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BONGO’S MUSIC BIO

See me play on www.youtube.com/bongodoggie

Robert Pettit, always inspired by music, started playing drums at the age of 10. He played in stage bands in grade school, high school and college, and studied drums privately with Don Worth in Portland. At the age of 16 he gained his first professional nightclub experience with Sarah Green, playing old standards and jazz. His most intense love was rock and roll, his young impressionable mind already thoroughly pummeled by the likes of Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, and Bill Ward. Santana inspired a love for afro-cuban hand drumming, and in his late teens he found himself in Eugene playing street corner rumba on his congas. This lead to him becoming one of the original members of “Three Finger Jack”, a band that also includes alumni Rob Thomas and Curtis Salgalgo.

Through the years Bongo traveled with the night club act “Nothin’ Fancy”, and played extensively in bar bands including “Paradise Alley”, “The Good Time Music String Band”, “The Fuzz Ducks”, “The Ultrons”, “Deluge”, “The Manics”, and “The Dukes of Juke.

Though his paying gigs always seem to find him on drumset, he has maintained his love of African and Latin music. His approach to congas is unique in that he simultaneously plays clave and bell parts with his feet, while soloing freely across the top with his hands.

Currently, Bongo is playing drum set with “The Summit Underground Blues Band” and his afro-cuban kit with The Looking Wolf Band.

Five time recording artist Jan Michael Looking Wolf is a NAMMY Award nominated Native American Flutist, and three time ISMA Best Flute Nominee. He is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grande Rhonde and lives in McMinnville, Oregon."

Bongo also leads on conga drums in his side project the “Gringo Starrs”.

The Gringo Starrs are a street corner rumba group, spawn of the Oregon Country Fair Drum Tower and Eugene Saturday Market, their sound a tribal pulse, half jungle stomp, half mountain hippy, an intense Afro-Cuban white bread.