whilst I'm no musicologist; I am old, and I remember the bongo drum craze, at least in California. Bongos were part of many Latin orchestras of the '30s and '40s. Bongos were often part of the Calypso period fad of the mid-1950s. Bongos, being a very portable instrument also became part of the beach scene about this time. Bongos were the instrument of emphasis in Beat coffee house poetry readings. Bongos gravitated into the folk craze, primarily West indies calypso flavored songs of the 60s. As the folk craze passed, and the Beat coffee houses passed, and the beach/surf movies passed the bongo drum fascination passed. It passed just as the ukekele fad of the 1940s passed, as the Alto Sax passed out of R&B. (When I was in high school it seemed like every guy wanted to wail on an ax.) This doesn't mean that no one plays any of those instruments any more, only that they no longer have widespread popularity. Guest Bongo Player's response was mean spirited and uncalled for. He/she missed an opportunity to inform, but instead chose to be an ass.
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