Ricardo Carballo tocando bata en su tumba.

1985

JESUS PEREZ

AND THE TRANSCULTURATION

OF THE CUBAN BAT DRUM1 by Ivor Miller
Dilogo 70

SPRING 2003 NO.7

Because of his comprehensive efforts to

document and interpret Cuba's multifaceted popular culture, Fernando Ortiz
y Fernndez became known as the
Third Discoverer of Cuba. Ortiz
learned much by maintaining lasting
relationships with leading practitioners
of various African religions. Among
them, Jess Prez Puentes was one of
Don Fernando's main informants for
the study of Lukum music, derived from
the Yorb of West Africa and
maintained by their descendants as the
Santera religion.
After several years of researching the
accomplishments of Jess, in part by
interviewing those who worked closely
with him, I conclude that he was a
primary figure in the transculturation of
the Cuban bat drum. During his
lifetime, from 1915 to 1985, bat went
from being an obscure instrument, used
exclusively in Santera ceremonies, to
being a secular instrument used
throughout popular music in Cuba, and
around the globe. The bat began as a
local phenomenon of Havana and
Matanzas, where it was recreated by
Yorb migrants in the 1830s. It is used
today in Santera ceremonies across the
planet. Jess played a pivotal role in
these transitions.
Jess played the tres, flute, bass and
trumpet. He was also a dancer and
singer. But he was famous for his
mastery of bat. A religious man, he
was a mason, an Abaku (a secret
society derived from southeastern
Nigeria), and a santero with Chang
made (a Santera initiate consecrated
to Chang, thunder deity). It is well
known that Chang is king of the
bat. Not surprisingly, many important
Omo A, or children of the sacred
drum, have been sons of Chang.
Yet Jess stands out among them. As an
Olu A, or keeper of the drum,
Jess's ritual Lukum name was Ob-Il.2
Ob is 'king', and Ilu has two meanings,
depending on its pronunciation. As
Rogelio Martnez Fur (artistic director
of the National Folklore Ensemble of
Cuba) told me:
There aren't sufficient words to detail
his stature: Oba Il: King of the
people [the Santera community], or
Oba Ilu: King of the drum . . . both
epithets serve to crown his regal head.
As a young man Jess was fortunate to
have studied with the masters of this
culture. His teachers were essential links
to the orthodox Santera and Abaku

traditions that flourished in nineteenth

century Cuba through West African
slaves brought to work in the sugar
industry. Notable among them was
Pablo Roche, master batalero (bat
player), son of Chang and Abaku
leader of Guanabacoa; Maximiliano
Ordaz, singer and diviner for Santera,
Abaku leader and godfather to Jess.
Jess was exceptional for his leadership
in defending Afro-Cuban culture by
performing and teaching it to others.
Among his achievements are playing
bat in Fernando Ortiz's first conference
on Afro-Cuban culture in 1937 in
Havana.3 Jess enjoyed a long and
consistent relationship with Ortiz,
enabling his studies of the Cuban bat, as
well as Abaku music, as found in the five
volume masterpiece Los instrumentos
de la msica afrocubana. Amado de
Jess Dedeu, a student of Jess, described
the background:
Jess told me a lot about the first
conferences with Fernando Ortiz.
Pablo Roche played the Iy [the lead
drum], Aguedito played the Ittele
[the second drum], and Jess the
Oknkolo [the smallest], illustrating
the theories of Ortiz with their
musicianship.4 The three major
informants for Ortiz were Jess Prez,
Santos Ramrez El nio, and Agustin
Pna Flor de Amor (who was
Abaku and a rumba player). Jess
told me that on Ortiz's birthdays,
intellectuals and politicians would
come to greet him in the Palacio de
Aldama, on the corner of Reina and
Amistad streets, where he had an
office. On some occasions, when
Fernando was in his office with these
people waiting for him below, he
would tell the porter, If Jess,
Agustin, or Santos 'El nio' arrive, tell
them to come upstairs. Thus they
had a great fellowship with Fernando,
and contributed much to his work.
From the first conference with Ortiz
onwards, Jess acted as a bridge
between the esoteric traditions of his
local religious communities, and the
public sphere of national culture. In
1937 he played bat with the orchestra
of Gilberto Valds, and in the 1940s
with Obdulio Morales, both of whom
sought to integrate Afro-Cuban
liturgical ideas into popular music (cf.
Ortiz 1937). In this decade, Jess taught
and performed with renowned singer
Mercedita Valds. Mercedita told me:

For the first time in Cuba, I created a

program of Yorb chants and
prayers on radio Suaritos, which
became famous throughout the
island. We performed these chants
and prayers with their authentic
drum rhythms. I learned all this from
Jess and Trinidad [Torregrosa], the
percussionists who accompanied me.
They guided me, and if I had doubts,
I consulted with them. Doctor Ortiz,
after listening to the program, asked
Jess and Trinidad to bring me to his
house so he could greet me. When
they brought me to his house, on the
corner of L and 27 streets, he opened
the door. Being surprised by my small
size, he gave me the nickname the
little ach. [Ach is 'power' in the
Lukum language].
In 1955, Jess worked in Venezuela, in
the show of Havana's cabaret
Montmartre with legendary conga
drummer Tata Gines. As Tata Gines
told me:
There is much to say about Jess
Prez, yet little has been said. I think
that when one mentions his name,
one mentions the master of the bat
in Cuba. I think that the bat player
who doesn't mention Jess Prez
doesn't mention his own drum. Jess
is eternally present, and when one
speaks of percussion, one must speak
of Jess Prez. It was he who opened
the breach, the path to follow.
In the late 1950s, he created Afro-Cuban
shows in cabarets like Tropicana, the
Riviera, Sans Souc. In 1959, he traveled
to Mexico with his show Oba Kos
Bat (The bat of Chang) where he
recorded an album of traditional
Lukum and popular music.5
Returning to Havana, he acted as
informant to Dr. Argeliers Leon in the
National Theater en 1959-60. In 1961,
Jess played a leading role as a founder
of Danza Moderna by selecting many of
its members.6 In 1962 he co-founded the
Conjunto Folkrico Nacional, where he
again helped select members, and
constructed their drums. Here, he acted
as informant to Rogelio Martnez-Fur
for twenty years, and toured the planet
performing with the Conjunto.
In 1977, when he participated in FESTAC
'77 with Danza Nacional de Cuba, he
became the first person to carry
consecrated Cuban bat drums to
Nigeria. There he played bat before
the Alfin of y, a traditional leader

71 Dilogo

Jess, Mercedita y Barreto en su casa con su tambores de fundamento atras. Early 1980s.

in Chang's historic homeland, who

commented on the resemblance to
Yorb sacred music. Bat were created
and maintained since the slave trade in
Cuba, and Jess became the first person
in the Americas known to bring the
bat back to its homeland.7 Later that
year (1977) he traveled to Pars with
Danza Nacional, where they performed
in the Thtre des Champs-lyses.
As a member of Los Amigos de Fran
Emilio, he was the first to bring the bat
into the Cuban descarga (jam) sessions,
demonstrating the capability of the
bat to create a musical dialogue with
the quinto (conga drum) of Tata
Gines.8 In 1968, he co-founded the
group Or, later performing with them
around the world. Composer and
guitarist Sergio Vitier told me:
Jess had the rare capacity to
integrate himself into different
worlds; he knew how to bring his
talents even into the world of classical
music. Cuban music has two phases: in
the first, Lukum culture did not enter
into the language of popular music.
After 1968, when we formed the
group Or, we began its introduction
into popular music, which today has
become the rage.9
In addition to his performances, Jess
recorded music for several films,
including Ob-Il; Una pelea cubana
contra los demonios; Shangai; and De
cierta manera.10
As a teacher, he contributed to the
process of transculturation by teaching
white students. Before the 1960s,
whites were not taught bat, but Jess
broke the mold, nurturing students like

Dilogo 72

Amado de Jess, currently director of

the rumba group Clave y Guaguanc.
This is only one way Jess helped bring
bat into Cuban national culture.
Whereas in the nineteenth century it
was considered an African drum, and in
the early twentieth an Afro-Cuban
drum, today it is viewed as a Cuban
instrument, integrated into all forms of
musical expression as a symbol of
cubana (cubanness). Even leaders of
the Nueva Trova (the New Song
Movement), Silvio Rodrguez and Pablo
Milans have used bat in their music.
As Amado de Jess told me:
Jess wanted drummers who were
serious and responsible. Many
wanted to play with him, but he
wouldn't let them to because they
were puppets [informal]. Many of
the young drummers liked to invent
and improvise with the bat rhythms,
and Jess strongly rejected this. He
told them to play within the
tradition, and not to invent. When he
went to ceremonies and heard the
young drummers improvising, he
would get up and leave.
By respecting the ceremonial traditions
of Santera, even while being innovative
with its music in secular contexts, Jess
built bridges in a way that eventually
earned him the respect of orthodox
religious leaders, many of whom first
condemned him. We know he earned
their respect because his funerary rites
were performed with the participation
of hundreds of religious elders.
The importance of well attended
funerary rites as a symbol of respect is
found throughout the African diaspora,
and Cuba is not an exception. Martnez-

Fur (1999: 15) wrote: To die of natural

causes at an advanced age, leaving
behind numerous progeny, like a 'tree
bent from the weight of its fruit,' and in
harmony with the divinities and the
ancestors; to be buried with the
performance of all the rites that mark
the tradition -- which permit one to
enter Orun (the other world), where
one is reunited with the ancestors of
one's lineage to be later reincarnated -constitutes for the Yorb the good
death.11
Popular poet Eloy Machado El mbia
(1993: 21-23) wrote Oba Ylu,
dedicated: to Jess Prez, with all the
love that he merited:
. . . Tocaba con sentido potico:
. . . He played with poetic feeling:
su verso
his verse
era el sonido del tambor,
was the sound of the drum,
yorubizaba el cuerpo,
it yourbized the body,
la vida,
life,
era el sol del tambor,
it was the sun of the drum,
la luna del mayor,
the moon of the elder [Iy drum],
lucero batable.
drummable star.
Y se canto la rumba
And rumba was chanted
tocando en su atad.
While playing on his coffin.
Era mi amigo
He was my friend
y yo lo llevaba.
And I carried him [to the grave].
Si un peso tena
If he had one peso

SPRING 2003 NO.7

medio peso me daba. . . .

he would give me half . . .
The extraordinary outpouring of praise
to Jess Prez reflects not only his
stature as a charismatic individual, but
also the fundamental importance of
African-derived drumming traditions
and their caretakers to the identity of
many contemporary Cubans.
Many of his students and colleagues
have maintained the memory of Jess
alive in their own ways, by Danza
Nacional's recording the LP Homenaje
a Jess Perez; by director Goyo
Hernndez naming his folklore group
with Jess's Lukum name Oba-Ilu. I
hope that my forthcoming book on
Jess Prez and the history of the Bat
drum in the Americas will encourage
Cuban institutions to celebrate his
lasting contributions to the national
culture. To this end, I thank Miguel
Barnet (president of the Fernando Ortiz
Foundation), who told me:
I think that Jess Prez is a symbol of
Cuban popular culture. As is Lzaro
Ros, as was Mercedita Valds, who
learned much from Jess Prez. All
bat drummers have to pay homage to
Jess Prez - Oba Il, the greatest of all
bat players I have known in my life.
And all this was nurtured here, in the
house of Fernando Ortiz. Don
Fernando had tremendous respect for
Jess, Mercedita, Pablo Roche, and
Maximiliano Ordaz. This is what I can
say about my great friend Jess Prez.
Beyond this, I hope my study will help
participants in the now global practice
of bat drumming to study the works
and legacy of this teacher. Jess left still
another contribution, a nearly 400 page
manuscript on bat history and
techniques with musical annotations by
a classically trained composer.12 I aim to
publish this work with a large archive of
photographs and extensive interviews
with his colleagues.
Many genres of Cuban popular music
are based on the performance of
complex rhythms originating in West
and Central Africa, later transformed in
Cuba. Due to a past of oppression and
discrimination, the great majority of
men and women who helped create
Cuban music from the sixteenth to
nineteenth centuries are unknown to
the present generation. We are
fortunate then to have detailed
information about Jess Prez and his
colleagues, so that their contributions

will be understood and celebrated in

the future by students around the
world. As Cuba is well known
internationally as a source of musical
wealth, to laud its leading musicians
like Jess Prez is to celebrate the
society from which he came.
Ivor Miller is Visiting Professor of
African & Black Diaspora Studies at
DePaul University.

SOURCES

Abmbl, Wd. 1976. If: An Exposition of

Ifa Literary Corpus. Ibadan: Oxford UP Nigeria.

los negros Yorub en Cuba. Estudios

Afrocubanos. vol. 2, no. 1. Pages 89 - 104.
Ortiz, Fernando. 1951-55. Los instrumentos
de la musica afrocubana. 5 vols. La Habana:
Habana: Ministerio de Educacin.
Una pelea cubana contra los demonios.
1971. Toms Gutirrez Alea, director. La
Habana: ICAIC.
Ros, Lzaro. 1995. Interview by the author in
the home of Mr. Ros in November.
Guanabacoa. Revised by Mr. Ros in December
1997, and January 2000.
Valds, Mercedita. 1996. Interview by the
author, Michel Daz, and Idania Daz in the
home of Michel Daz in May. La Habana.

Abmbl, Wd & Ivor Miller. 1997. If

Will Mend Our Broken World: Thoughts on
Yorb Culture in West Africa and the
Diaspora. Roxbury, MA: AIM Books.

Vitier, Sergio. 1995. Interview by the author

and Michel Daz in the home of Mr. Vitier in
March. Revised by Mr. Vitier in July 1995.

Barnet, Miguel. 1997. Interview by the author in

the Fundacin de Fernando Ortiz in December.
Revised by Mr. Barnet in March of 1998.

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

Carvalho, Jos Jorge de & Rita Segato. 1992.

Shango Cult in Recife, Brazil. Caracas,
Venezuela: Fundef, Conac, Oas.
Catalogo de filmes producidos por los
estudios cinematogrficos y de televisin de
las FAR: 1962-1986. 1986. La Habana:
Imprenta central de las FAR.
Dedeu Hernndez, Amado de Jess. 1996.
Interview by the author in the home of
Dedeu Hernndez. Revised by Amado in
1998 and 1999. La Habana.
Gines, Tata. 1999. Interview by the author
in the home of Mr. Gines in April. Havana.
Revised by Mr. Gines in May of 1999.
Hernndez, Gregorio El Goyo. Interview by
the author in the home of Mr. Hernndez in
September. Havana. Revised by Mr.
Hernndez in December 1997.
Linares, Mara Teresa. 1995. Interview by the
author in the home of Dr. Linares in
November. Havana. Revised by Dr. Linares in
December 1997.
Machado, Eloy El Ambia. 1993. El callejon
del suspiro. La Habana: Ediciones Unin,
UNEAC.
Martnez Fur, Rogelio. 1999. Descargas:
ritual y fiesta de la palabra. Conjunto (revista
de Teatro Latinoamericano, Casa de las
Amricas). nos. 112/113. Enero-Junio. p. 13 - 16.
Martnez Fur, Rogelio. 1995. Interview by
the author in the home of Martnez-Fur in
March. La Habana. Revised by Mr. Martnez
in 1996 and 1997.
Ortiz, Fernando. 1937. El concierto afrocubano
de Gilberto Valds. Estudios Afrocubanos. vol.
1, no. 1 (La Habana) : 139-145.
Ortiz, Fernando. 1938. La msica sagrada de

1. a & b) Ricardo Carballo plays bat at the

tomb of Jess Prez. 1985. Old Cemetery of
Guanabacoa. Archives of Ricardo Carballo.
2. Jess at home with Mercedita and Barreto;
fundamento drums at back. Early 1980s.
Authors archives.
3. Tropicana nightclub, 1950s. Archives of
Ricardo Carballo. Lulu Yenkori group.
Left to Right: Papo, Luisa Barroso,
Ricardo Carballo, Mercedita Valds, Jess
Prez, Ramiro Hernndez. Fernando Ortiz
interpreted Luku Yenkori as chants,
rhythms and dances, using the term for
one of his conferences with Mercedita
Valds (p.c. Natalia Bolivar, 1999). It
appears that M. Valds used this title for
her own group.

NOTES

1. This article is based on a presentation

delivered on November 27, 1999, at an
international conference sponsored by
the Fundacin de Fernando Ortiz in
Havana, when the author was a Scholarin-Residence at the Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture. Research
for this article was funded by the
National Endowment for the Humanities
through the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Cultures Scholar-inResidence Program.
2. There are three categories of initiation for
bat drummers. The first is having one
hands washed (las manos lavados), a
ceremony that enables men to play the
A drums. The second is called Omo A,
referred to as sworn to the drum
(jurado al tambor). Literally Child of the
deity A, the Orisha (divinity) of the
drum, this ceremony is akin to initiation
into Santera, that is, it is a complex, seven
day ceremony. Omo A are able to learn
secret bat rituals. The third and
maximum level is Olu A, where an

73 Dilogo

Foto en el Tropicana, 1950s

Omo A receives a set of bat A in

order to be its caretaker. As an Orisha, A
does not have an owner, but a
caretaker. Olu A are popularly called
owners of the drum (dueos del
tambor), but they are actually considered
its slaves. During ceremony Olu A are
ritually linked to a particular set of bat
drums. If these drums are not cared for
properly, the divinity A inside them will
wither and die. So too, the well-being of
its caretaker is thought to be endangered.
3. In an essay about this conference, held on
May 30, 1937, Ortiz points out that the
bat music heard by the audience would
not be contaminated by European
music, that it would conserve its ancestral
purity. He wrote: In Cuba, these religious
chants of the yorub are conserved
orthodoxly and purely . . . because of their
esoteric isolation, their African orthodoxy
has not yet been transformed by the
influence of whites. Ortiz expressed his
hope that this bat music would contribute
to the glory of the national music of
Cuba, and its repeated universal
contributions [a reference to the then
international rage of Cuban popular
music] (Ortiz 1938). Ortiz was aware that
his efforts would encourage the
transculturation of the bat into national
culture. It was Jess Prez who took the
lead role in the actual process.
4. In Ortizs first conference in 1937, Pablo
Roche used a set of consecrated bat drums
inherited from his father. On this occasion,
the musicians were Pablo Roche on Iy;
guedo Morales on Ittele and Jess Prez
on Oknkolo (Ortiz 1938: 93-95).
5. Oba Kos Bat literally could be
interpreted as The bt of Sng (The
king of Kso, or the King who did not
hang). The phrase Oba Kso in Yorb
has two interpretations: 1) Oba a Kso
The Oba [ruler] of Kso [the compound
where the political head of the Sng cult

Dilogo 74

lives in y (Abmbl 1976: 247)] and 2)

Oba kso: The Oba did not hang
[himself] a reference to a legend
where Sng disappears from the tree
where he had committed suicide and was
heard triumphantly thundering from the
sky. Thanks to Victor Manfredi for these
interpretations.
The Yorb language of West Africa has
three tones: high, mid and low, indicated
by diacritics. Without these, Roman
spellings of Yorb words would be either
ambiguous (out of context) or
meaningless. One would be unable to
distinguish a town (l) from percussion
(l). Because the Yorb language has
many varieties, interpretations between
Cuban, Brazilian, and West African usage
are often complex. Chang in Cuba is
often Sng (pronounced Shang) in West
Africa (cf. Abmbl & Miller).
6. Originally the Conjunto Nacional de Danza
Moderna, later named Danza Nacional de
Cuba and today known as Danza
Contempornea.
7. Bat are known as drums of Shango. The
name bat is used for drums in Brazilian
Candombl, but these seem to not have a
guild tradition and a ritual lineage which
are key to the Cuban bata drummers.
Recent research, however, has found that
at the oldest shango house of Recife
[Brazil] one can still hear a trio of bata
drums being played. These well known
Yoruba drums, still found today in Cuba
and among the Cuban communities in the
U.S.A., were believed extinct in Brazil for
more than fifty years. Thus, the bata
drums which can be heard in our music
selection are, most probably, the only ones
that can still be found in Brazil (Carvalho
& Segato 1992: 9).

Jimenez) Jorrn on flute, Cachato on

bass, Frank Emilio on piano, and often
with Sergio Vitier on guitar.
9. Cuban popular music has its foundation in
rhythms and instruments derived from
Kongo (Bant), such as the Son and the
Rumba, as well as in Spanish secular music.
Before the group Or, instruments derived
from the Yorb (Lukum) peoples were
not widely used. Before Or there were
various attempts to do so, as in the case of
Gilberto Valds, Obdulio Morales, Caturla,
Roldn and others, but they had few
followers. The name of the group is Or,
but the term is pronounced ru by many
professional bataleros, such as in the
phrase ru seco (dry ru), which are
liturgical bat rhythms performed without
chanting.
10. Ob-Il. 1985. Documental. Realizacin:
Emilio Oscar Alcalde. 9 minutos. Premio
Caracol al mejor Documental en el
Festival de Cine UNEAC/1985. Recoge la
vida de un tamborero de bat, Jess
Prez, Ob-Il en lengua Yoruba, uno de
los grandes tamboreros de bat de la
msica afrocubana (Catalogo 1986: 417).
11. Fallecer de muerte natural muy anciano
- o anciana - , dejando tras s una
numerosa prole, como un rbol doblado
por el peso de sus frutos, y en armona
con las divinidades y los ancestros. Ser
enterrado tras celebrarse todos los ritos
funerarios que marca la tradicin, y que
le permitan entrar en Orun (el ms all),
donde se rena con los antepasados de
su linaje y luego reencarnar, constituye
para los yorub la buena muerte.
12. Mr. Juan Elsegui, a musician and
pedagogue formerly of the National
Symphony of Cuba.

8. The group Los amigos performed

descargas with Guillermo Barreto on the
pailas, Tata Guines on the congas, Jess
Prez on bat (and sometimes with Regino

SPRING 2003 NO.7