Atabal is a Puerto Rican tropical music group that mixes Afro, Latin- American rhythms and percussion. From the beginning in 1982, ATABAL proposed to present drums or atabales as the backbone musical element in Afro Latin American music. This proposition continues to guide their repertoire. The group places its percussion and voice harmony upfront creating a unique style. The Puerto Rican “bomba and plena” rhythms serve as a starting point for a musical percussion journey through the Caribbean and South American in a unique style.
Atabal has visited major US cities from New York to Washington D.C. They have also been invited to international festivals in Belgium, Holland, Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, and Mexico.
Atabal is best described as the direct influence of Africa in the Caribbean. Salsa, calypso, danzon, plena, bomba are just some of the rhythms that appear in this Puerto Rican group’s seven recordings. Initially a four-percussionist group, they now have eleven members consisting of: the Puerto Rican “cuatro”, bass, trumpet, sax, “panderos”, “barriles” ( bomba drums) and other percussion instruments. To complete their unique sound, considered by critics as both traditional and modern, they use voices in harmony when presenting their songs. In their most recent cd “Soneros en la Plena” they also integrated salsa and rap singers giving the plena a new dimension without losing their own unique sound.