Cándido Camero Guerra, known simply as Cándido, was born in the El Cerro
neighborhood of Havana on April 22, 1921, the son of Caridad Guerra and Cándido
Camero. His love for music began at the age of 4, when his maternal uncle
Andrés, a professional bongo player for the Septeto Nacional, taught him to
play the bongos using condensed milk cans. Growing up in the Cerro neighborhood
of Havana, Camero's father also taught him to play the tres, a Cuban guitar.
While focusing on the tres, he also learned bass and percussion, especially
bongos and conga.
In 1935, at the age of 14, Camero began playing the tres professionally
with various musical groups such as Gloria Habanera, Sonora Piñón, and the
Conjunto Segundo de Arsenio Rodríguez, Arsenio's backing band. The growing
popularity of the conga, driven mainly by Arsenio's conjunto, and Camero's
inability to read musical scores led him to focus on the conga, which became
his main instrument. Despite this, he continued to record with other percussion
instruments, particularly the bongos.
He moved to New York City in 1946, and two years later made his first
recording in the United States with Machito and His Afro-Cubans on the track
"El Rey del Mambo."
In 1979, "Jingo," a disco-oriented track written by Babatunde
Olatunji and recorded on Salsoul Records, was released. In the United Kingdom,
it was distributed by EMI under the Salsoul label as the B-side of "Dancin’
and Prancin’ ", which served as the A-side. In June 1981, the track was
released as a 12" single on the Excalibur Record / PRT Precision Records
and Tape label, with a duration of over 9 minutes, reaching number 55 on the
BBC Top 75 chart. "Jingo" represented his greatest success in discos
and clubs in the United Kingdom, becoming a very popular track at the time and
influencing various subsequent artists.
Cándido died on November 7,
2020, at his home in New York at the age of 99.
Singles
1958 - Candido In Indingo
1969 - Soul Limbo/Jump Back
1979 - Jingo
1979 - Dancin' And Prancin'
1980 - Candi's Funk
1984 - Thousand Finger Man
1988 - Samba Funk
Ciancio DJ © Copyright - 2024 by Antonio Stanzani