The Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion and Drum Set: Includes the Rhythm Section Parts for Bass, Piano, Guitar Horns & Strings [Paperback] Review

I simply can't sing enough praise for Ed's book. I've been playing djembe and congas for a couple years, and I've always wanted a comprehensive book that covered the history, rhythms, and instruments. Finally I have one. This book describes the background in terms of history and culture that birthed Afro-Cuban music, then takes a structured approach through all the instruments.
The breadth of coverage on the instruments is fantastic. Not only are there the basic rhythms, but with Ed's approach, you see how they all fit together. It even has a whole section on the non-percussion parts of the rhythm section (piano, bass, etc.) and how the songs of various styles are structured. I've never found this kind of information elsewhere. For people who don't have a background in these musical styles (like me), this is wonderful. Then there's a whole section on adapting these styles to drum kit.
The audio examples are the best I've heard in any book/CD combo I own, by far. They are far more comprehensive than any other, and they support what you're learning in the text. The synergy between text and audio makes this a gold mine.
While this book is more expensive than most music books, it has several times the value of any other book I've seen. I so much wish I had this from day one. Even getting it now, it's filling in the (many) gaps in my learning, and will surely be the most essential book in my collection for a good long while.

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Product Description:
An in-depth study (324 pages) of all the percussion instruments, rhythms and song styles of Afro-Cuban music, along with their applications to the drum set. Detailed technical studies of each instrument are presented along with notations of many rhythm styles. The entire rhythm section (parts for bass, piano, horn section, string section, tres, and guitar) is also studied in detail. The book comes with two CDs that include performances of each percussion instrument, drum set, all rhythm section instruments, as well as examples of all musical styles with full instrumentation in score form.

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