Carlos Vidal Bolado was a Cuban conga drum musician and was one of the original Machito and his Afro-Cuban boys. Bolado (better known simply as Carlos Vidal) holds the double distinction of being the first to record authentic folkloric Cuban rumba

Cuban Rumba

In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers...

 (Ritmo Afro-Cubano SMC 2519-A and 2520-B, circa 1948) and the first to play congas in Latin jazz

Latin jazz

Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...

 (with Machito and his Afro-Cubans).

Carlos Vidal was one of a handful of Cuban congueros ('conga players') who came to the United States in the 1940s and 50s. Other notable congueros who came to the U.S. during that time include Mongo Santamaria

Mongo Santamaría

Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...

, Armando Peraza

Armando Peraza

Armando Peraza is a Latin jazz percussionist. Through his long associations with jazz pianist George Shearing, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and guitarist Carlos Santana, he has been internationally known from the 1950s through to the 1990s...

, Chano Pozo

Chano Pozo

Chano Pozo was a percussionist, singer, dancer and composer who played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz...

, Francisco Aguabella

Francisco Aguabella

Francisco Aguabella was an Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist whose career began in the 1950s.-Biography:Aguabella was born in Matanzas, Cuba. In the 1950s, he left Cuba to perform with Katherine Dunham in the Shelley Winters film Mambo filmed in Italy...

, Julito Collazo

Julito Collazo

Julio "Julito" Collazo was a master percussionist.Collazo was born in Havana, Cuba. He began playing the ritual music of Santería on the batá drums at the age of fifteen. He moved to United States in the fifties to join in a world tour with the Afroamerican dancer Katherine Dunham and her Dance...

 and Modetso Duran. Vidal arrived in the U.S. in 1943, before any of the other previously mentioned musicians.

In 1948, Vidal led an unsuccessful revolt in Machito

Machito

Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...

's Afro-Cubans. However, he failed to convince anyone except Andino to leave the Machito orchestra for better-paying job in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. Vidal and Andino joined the Miguelito Valdés

Miguelito Valdés

Miguelito Valdés, born Miguel Ángel Eugenio Lázaro Zacarias Izquierdo Valdés Hernández , also called Mr. Babalú, was a Cuban popular singer of high quality...

 orchestra and traveled to Los Angeles, where Andino found that jobs were not all that plentiful.

There is not much written on Carlos Vidal except for discography credits. He is credited with participating on many Jazz albums.

External links

• Images from the Library of Congress
  Library of Congress
  The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...