Tony Congas Cruz: The Best Damn Percussionist I Ever Knew

There has been only one other instance in which I have chosen to write in the first person for this publication. The first, was when I reviewed The Bright Light Social Hour’s Jude Vol I, a tribute to Alex O’Brien their former manager who took his own life. Alex was a friend and his loss was personal to me. So is Tony Congas Cruz’s passing this week on January 4, 2021. Tony was the best damn percussionist I ever knew.

Cruz was best known as the conga player for award-winning Austin-based, Afrobeat band, Hard Proof although he performed with multiple acts over the years including The Big Orange (San Marcos, TX), Collect All Five, his Latin jazz project, Tumbateo and more. He performed with some of the best musicians in the city in his career.

The Austin-based collective Hard Proof has tallied several Austin Music Awards for Best World Music in addition to performing with Living Colour, Thievery Corporation, Budos Band and lots more since forming in 2009. Their members have gone on to join Spoon, Black Joe Louis, record with White Denim among others. They’ve also worked with Spoon’s Jim Eno on a record, played hundreds of shows, toured the South and Northeast and performed at nearly every venue in Austin. Tony Congas was there for the entire ride, providing the counter-beat to founder Stephen Bidwell’s masterfully understated drum work. 

Tony would often remind me Bidwell understood how to leave room for his conga performance, allowing the Afrobeat percussion sound to drive the band like the engine that it is. Along with the steady hand of Joe Sokolik on bass and the non-stop energy that percussionist, Sevylla Del Mazo contributes, Hard Proof‘s rhythm section is tough to beat (rim shot). And indeed at many a show, I’ve seen fans slowly rise from their seats as if compelled by that incessant, contagious and intoxicating sound to dance. And dance their ass off they do. Every time. You can set your watch by it.

Get their latest, Stinger on Modern Outsider Records.

 

Tony was a deeply independent and proud Nuyorican. That’s a Puerto Rican born in New York City. He grew up in the rough and tumble Lower East Side of New York in the late 1960s and 70s. The Lower East Side then was no joke. Gangs, drugs, crime, corruption and graft were common-place. The Italian mob ran much of the organized crime in the city. It was a tough place to grow up with all that happening.  Music was prominent in New York life too. It was everywhere in Manhattan. The Apollo, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden were all institutions even then.

As a child, Tony used to spend a lot of time as his aunt’s apartment. She had an upstairs neighbor who threw Puerto Rican Salsa parties. Musicians from the neighborhood would play and people would sing and dance. Already playing a traditional drum kit, Tony would steal upstairs to see what was going on with those bembés. It was the first time Tony had an inkling he’d become a musician. The drums captivated him. He was around 13 or 14 years old.

Soon he was learning how to play Puerto Rican-style congas from the neighborhood musicians in various project parks around. The Central Park jam near the fountains were the pinnacle of neighborhood drum jams.

Later he’d learn Cuban techniques. Much later he learned Afrobeat with Bidwell. Music was easy for Tony. He lived and breathed it. Even sick and fatigued with cancer drugs, his eyes would light up to talk about audio gear, his band, anything to do with music really. It fed his soul as much as it does mine. We shared that love of the art even as I wrote about it. And he wrote and performed it expertly and with great joy. There wasn’t much else he loved more. Maybe his two cats, his family, his friends. Music was intertwined with all aspects of his life.

He worked as a professional touring stagehand for years. His first job in entertainment was on a film being shot in the neighborhood by a guy named Frank Coppolla. It was called The Godfather. I shit you not.

Tony was a proud, card-carrying, tough-as-nails NYC OG union member. He traveled the country working large, label-sponsored tours as disparate as Iron Maiden, Michael Bolton and Santana. Later after he moved to Austin he worked as a union stagehand at The Paramount Theater, The Erwin Center and Bass Hall among others.

Tony knew how to do everything from repair a condenser coil on an AC unit, to building and designing set pieces to how to build an enclosed patio with a door that automatically closed. He was really good with his hands like you’d expect a drummer to be. He was also really good at telling stories about his experiences on the road. He shared this gem with band several years ago and they had a filmmaker friend, Curtis Pollack make this two-minute spot interview with him. It is peak Tony Congas:

Hard Proof presents: Tony Talks To You – About Iron Maiden from Curtis Pollock on Vimeo.

One aspect of Austin life Tony particularly appreciated was the supportive creative community. He benefited from medical assistance at times from Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) and more recently SIMS Foundation which provides mental health services to Austin musicians, industry members and their families.

Those services were invaluable in his recent fight against cancer which he ultimately succumbed to heart-related complications of chemotherapy treatment. As a 10-year COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) patient living with a chronic condition, having a therapist provided by SIMS that specialized in those types of patients did wonders for his mental outlook.  If you would like to honor Tony Congas’ memory, a great way to do that is to make a tax-deductible donation to SIMS Foundation or HAAM in his honor.

The band is working on details for a memorial, understanding pandemic conditions make that situation fluid as far as announcing dates and details currently. Follow Hard Proof and The Cosmic Clash on social to get updates.

Rest in power Tony Congas Cruz. I am a better person for having known you friend.