9.
Tito Puente – Top Percussion
Again with this one it’s all about his drumming. I remember hearing a lot of his songs as I was growing up and when I rediscovered that album – I think it may have been in my 30’s – I was blown away by his playing because I was at a different level in my performance and my playing than I was when I first heard it as a child. Having that time away from that record and then listening to it again at a different time and place I was blown away; I just thought ‘This guy’s amazing!’ So it became one of my favourites, one of the albums that I listen to most to inspire me in my drumming. It’s weird actually, after I bought this record, or the CD, later in life, I realised that ‘Oh, I remember this song from when I was a kid. Damn! So he wrote this one’, or ‘Oye Como Va’, the Santana song. I thought that this guy was a genius; and he was a drummer and a leader, which is bad ass!
