The \'May month Pearl Month\' started with a clinic of the master of the clave on the drum set: Horacio. On May 4 the master Latin drummer gave his clinic for over 500 attendants in the hall of the Adams factory.

An introduction:
Horacio, perhaps even better known as \'El Negro\', was born in Havana, Cuba in 1963. This on itself says little, but for Horacio it meant his introduction in Cuban music wherein his musical roots are set. On the age of 12 it was already clear: Horacio promised to be a star on drums and hence he attended the prestigious \'Escuela Nacional de Arte\' where he graduates in drums and percussion.

Since then he has played with the best and most famous artists you can imagine. He performs and records amongst others with Paquito D’Rivera, Richard Bona, Arturo Sandoval and Tito Puente and he plays as much as he can with his own band Italuba. Just recently he recorded the new album for Eddie Palmieri with Michael Brecker, Nicolas Payton, David Sanchez, Christian McBride, Giovanni Hidalgo and Regina Carter.

The Clave
Horacio is probably best known for one feature: he plays the Clave with his left foot. Just like Lucas van Merwijk on his left he has next to his Hi-Hat an extra pedal with which he plays an upright Cowbell. This gives him the freedom to play freely with his hands, while the Clave keeps continuing to form the basis. In a few words he describes what the clave is and what it means to him musically:

\"The Clave is the centre of the universe in music. Everything I do musically is around and because of the Clave.\"

This Clave was the red line through the evening. Horacio demonstrated how to practice the Clave on a Snare and a Clave block. He demonstrated methods of studying the probably most underestimated rhythm in drums and percussion: the Clave in quarter notes, eight notes, triplets and sixteenth notes. It’s a musical challenge to keep Clave steady with one hand and playing al those various notes around it with the other hand. And switching them of course! It seems so simple, but before you can actually copy Horacio\'s beat you have many hours of practicing behind you.

This evening also was an excellent moment to introduce his new \'Horacio Signature\' Cowbell series. In the past three years he developed in cooperation with Pearl his own series that exists of 5 different bells. Each bell has two playing surfaces: flat on one side and curved on the other so you\'re covered regardless of which style you prefer.

Besides Horacio\'s spectacular playing he had another surprise: guest performances of Martin Verdonk and Bart Fermie. Martin, who is a good friend of Horacio, invited the master of the Clave last year to re-record with him his first solo-cd \'Tribal Fusion\'. Bart Fermie, also a performer on this album, got on stage with the two gents and showed that even a solo with two Tang Tangs can be as great as a full drumset solo!

Well, just another evening at Drumworld, but with valuable lessons in the Clave, three percussion masters on stage and loads of solos that made you run back to your practice pad as soon as the evening was finished. Once again Horacio showed that he is one of the best drummers this planet has ever known. A promise for the future to enlighten us with more of his music.

Horacio was kind enough to allow Drummerszone (exclusively) to make recordings of the clinic. Watch the attached streams streaming videos which feature Martin and Bart performing as well.