Compiled by EILEEN TORRES
Conjunto Libre--“The University of Manny Oquendo and Andy González”-- Jimmy Bosch
Manny Oquendo was a master percussionist who specialized in playing timbales. You can't mention Conjunto Libre or simply Libre without uttering Manny's name in the same breath. Libre is one of the most highly respected orchestras among musicians in the know and connoisseurs of Latin music.
Artists who have played with Libre are considered to have been through a kind of university. If you have been fortunate enough to play with Libre, you are considered to be among the elite. Libre is a fertile breeding ground for future stars. Graduates of this esteemed “University” include Jimmy Bosch, Jerry González, Dave Valentín, Steve Turre, Papo Vásquez, Oscar Hernández, Herman Olivera, Frankie Vazquez, Tony ‘Pupy Cantor’ Torres and a host of others.
After 35 years in the business Libre remains in the top 10 for excellence. Their style is patterned after the Cuban Son Conjuntos. They have refused to compromise and have gained the respect of other master musicians and more well known “stars”. Oquendo is the leader and bassist Andy Gonzalez is the group's backbone.
Manny Oquendo was born, José Manuel "Manolo" Oquendo in New York on January 1, 1931 to parents that had emigrated from Ponce, Puerto Rico. A record store was just one flight down from his family's apartment, and the swinging big bands of Machito, Jose Fajardo, and Orquesta Aragon provided the soundtrack to his childhood. "There was music constantly coming out of that store, and that was my education," he recalls.
Oquendo played bongo and timbales with a succession of New York's top bands before he moved into the orchestras of Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. In 1963, he joined "La Perfecta," the conjunto organized by pianist Eddie Palmieri. Eddie's was a small conjunto group. But what made us different was the music and the playing -we were looser, more free." Oquendo encouraged Palmieri to incorporate Cuban rhythms in the dance numbers the pianist wrote, then backed him up with an unforgettable, hard-driving attack on timbales.
Andy Gonzalez-- By age 13, Gonzalez already had several years of violin and bass training behind him, had formed a quintet with his older brother trumpeter/percussionist Jerry Gonzalez, and was playing professionally. He recorded his first album in 1967 with Monguito Santamaría (Mongo Santamaria's son) and later worked with Ray Barretto and Dizzy Gillespie.
In 1971, Gonzalez was hired by Eddie Palmieri's band. Oquendo had left to play with other bandleaders, including Pupi Campo, Noro Morales, Miguelito Valdes, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, and Israel "Cachao" Lopez. Gonzalez wooed him back to Eddie Palmieri's company, where the young bassist and elder statesman of the drums formed a lasting friendship. In 1974 Oquendo and Gonzalez left Palmieri to move in their own direction.
"I'd proposed forming our own band, and Manny was a little skeptical," Gonzalez said. "But when he realized I was a serious scholar, he got interested in the idea. There was a lot going on at that time; you had, in New York, the Young Lords, the 'Viva Puerto Rico Libre' movement. That word was in the air a lot---liberation. We decided we'd have a band that was free to incorporate jazz, Afro-Cuban, to explore alternatives, so we named it Libre."
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