Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

[Miguel7]

Hi everyone,

This may be a "dumb question" but where is the "a caballo" rhythm from / what styles do u use it 4? I'm inclined to say it's a Puerto Rican thing (more specifically a jíbaro thing) because groups like Cristian Nieves and Puerto Rico y Su Musica (links below) use it with a cuatro guitar. But on the other hand, Giovanni Rios (an awesome merenguero) uses it in his song "Eres Todopoderoso". Not only that, but the rhythm is so similar to merengue I don't see much difference at all (other than maybe a few ghosted notes). To add to the confusion, in his video The Rhythmic Construction of a Salsa Tune vol. 2 Pablo "Chino" Nuñez teaches the rhythm on conga, timbal and güira but calls the example song a guaracha (which is originally a Cuban genre but there is a Puerto Rican variation which brings me back to the PR theory). I've also read somewhere that the rhythm is a version of the martillo on bongos played on a conga. And "a caballo" only means "on horseback" in Spanish so no hints there. Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyoft9s8af4&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq8-VT0AGjk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0JufWRErM&NR=1

So anyway, I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc.
¡Feliz Navidad!
Miguel

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[Miguel7]

Thanks for the info. about the history. I have heard of pachanga, but what is it used in today? I mean, I've seen it in a couple Puerto Rican guarachas but I think Pachanga is a style all its own. I ask because I write/record my own stuff and would really like to use it wherever it's most appropriate. I'm sure it'll work great in PR-style guarachas but other than that...? Also what do the other percs do (aside from timbal and guira, if any)

But it seems to me that it's a little more open to use (as opposed to guaguancó where it only fits into rumba or salsa songs). Since the basic marcha/tumbao is used in salsa, cha-cha, son, guaracha, Latin jazz, Latin rock etc. maybe this rhythm is the same way, free for wherever it works (?)

Anyway thanks for the info! You're really helpin' here because I'm doing a recording as a Christmas surprise for a friend

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[Miguel7]

Well I've never heard of "hierro" (iron) as a call-out but I get the concept. That's how some say the name "salsa" got started. I don't know if there's any truth to that but I think it's likely to have helped.

As far as the rhythm goes, it sounds like today it is used wherever it fits. That said, I can think of a few places where I can use it well Thanks.

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[Miguel7]

That's very interesting, and pretty cool too! But unlike a caballo, hierro was never turned into a rhythm all its own. The a caballo rhythm is what I was originally asking about. But I'm already working on a song where I'm using it Thanks.

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[Thomas Altmann]

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

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[davidpenalosa]

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. . . So the "A Caballo" rhythm is an ancient Afro-Cuban drum figure. I might even call this a generic rhythm.

I concur with Thomas. This is a generic rhythm. I have encountered it in Ghanaian drumming as well. The open tones are on ponche, which is the main accent of one of the most common primary supportive drum parts found in sub-Saharan Africa and the music of the Diaspora.

Basically, the ponche-based primary supportive drum parts are generated in one of two ways; either the main beats are subdivided (caballo, son montuno marcha), or the part is based on tresillo (guaguanco tumba). In both cases the last stroke is an open tone.
-David

[Thomas Altmann]

Cuco:

Davidson created the Pachanga in 1959. Fajardo played the Palladium, NYC, in the mid-fifties and in 1959. 1959 was also the year of the Cuban revolution, and Belisario Lopez and José Fajardo left Cuba after the revolution, the first in 1960, the latter in 1961. End of 1959, Charlie Palmieri's Charanga Duboney had its debut. The U.S.-American Pachanga craze started from the beginning of the 1960's (1961-62). Anyone who wanted to research the facts would eventually come to the according results.

The only detail that I forgot was that reportedly Orquesta Sublime was the first to record "La Pachanga", before Fajardo picked up on it.

Thanks for the info re: Hierro!

Thomas

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[davidpenalosa]

To say generic is to say same thing in a cheaper version ...

Leedy,
You would be correct if I meant to use generic as slang. I did not. I used the term in its formal meaning: “applicable to, or referring to all the members of a genus, class, group, or kind; general” (Random House Dictionary, 2010). As I used it, generic is precisely what I meant to say. Many of are familiar with caballo, by the way. It's not a big mystery.
-David