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Remembering Tito Puente

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:43:10 +0000

Remembering Tito Puente

May 31st marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of El Rey del Timbal, Ernesto “Tito” Puente, at the age of 77. So much has been said about his gift of dance, music, and arranging. And his legacy will certainly live on through his art.

Here at LP we remember another side of Tito; the Tito Puente who used to visit our office in Garfield, NJ, without any need for an entourage or a car to pick him up. He drove himself here, met his “fans” at our company (for whom he’d accommodate every autograph request he received), and would joke around with company Founder Martin Cohen and the rest of the LP family.

Those of us who were lucky enough to meet and work with this legend will never forget him or his contribution to the genre and to our music instruments. To us, he was more than Tito Puente. He was LP. “Para Siempre El Rey Del Timbal.”

Please help us remember Tito by sharing your thoughts on this blog!

Please visit our Tito Tribute section for videos, photos and stories!

California Photo Shoot – Day 1

Jim Rockwell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:17:42 +0000

If you have had the chance to look at the new LP Marketing materials, you will see that we have a brand new theme. It features our endorsers in cool, recognizable locations around New York City. Well, we certainly did not want to pigeon hole ourselves to just one locale. So, when the opportunity arose to fly to the west coast and photograph four California percussion stalwarts, we jumped at the chance.

Kevin Ricard with Dave Matthews Band Drummer Carter Beauford at the 2010 Grammy Show rehearsals

The first day started with a 3.5 hour delay in Newark Airport due to weather conditions. We were scheduled to meet with Kevin Ricard, the percussionist for American Idol, first. Kevin’s reputation as the go-to guy for televised events is unquestioned. He performs at just about every Grammy Awards and has been a regular on The Image Awards, The TV Land Awards and VH-1 Divas. He also has worked on the musical scoring for such movies as A Bug’s Life, Speed and The Hangover. In the picture below you can see Kevin with Carter Beauford from the Dave Matthews Band during the rehearsals for the 2010 Grammy Awards show.

So, were scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at noon for a 2pm photo shoot. Needless to say we did not make it. We hit the ground in LA at nearly four and scurried as quickly as we could to get to the location of the shoot, the historic Capitol Records building right near Hollywood and Vine in downtown Hollywood. Now, I have been to Hollywood quite a few times and the Capitol Records building always earns a drive by view. It is a classic piece of architecture that is truly a standout on the Hollywood landscape, it screams show business.

The Historic Capitol Records Building in Downtown Hollywood

This visit though, we were going to get a chance to go in and see the famous studio A. This is where Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Pink Floyd and all the greats recorded. This was the studio that was designed by the legendary Les Paul. To say that we were excited is an understatement. We finally arrived at 5:30pm, no small feat considering LA traffic – even on a Sunday.

Once inside we walked down to Studio A and into the control room. From that vantage point we could see the American Idol band, including Ricky Minor and Kevin, laying down tracks for the upcoming Tuesday show. They record the backing tracks on Sunday, the contestants come in on Monday and put the vocals on top and when the show is done airing on Tuesday, the songs are available on iTunes.

Kevin's Percussion rig inside Studio A, Capitol Records

On this occasion they were working on all of the Rolling Stones songs being sung by the top twelve. Anyhow, Kevin saw us in the control room and came out to greet us. He told us that he would need some time to finish up his parts and would call us when ready.

So in the meantime, we went outside and started to scout the location, looking for the best shot. We also decided to grab a bite to eat. We stopped at a great Irish pub literally on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. No sooner did our appetizers arrive then we received a call from Kevin, he was ready to go. We asked the waitress to hold the rest of our order until we got back and ran up the street to grab Kevin and bring him to the north side of the Capitol Records building.

Tom and Heidi finding the perfect shot!

The sun was fading fast and the building’s lights just went on. We were rushing against the setting sun in order to get just the right shot. Thankfully daylight savings time just happened that day or we would have been sunk. Thirty minutes later we said thank you and goodbye to Kevin and rushed back to the pub for the rest of our dinner. It was an extremely hectic but overall exhilarating and quite fruitful day. As our photographer Tom is always fond of saying, “I think we got something!”

Winter NAMM Show Day 4 – Kevin Ricard Cajon

Jim Rockwell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:48:56 +0000

Kevin Ricard was in the booth to demonstrate his new signature series cajon. Take a look at this video to find out the details about this wonderful new drum and the exclusive cajon microphone bracket that LP introduced at the show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_lFPNa1nqs

Winter NAMM Show Day 3 – CoverBand Performance

Jim Rockwell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:42:00 +0000

Saturday was a very busy day at the NAMM show. We had many guests including Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater, Joey Castillo from Queens of the Stone Age, Bashiri Johnson who is playing with Whitney Houston, touring and studio master Ron Powell and Karl Perazzo from Santana.

However, I have to say that the hit of the day came from the CoverBand 2010 winners and their performance on Saturday night at the Hilton. Check the two clips below for a taste of what happened and for drum phenom Didi Negron’s killer solo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKVgyXk4wHo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_sL8-VsnQ

WNAMM Show Day 2 – CoverBand Rehearsal

Jim Rockwell — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:59:09 +0000

LP was a sponsor of the CoverBand 2010 amateur musician contest this past year. The winners were flown to the NAMM show and will perform on Saturday night here in Anaheim. I was lucky enough to catch some of the first rehearsal. I will say there was some trepidation. When you put 7 musicians, who have never met before, in one room and tell them to play, anything can happen. What makes this even more challenging is when your only knowledge of their is abilities is from a 2 minute video clip. I was lucky enough to catch some of the first rehearsal and I will say there was some trepidation as to what might happen. After a bit of tuning and noodling around they jumped into their first song, it was a bit clunky as they tried to connect with each other. Then, it happened. The groove was laid down and they started to lock in. Here is a quick clip of some of that rehearsal.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tpitKh-CKY

WNAMM Show Day 2 – Multi-Stem Gajate Bracket

Jim Rockwell — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:45:29 +0000

LP artist Richie Garcia shows off the new LP Multi-Stem Gajate Bracket and adds a few tricks of his own.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzEC03-5oUM

WNAMM Show Day 2 – Carlos Santana at LP

Jim Rockwell — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:35:28 +0000

Wow! What a day! Carlos Santana was gracious enough to visit the LP Booth to help us launch our new LP Aspire Santana Abraxas Congas and Bongos. First off you have to take a look at the crowd that gathered at the booth to see the festivities.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBkfU-zJ8k

Now for the real show! Starting of with LP’s Director of Marketing, Jim Rockwell, then Karl Perazzo and finally the man himself, Carlos Santana.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBxrqzfqu0g

WNAMM Show Day 1 – Jim Greiner Shekere

Jim Rockwell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:49:47 +0000

LP made the new LP Jim Greiner Shekere to Jim’s exacting standards. Known as one of the top Shekere players in the world, watch this video of him demonstrating his new instrument.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcfTorweHY

WNAMM Show Day 1 – Percusso and One Handed Triangle

Jim Rockwell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:46:09 +0000

Time for some product demonstrations. First up Matt Ledger, inventor of the LP Percusso explains just how easy and just how unique this new instrument is.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckADsoDSRRg

Next we have Broadway percussionist Doug Hinrich demonstrating just how to use the new LP One Handed Triangle. Hint…you don’t need two hands to play!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdy7rWahhPg

WNAMM Day 1 – Chembo Performance

Jim Rockwell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:39:33 +0000

Chembo Corniel brought his killer jazz quintet out to the NAMM show to perform…and did they ever. Check out this video of Chembo pulling off a killer solo.