Biography
Born Francisco Hernández Mora in Cuba, the percussionist Pancho Quinto saw his most accessible recording issued under the title Rumba Sin Fronteras (Rumba Without Frontiers). On that project he delivered an unconventional reading of his homeland’s most vibrant musical form by blending rumba with rhythmic and harmonic ingredients drawn from additional Afro-Cuban and African-American sources, among them jazz and hip-hop.
Quinto first entered music through performances in traditional religious rites, eventually attaining the status of omo ana, a master or consecrated drummer initiated to play the ritual instruments. Throughout the 1950s he appeared in carnival ensembles and performed rumbas, at one point sharing stages with Celia Cruz. Political conditions in Cuba nevertheless channeled his energies toward manual labor on the Havana docks, an environment that left a lasting imprint on his approach to percussion. Fellow workers there preserved a range of African-derived customs and faiths, including the Abakua men’s secret society whose practices and music trace to the Efik of Nigeria’s Calabar region, and Quinto absorbed fluency across multiple drumming lineages while among them. In the 1980s he assembled the group Yoruba Andabo, which went on to record with Merceditas Valdés, widely regarded as the grand dame of Cuban folkloric and popular song.
His debut solo album, 1998’s En El Solar La Cueva Del Humo, introduced the radical synthesis known as guarapachangeo, a style that folds bata drums and cajónes into the classic rumba framework. The follow-up, Rumba Sin Fronteras, was tracked with Octavio Rodríguez on percussion and as babalao, pianist Omar Sosa, percussionist John Santos, and saxophonist Enrique Fernández; it extended rumba’s possibilities through fresh timbres and rhythmic juxtapositions. A national U.S. tour had earlier exposed Quinto to the percussive atmosphere of San Francisco’s Latin barrio, an experience that shaped the sessions. The basic tracks were in fact captured in a single day during that same 1998 tour, performed on a bass cajón, the large box drum played seated with hands and sticks. Although five years passed before the album reached the public, Rumba Sin Fronteras retained a probing and up-to-date character upon release.
Quinto first entered music through performances in traditional religious rites, eventually attaining the status of omo ana, a master or consecrated drummer initiated to play the ritual instruments. Throughout the 1950s he appeared in carnival ensembles and performed rumbas, at one point sharing stages with Celia Cruz. Political conditions in Cuba nevertheless channeled his energies toward manual labor on the Havana docks, an environment that left a lasting imprint on his approach to percussion. Fellow workers there preserved a range of African-derived customs and faiths, including the Abakua men’s secret society whose practices and music trace to the Efik of Nigeria’s Calabar region, and Quinto absorbed fluency across multiple drumming lineages while among them. In the 1980s he assembled the group Yoruba Andabo, which went on to record with Merceditas Valdés, widely regarded as the grand dame of Cuban folkloric and popular song.
His debut solo album, 1998’s En El Solar La Cueva Del Humo, introduced the radical synthesis known as guarapachangeo, a style that folds bata drums and cajónes into the classic rumba framework. The follow-up, Rumba Sin Fronteras, was tracked with Octavio Rodríguez on percussion and as babalao, pianist Omar Sosa, percussionist John Santos, and saxophonist Enrique Fernández; it extended rumba’s possibilities through fresh timbres and rhythmic juxtapositions. A national U.S. tour had earlier exposed Quinto to the percussive atmosphere of San Francisco’s Latin barrio, an experience that shaped the sessions. The basic tracks were in fact captured in a single day during that same 1998 tour, performed on a bass cajón, the large box drum played seated with hands and sticks. Although five years passed before the album reached the public, Rumba Sin Fronteras retained a probing and up-to-date character upon release.
Albums
