Rafael Paseiro -"El Protagonista" Complete Bass TRANSCRIPTION

Here's another great example of Rafael Paseiro from the same Bamboleo album (Ya no hace falta [1999]) as the last video I posted. I've got a few more transcriptions of him I'll be putting up in the coming weeks. It's been great to re-visited these Bamboleo transcriptions as I did them 8 years ago when I first started really getting into Timba. Enjoy!

 

Hey man!

Yes, certainly. I'll try to make this brief if I can.

I first became interested in Latin music in my teens. However, there weren't any gigs for that music in my hometown (Syracuse NY) so there really wasn't a chance to get any experience with it. When I was at SUNY Purchase working on my undergrad, I played in the Latin Jazz Big Band that Ray Vega directed. That being said, I quickly realized that I was very weak in playing Afro-Cuban music specifically.

When I moved from New York to Chicago in 2008 I was lucky enough to start playing salsa and Latin Jazz gigs around town. I was still very shaky when it came to playing the music, but the musicians in Chicago were somewhat patient with me and I started getting more comfortable playing the music. I started to get really serious about it when I started playing Cuban Music (Timba) and began obsessively transcribing albums my Cuban musician friends were showing me. This transcription was one of those early ones I did during that time.

Getting into Timba was kind of a "lightbulb moment" for me. For some reason, it helped me understand how clave and Afro Cuban rhythms work better than playing salsa and other more traditional styles. I found myself getting better at the music a lot faster than before. For some people it's the opposite, so go figure.

When I moved back to New York in 2013 I was fortunate to meet and befriend one of my favorite bassists, John Benitez, and started subbing for him on a lot of gigs. I also wrote 2 books about him, one in 2015 and another in 2018. In the past 7 years of being back in NY, I would say about 90% of the gigs I've done have been Cuban music gigs, with some South American (Peruvian, Brazilian, Venezuelan) and Latin jazz gigs here and there. Somehow, I went from a person who could barely play the music for years, to someone known for specializing in it. I guess it's pretty much my niche now, for better or for worse haha. I think it's pretty cool

That's the short version. I hope that was what you were looking for. Cheers.