RIP Changuito

José Luis "Changuito" Quintana passed yesterday at the age of 76 after a long illness.

Changuito reached "living legend" status decades ago for his work with Van Van, as a solo artist, as an author, and as possibly the greatest music teacher of in the entire history of the post-Revolutionary period. Tomasito Cruz and hundreds of other stars had Changuito as their primary instructor throughout their formative years and much of the educational material available to us is just one generation removed from his teachings, but perhaps the best way to learn about Changuito is through two videos he made in the VHS era, one with Giovanni Hidalgo ("Evolution of the Tumbadoras") where the two masters sit at opposite ends of a sea of congas and discuss the history of music as they jam, and the definitive "History of Songo", in which Rebeca Mauleón brilliantly guides him through mountains of well-organized information about songo. Each of these can be found on YouTube and are mandatory study material for anyone interested in Cuban music.

Rest in peace, maestro.

(check back later for photos from Tom Ehrlich)

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