Preston Epps | |
|---|---|
 Epps in 1959 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | July 19, 1930 |
| Died | May 9, 2019 (aged 88) Los Angeles, California, US |
| Genres | Calypso, rock |
| Instrument | Bongos |
| Years active | 1950s–2014 |
Preston Eugene Epps (July 19, 1930 – May 9, 2019) was an American percussionist.
Epps was born in Mangum, Oklahoma. He attended grade school in Tulsa and moved to Oakland as a teenager, where he attended junior high and high school. After leaving school, he served in the Air Force, and was stationed in Okinawa during the Korean War.
After his tour of duty he settled in Southern California, playing in coffee shops and working odd jobs. Epps was first interested with the drum kit in the early 1950s, when he visited Bop City, a San Francisco jazz club. He started as a percussionist but took to the bongos after he saw an African group and they gave him his first drum.
In 1954, Epps played bongos on The Penguins' single "Earth Angel", and its b-side, "Hey Señorita". He then played for Maya Angelou, which led him to tour with artists such as Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Johnny Otis, Sam Cooke, Jewel Akens, Robert “Bumps” Blackwell and Clifton “Fou Fou” Eddie.
Arthur Laboe, a local disc jockey, signed him to Original Sound Records, after hearing Epps play an exceptionally great bongo solo in a coffee house in Hollywood. According to Epps in a 2013 interview, Laboe said to him "you play pretty good, but you’re going to have to cut that 15-minute solo to a minute and a half." Epps thought he was "out of (his) mind", but was eventually executed in a recording studio at Sunset Sound and became his first single "Bongo Rock". The tune became a hit in the U.S., reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.
The follow-up, "Bongo Bongo Bongo", reached #78 the following year. Original Sound released a full-length LP in 1960, which reached #35 on the Billboard 200. However, further bongo-themed singles, including "Bongo in the Congo", "Bongo Rocket", "Bootlace Bongo", "Bongo Boogie", "Flamenco Bongo", "Mr. Bongo", and "Bongo Shuffle", did not result in any further success.
Epps reappeared in 1969 as a bongo player in the film Girl in Gold Boots. He continued on as a session musician in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the Incredible Bongo Band recorded "Bongo Rock" and released it as a single.
Epps continued playing in clubs in Southern California into the 1990s. He retired in 2014, after playing his last gig at the Tiki Oasis in San Diego.
Epps had six children, fourteen grandchildren and twenty-four great-grandchildren. He died of natural causes in Los Angeles on May 9, 2019 at age 88.
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