Rumba artist Pedrito Martinez gets the party started at KC Jazz Club

Three is a magic number for rumba singer-percussionist Pedrito Martinez. Saturday night at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club, he played an electrifying solo on a trio of bata drums, the goblet-shaped instruments used in Santeria rituals. For the rest of the 80-minute performance, Martinez slapped complex, supple Afro-Cuban polyrhythms on three conga drums -- one more than most players use.