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Specs
Powell's first challenge to me was to create
a bracket for mounting
bongos on a stand. Now, I had watched
the percussionists at the Latin dance hall and knew
that they put the bongos between their legs, not
on a stand. Specs explained that often, while playing
a gig, he quickly had to switch from vibes to bongos
and that there was no time to put the bongos between
his legs. Having the bongos already attached to
a stand with a bracket would alleviate this problem.
This made perfect sense to me, so I set about devising
one. My efforts resulted in the creation of the
first bracket, which would enable the bongo owner
to install the bracket on a bongo and then attach
it to a stand with a 3/8-inch diameter rod attached
to it.
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LP's
Original Fiberglass Congas
were 30 inches tall. One day somewhere around 1970
the molder delivered a shipment of drum shells and
upon close inspection they were found to be two
inches shorter than usual. When I complained to
the owner of the molding facility, I was told that
I had better accept the drums or they would stop
doing business with me. Much to my surprise and
delight, these shorter drums proved to be more comfortable
for the seated player. From that day on 28 inches
became the standard for Latin dance bands. Bands
of all types followed.
It wasn't until dance band conga drummers began
using stands that a 30 inch tall drum found acceptance
in this arena.
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When
we released the LP
Patato Model Congas around 1977, Patato
asked for a 30 inch tall drum. Being a very
short man, Patato
would fold up the padded conga bag(s) to bring him
to a height suitable for playing these taller drums.
The Galaxy Model conga is of the same profile as
the Patato. Galaxy has added shell thickness in
the highest stressed areas, with the addition of
Kevlar reinforcement, 3/8 inch tuning screws versus
the 5/16 inch of the Patato Model.
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LP
Afuche®/Cabasa was inspired by the texture
used to cover the walls of elevators in New York.
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The
first
bata drums sold by LP were of fiberglass
and OVERSIZED due to Patato
giving me the wrong dimensions. The dimensions were
communicated to me by pencil marks on a piece of
paper and outstretched hands. It wasn't until John
Amira, a percussionist/educator from New York, prepared
full scaled patterns of the drums that LP came up
with it's winning model. In defense of his error,
Patato said at least they sounded good. Listen to
the interview with Patato to hear in his own voice
his view on these oversized fiberglass batas.
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Until
1966, clavés were solid wood dowels made
from various materials and had a high pitched sound.
I invented African
Claves to provide a deeper, more resonant
sound. I sold the first pair that I made to Specs
Powell, the drummer with the Ed Sullivan show. The
next pair wound up in the hands of George Castro
who that same year played them on the Eddie
Palmieri/ Cal
Tjader collaboration, El Sonido Nuevo.
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Shortly after developing the LP African Clavés,
I had to develop a market amongst the Latin players.
One evening I put about 6
pair of rosewood clavés in an attache
case and headed from New Jersey to New York City's
Greenwich Village and the Village Gate where Willie
Colon was performing. I met Nicky Marrero on the
corner of Bleeker and Thompson streets and while
proping up my case on a fire hydrant, began to show
Nicky my new stuff. Just then a policeman happened
by, took one look in my case and demanded an immediate
explanation as to what kind of weapons I was carrying.
A fast demo of this new invention convinced the
heat that they weren't weapons and I was able to
continue my pitch to Nicky. God knows how I would
have fared in Giuliani's New York in 1999.
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LP
Vibra-Slap was my first inventing challenge.
I was asked to create an unbreakable substitute
for the fragile jawbone of an ass. Within the space
of a week, Vibra-Slap was created in the basement
of my house in Maywood, NJ using a Diacro bender,
drill press, vise, hack saw and some simple wood
working tools. I am proud to say that the geometry
of the original model has remained unsurpassed in
providing optimum sustain and ease of use.
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>The
plastic bottoms on our caxixi's
is a direct result of insect infestation with the
original ones we used to carry. In spite of fumigation,
the larvae from the insects would grow while the
products were on the shelves, turning a good instrument
into a pile of dust. The plastic molded bottoms
solved this problem, created a sound with more definition
than the original and with the built-in cap, the
shaker material could be varied to meet individual
requirements.
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Starting with the Jam
Blocks, LP has assigned names to the plastic
material chosen to meet the demanding challenges
of taking a pounding and delivering great sound
every time. Believe it or not, these plastic names
came from my dogs. First was Jenigor-named for my
Yorkie, Jennie and Dobermann, Igor. Blast
Blocks followed with Bellastic plastic named for
my favorite of all dogs, Bella.
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LP
received a request from Patato
for extra reinforced LP
Cradle Stands. When Ray Enhoffer, our Product
Development Manager dug deeper to find out why these
beefy stands would need extra reinforcement, we
found that Patato was going to be dancing on top
of these drums, playing the patterns with his feet.
He was past age 60 at the time.
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LP
Jingle Stick was created not as an instrument
but as a means for demonstrating to percussion master
Paulinho Da Costa, the sound of a variety of experimental
jingles that were created for the patented Cyclops
tambourine. It quickly became apparent however that
what was created was a versatile percussion instrument
that lent itself to being played against cymbals,
drum heads in addition to being struck against each
other.
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Around
1962, while still working a full time day job I
was also working on developing a cowbell line. One
of the first bells that I produced was the LP
Black Beauty Cowbell which was meant for
use in playing the cha cha rhythm. None of the cowbells
that were commercially available at that time were
suitable for playing serious Latin music. The cowbells
used by the "happening" bands of the day
were either derived from farm bells or hand made.
I took my first prototype to a place called Bason
Street East to have Jimmy Sabatier, who was working
with the Joe Cuba Sextet, to have him try out. I
gave him my bell to play for the set and he
let me hang on to his cowbell. When the set was
over I tried to get to Jimmy to exchange bells and
get his evaluation. The bouncers at the club didn't
want to hear my story and with my further insistence
at collecting my bell, they beat the stuffing out
of me. I left with the club with some bruises,
a torn suit, $55 in compensation for my damaged
attire and a great deal of embarrassment for having
gotten myself into this mess. No Pain, No Gain-I
suppose.
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