"Without this book the history of music is incomplete."
This beautiful book features 360 pages of incredible historic performances and intimate photos of Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Fania All Stars, Celia Cruz, Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana etc.
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Congahead is a feast for the eyes, ears and imagination. It’s a wild, against all odds, rags to riches story revealed through amazing photographs, many never before seen publicly, intertwined with a vibrant and evolving music scene populated with master musicians, celebrities, and intriguing characters.
It is also the unlikely and highly entertaining story of Martin Cohen, a poor Jewish boy from the Bronx, New York, pursuing his passions for Latin music and photography while building the largest percussion company in the world with nothing but tenacity and a crazy dream.
Martin realized his love for photography as a young child, and his second love for Latin music at age 17 when he sneaked in to a gig by Cal Tjader at the Birdland nightclub. He returned often to see the Monday night jam sessions and listen to the who’s who of legendary Latin and jazz performers. To further participate he decided to learn to play the bongos, but try as he might he was unable to buy any due to the Cuban trade embargo imposed in 1960. So he did what any pioneer would do and set out to build his own instruments without any idea of how to do it - let alone build a thriving global drum business!
Follow the story as it tracks the dedication required to endure the initial slow growth of the Latin Percussion company - LP - and the rapid rise to becoming the global leader.
Cohen was laughed at for wanting to make bongos for a living, and was often told it was a crazy idea. In spite of the naysayers what followed was a dream come true, made up of decades of experimentation, challenging hardship, musical joy, savvy and not so savvy decisions, prioritization on developing human connections based on trust and integrity, and the Congahead to succeed while doing the right thing.
Over the course of building LP, Martin has photographically documented, and become personal friends with many of the greats of Latin and jazz music such as Tito Puente, Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez, Celia Cruz, Carlos “Patato” Valdez, Johnny Pacheco,Tito Rodriguez, Jose Mangual, Sr., Manny Oquendo, and Machito. His other subjects include superstars like Dizzy Gillespie, and Carlos Santana. These great artists and many others are showcased in extraordinary photographs presented throughout the book within the context of the story.
Cohen’s archive consists of hundreds of thousands of photos and the best of the best are presented as a heretofore unseen account of the Latin and Jazz music worlds. Through Martin’s expert and creative eye we see photographs that explore decades worth of insights into Latin music, from the early 1960s to today, showing dramatic live performances, intimate moments, candid scenes, the hard life on the road, and the strive for musical perfection in the studio. Choosing the photos, and deciding how many to present was incredibly difficult due to the fact that each tells a story and Martin wished that all of the stories could be told. His recollection of the people and situations captured in and around his entire photographic archive is impressive, and his passion for his subjects is obvious as he recounts the endless stories they tell.
The story takes a major turn in 2002 when Cohen is forced to sell LP to Kaman, but that didn’t slow him down one bit. Martin was kept on as an adviser and remained the public face of LP for fourteen additional years for the new series of owners. He then embarked on a new chapter and built a video studio in his house to capture live performances of long established and current Latin performers. The performances can be seen in over 1000 videos on the congahead YouTube channel which at the time of writing has over 130,000 subscribers. Martin thrives on human connection and is constantly engaged with his audience through Facebook and his personal website congahead.com that features hundreds of events and many thousands of photos.
Congahead reveals that Martin is a naturally engaging storyteller with an incredible love for people and memory for names, places and details, and that he has created an incredible life for himself and those around him. His passions still drive him on without pause. He listens to Latin music, Jazz, Hip-Hop, World music, and takes photos every day.
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