by Thomas Altmann » Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:47 pm
The "A Caballo" rhythm is much older than Pachanga. I learned this rhythm as the mula (middle) part in one form of Makuta. The people who passed this on to me had studied with the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, so I suppose that's the version that they teach. There are other versions, but this particular type of Makuta seems to be related to that huge family of Afro-Latin and Caribbean rhythms that is more or less based on the Cinquillo and the 2/4 Iyesá rhythm, although Makuta itself is Congolese (Bantú).
So the "A Caballo" rhythm is an ancient Afro-Cuban drum figure. I might even call this a generic rhythm. Speaking of Iyesá, the same pattern is also played in Brazilian Afoxé. Somehow, later this African rhythm has made it into the Cuban dance band practice and, moreover, it is likely to have been the model for the martillo of the bongó, too. Actually, the martillo is the "A Caballo" rhythm, only played on a different instrument!
Pachanga is the dance. This dance, as well as the original music for it, was in fact created by Eduardo Davidson but first interpreted mainly by Fajardo and his Charanga bands. If we listen carefully to "La Pachanga" and "Pancho Calma" (on the Panart record "La Pachanga - La música de Eduardo Davidson"), we find that the conguero is not playing "A Caballo", i.e. not a gallop-type rhythm with the slaps on counts 1 and 3, but a two-measure tumbao with a slap on 2 (also resembling another Iyesá and Makuta movement). On "A bailar Pachanga" and "Gozando la Pachanga" (from "Let's Dance with Fajardo") the same two-measure conga movement is played, but the slaps shift back and forth from 2 to 1 and 3. So obviously, the "A Caballo" rhythm is not necessarily tied to the Pachanga dance. Much less should the drum rhythm be called Pachanga. It's true that "a caballo" is an exclamation that calls for, or announces, the "A Caballo" rhythm in the percussion section. But there seems to be no other or better name for the drum pattern itself. I don't know of any name for this pattern.
To my knowledge, the "A Caballo" rhythm eventually became identified with Pachanga in the United States. When the new dance became a craze in the 1960s, many Latin musicians jumped on the Pachanga train, and congueros like Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto and others formed Charangas, invariably playing the "A Caballo" rhythm whenever it said "Pachanga".
The shout "hierro" calls for a well known 6-bar unison break cierre in the percussion section. The Hierro break was also extensively used by Fajardo, but I don't know who created it.
Thomas