thumb|261x261px|Bongos playing a [[cumbia beat]]
Bongos (Spanish: bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger hembra () and the smaller macho (), which are joined by a wooden bridge. They are played with both hands and usually held between the legs, although in some cases, as in classical music, they may be played with sticks or mounted on stands.
Bongos are mainly employed in the rhythm section of son cubano and salsa ensembles, often alongside other drums such as the larger congas and the stick-struck timbales. In these groups, the bongo player is known as bongosero (or bongocero) and often plays a continuous eight-stroke pattern called martillo () as well as more rhythmically free parts, providing improvisatory flourishes and rhythmic counterpoint.
Bongos originated in eastern Cuba at the end of the 19th century, possibly from a pair of larger drums such as the bokú. These older, larger bongos are known as bongó del monte and played in changüí. The smaller bongos used in son cubano were popular across Cuba by the 1910s and reached the concert halls of the eastern United States in the 1930s. By the 1940s, bongos and congas were sharing the stage as son ensembles grew in size and Latin music began to cross-pollinate with jazz and other genres. During the second half of the 20th century, bongos began to be played in a wide variety of genres, from bachata to Latin rock.
Construction
Bongo drums are about high and have diameters of approximately and . The shells of the drums and the bridge (the small block that joins them) are usually made of wood, although fiberglass is also common. The heads are typically made of calfskin and attached to the shells via steel hardware that enables their tuning (lug tuning). Originally, metal tacks were used, so the skins had to be tightened by heating the skins with a flame and loosened with water or by striking them vigorously. but many players use beeswax instead.
History
Origin and etymology
right|thumb|300x300px|[[Desi Arnaz playing a bokú in the 1940s. His father had banned the bongos 20 years earlier. The bokú is the most likely ancestor of the bongos.]]
The origin of the bongo is largely unclear. Its use was first documented in the eastern region of Cuba, the Oriente Province, during the late 19th century, where it was employed in music styles such as nengón, changüí, and their descendant, the son cubano. According to Fernando Ortiz, the word bongó derived from the Bantu words mgombo or ngoma, meaning drum. He hypothesizes that the word evolved through metathesis and by similarity with another Bantu word, mbongo.
As explained by eastern Cuban informants to Benjamin Lapidus, the oral tradition among changüí musicians in Oriente is that the bongó originated as a replacement for pairs of bokús that were slung over the player's knee. Ortiz's hypothesis for the origin of the bokú is that their tall unusual shape was the result of a purposeful avoidance of "African-looking" drums by Afro-Cuban musicians at a time when most drums of that sort were banned.
Less supported hypotheses for the origin of the bongos, largely based on their superficial similarity to other twin drums, include the Cuban pailas and timbales (descended from European tympani), the Arab nakers, the North African tbilat (called "African clay bongos"), the Indian tabla, etc.
Evolution and popularization
right|thumb|300x300px|[[Sexteto Habanero in 1925. First on the left is Agustín Gutiérrez, the bongosero. His tuning lamp is on the ground (circled).]]
The bongo entered Cuban popular music as a key instrument of early son ensembles, quickly becoming—due to the increasing popularity of the son—"the first instrument with an undeniable African past to be accepted in Cuban “society” circles". This is attested, for example, in poems by Nicolás Guillén. As son evolved and distanced itself from its precursor, the changüí, so did the bongos. The bongos used in changüí, known as bongó de monte, are larger and tuned lower than their modern counterparts, have tack-heads instead of tunable hardware, and play in a manner similar to the lead conga drum (quinto) and other folkloric lead drum parts.
During the sexteto era, son groups began performing and touring more than ever before, and for the first time, recordings were being made. It was in this context that the first great innovators of the bongo made their mark, and unlike their predecessors, their names were not lost in time. Of particular note were Óscar Sotolongo of the Sexteto Habanero and José Manuel Carriera Incharte "El Chino" of the Sexteto Nacional, the two leading groups of the 1920s and '30s. Sotolongo himself would later leave the Habanero and direct his own group, the Conjunto Típico Cubano. His replacement was Agustín Gutiérrez "Manana", who is widely considered one of the most influential bongoseros, partly due to his condition as an Abakuá member, which allowed him to develop techniques based on the ekué (secret drum) drumming of such society. Decades later, at 82 years of age, Andrés Sotolongo was recorded for the Routes of Rhythm documentary playing alongside Isaac Oviedo.