Conga songas

Back in the day I did some gigs with a Chicago conga player (Alpha Stewart). Hand percussion is capable of a lot - under the hands of a good player, they can cover almost anything.

A few ideas:
Montego Bay - Bobby Bloom (the recording has timbales, but it's a good one for congas too)

Use Me - Bill Withers (Alpha and I did this as a duo... I covered the keyboard line on guitar, he did the drum part and it worked well)

anything by Tito Puente. You don't want Santana... but Santana isn't a songwriter; he's a cover artist. Stuff like Oye Como Va is actually Puente. He was a timbale player, but everything he did will work well with conga.

Afro Blue - John Coltrane. They guy who actually wrote this tune is Mongo Santamaria, who's a conga player. The original is on YouTube (with no video) here

And if you want to impress him, "congas" is the set - the big drum is the "tumba", the slightly smaller one is the "conga" and if there's a really little one it's the "quinto". I was always curious why only the little one has a masculine name in Spanish, but I've never discovered why.

I'm def throwing use me out there. AWESOME recommendation. Thank you.

We use congas for jams all the time, especially when there's no full drum set as they add a lot. And a good conga player can play on just about anything. For example, during some of our latest get togethers, you would have heard congas on:

Man on the Moon
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Hey Eugene (by Pink Martini)
These Boots Were Made for Walking
Alison
Love is the Drug

just to name a few.

Play what you normally play for jams. As long as you don't blast your guest out, he's bound to come up with a tasteful part.

Have fun!

Peace

How about the banana boat song?

Probably anything Jimmy Buffett ever wrote would work too.

Wow David you guys play Hey Eugene? I saw the band on CPTV and liked them so I got the song. I'd love to hear you guys jam to that.