by davidpenalosa » Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:36 am
Hi Barrie,
Yes, I agree, the latter. As I'm sure you know, there's a standard tumbao pattern where bombo and the very next subdivision are played on the tumba on the three-side. What Patato did was play those two strokes on the tumba on both sides of clave like a bass does in salsa. That variation sounds somewhat similar to the surdo part in batucada. However, it seems that Patato was inspired by the Cuban bass (which he played), rather than the Brazilian surdo. Still, the similarity is there as you pointed out. As a matter of fact, I play something similar to what the guy on Youtube is playing because I like playing samba on two drums; I get to draw on some of my two-drum tumbao chops. Granted in doing so, I'm willfully letting Cuban sensibilities affect my samba playing.
-David