I have played Cuban Music since 1976 and have developed fluency on Conga, Bongo, Timbales, Guiro, Clave, Maracas, Shekere, and Guagua. I play in jazz and folklore styles and dance Rumba, Salsa and sing coro. In 1985 I traveled to Cuba to attend the Varadero Music festival and met and studied with Pello el Afrokan, creator of Mozambique. My friends and I became guests of Pello who escorted us to shows, introduced us to his luminous musical associates and helped us to find the musical resources we were seeking. We returned with more than 24 hours of video of folklore, much of which has been seen throughout the US drum community.

I have performed with Cuban folklore groups at universities, grammar schools, festivals, parties, dance classes and in the grand parade of San Francisco's Carnaval. I have played Cuban band music in the San Francisco Bay Area with "Mira Sol", "Kachimbo", "Rhythm Harvest" and others and have recorded Cuban percussion on numerous albums. In 1996 I released my first instructional video MOZAMBIQUE! Volume 1. It has received excellent reviews including five stars, the higest possible rating, in April 1998 Modern Drummer Magazine. MOZAMBIQUE! Volume 2, which covers both Cuban and American forms of the rhythm was released in 1998 and has been generating similar comments.


All materials copyright 1998 PulseWave Percussion and Kim Atkinson.