niallgregory wrote:Ive always wondered what was the motivation behind the new york ryhthm being called mozambique ? What was the point in creating a brand groove and naming it after an already existing cuban ryhthm . Unless the new yorkers where trying to imitate pellos music in some way and just couldnt work out the grooves clearly from the records , which is the story ive been told .Anybody ?
You are correct there.
Quite simple really, its a CUBAN pattern. As per Pello's creation. As the correct knowledge was not in NY at the time, it had to be imitated to the best of their creative abilities by the leading percussionists of the time. It would have been perceived as wrong (in comparison the authentic form) at the time of its creation in NY.
However, that way of playing it became the 'accepted' way of playing it in NY cause that the way all the cats coming up wouldve observed it being played. Such to the point of it subsequently becoming a NY way of playing it.
Same with playing Guaguanco being played incorrectly (ie cruzado) Fania, Palmieri, & Colombians salsa in general are famous for playing Guaguanco cruzado. Celia Cruz's QUIMBARA, Hector Lavoe's AGUANILE, & La India/Palmieri's 'MI PRIMERA RUMBA', all classic examples where the Guaguanco is cruzado. In early years it was not clear how guaguanco is 'meant' to be played. Due to years and decades of recordings since, arrangers now 'argue' the fact that the song has been "arranged" to be played that way. I dont care what you say, its a CUBAN form, played in a certain clave direction, any variance to that is incorrect and cruzado. I even have an old SON 14 with Tiburon vinyl where they are playing Guaguanco cruzado, it sounds terrible. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
It would be like me starting to play marcha against clave, and call it my own adaptation of the form. It does nto make it correct. However if 40 yrs laters it is still being played that way and has been used in countless recordings, it suddenly becomes an official 'variance' of the form? No. Its just an incorrect way of playing something which has since become unique to a region or accepted by masses of percussionists to be the 'way its done' due them observing and being taught this way by their peers. Sure, it has given richness to the pattern and created something which certainly grooves, however, it it not the correct way of playing it.