994, during this time Timba was being created.
One of the people that changed Edgardo’s life in Cuba was Ernesto Simpson.
The two drummers that Edgardo mentions influenced cuban musicians during that time are Tony Williams and Billy Cobham.
The books and theories that Edgardo mentions is Marxist Aesthetics.
Edgardo and Damon talk about friend of the show Horacio “ El Negro” Hernandez.
Edgardo meets David Ortega percussionists/drummer from Cuba in Chile. He changed the whole percussion life in Chile. He was Horacio’s best friend from Cuba so David wrote a letter for Edgardo to Horacio. So when Edgardo got to New York first thing he did was meet Horacio.
Edgardo met Marc Quiñones, Bobby Allende, Tony Cintron and more people in a funky latin Jam at Le Bar Bat. He mentions meeting Phoenix Rivera and getting a gig playing blues with Sweet Georgia Brown at The 55 Bar and through this gig Edgardo eventually became the house drummer for Arthur’s Tavern.
Edgardo talks about not getting a day job and mentions playing in the streets as well. Damon talks about getting a permit from city hall to play on the streets.
Edgardo tells a life changing story about playing a gig with Al Bundy and Johnny “Tasty” Parker.
Edgardo got the Lila Downs gig from a recommendation from Bassists Yunior Terry and Guitarists Octavio Kotan. Lila Downs was his first international tour that lasted a month and half. He talks about the challenges that he had working with Lila Downs. He mentions how playing with her forced him to be creative. Edgardo mentions that Lila didn’t necessarily know what she wanted but she knew what she didn’t want.
Edgardo talks about bringing personality in the show rather than being another musician dressed in black in the background. Damon and Edgardo talk about their approach to being a sideman in band.
““Do the best that you can with what you have” -Edgardo Serka”
Edgardo mentions how having kids mentions helped him persevere and continue with his music. Damon adds that not quitting while the music industry beats you down is what makes one successful.
Damon and Edgardo also talk about the differences between musicians who learned from the bandstand and musicians who went to school for music. Damon mentions a story with Charlie Hunter.
Edgardo shares a quote by Alex Acuña “American music is like a ping pong going down the hill and Latin music like an egg going the hill.” Edgardo talks about how the history of slavery shaped American and Latin music such as the US and Peru not allowing drums.
Edgardo mentions friend of the show Ludwig Afonso and he talks about how people this day are used to hearing perfect symmetry in the drums with electronic music becoming more popular and how this forces drummers to quantize their playing and play more on the beat “perfect”.
“Yayo” is the first thing that Edgardo said when he was a baby.
Edgardo Serka is endorsed by Istanbul Agop Cymbals, Latin Percussion, Vic Firth. You can find more on Edgardo on his Instagram and Facebook.
