I've been a fan of the incomparable Sheila E. for 34 years. She is my favorite Latin percussionist, heck.. my favorite percussionist period. I bought her albums and had posters of her in my room in the 80s. I bought a pair of Bongos and started teaching myself how to play them largely because of her. I followed her career closely and watched her grow as a person and an artist. One thing I never had the opportunity to do however, was to see her in concert. That changed today however, as she was practically playing in my backyard at the EPCOT Food and Wine festival his weekend.I heard 'The Queen of Percussion' was going to grace Orlando with her presence many months ago and put in for the time off to see her. The concert did not disappoint, and was everything I thought it would be and more. My heart skipped a beat when she came down from the stage to sing a song three feet in front of us. It melted when she brought kids up on the stage to dance with her, and told all of the girls in the audience "You can play drums too".
I wanted to record every second for posterity, but made myself put the phone down for much of the concert, because I just HAD to live in the moment. I compiled the quick clips I captured, uploaded them to youTube, and have posted the video below. The quality and sound isn't the best, but it sure keeps ME hypnotized for roughly three minutes and nineteen seconds! Enjoy..