Tomas Cruz Method - some criticism

[Thomas Altmann]

Hi Kevin ("Mr. Moore, I presume?"),

I'm glad to see the major authority on Timba music join this forum. A warm welcome from me as well!

First of all, let me thank you for your great informative site.

To start with, I emphasize that my criticism referred mainly to the technical aspects presented in the Tomas Cruz method. I was trying to differentiate carefully between the particular product, Tomas Cruz as a musician, Paulito's group, and Timba music in general. The least intention I had was to offend the producers of the method personally. I know about your passion for Timba and Cuban music in general; therefore I hope that we'll succeed in communicating less on generalizing friend-or-foe terms, but rather objectively discuss the distinct points of concern.

Secondly, I have stressed repeatedly that I am close to ignorant of the musical intricacies in modern Timba music. To learn about the rhythmic side of it was my purpose when I bought the Tomas Cruz books. Which is what simply did not happen.

The book is presented as a series of specific marchas and gear changes as performed on Con la conciencia tranquila (which by way is now available very cheaply as a download from latinpulsemusic.com), but the examples are much more than transcriptions of one drummer's work on one recording. They're intended to demostrate that dance music has evolved to include the above concepts.

In this sense, the "conga method" might have rather fit into the formate of an academic, analytical-musicological thesis. From a conga method I expect a little more of a practical overview of generally applicable material. And where instrumental technique is considered (even on video), it should be more representative, likewise more generally applicable, to serve the needs of a learner. No matter what or how you're going to play as a seasoned pro (when you don't need instrumental methods anymore); a student has to start somewhere, preferrably at a point of "minimum effort - maximum effect & choice of possibilities to develop". This is the objective of all the methods for any instrument, and there are brilliant examples of well-known and lesser-known conga players who could provide the proper basis, at least for beginners. I don't know Tomas Cruz well enough to figure out whether he himself could have controlled his technique more to fulfill this task.

Most people, at least in some American-dominated internet forums, rather tend to politely join in a chorus of praise instead of daring a critical view, perhaps in order to secure their own standing in a climate of mutual agreement and respect, or maybe just in a mood of comfort. I am not socialized this way. For me, mutual respect, peacefulness and friendly manners are beyond question before, or apart from, any discussion about a matter of common interest. So, after having read those many positive to enthusiastic comments about the Tomas Cruz method, I thought I'd throw in a minor fifth to complete the chord, especially because I found I had some good reasons for it.

I find it ironic that the criticism comes from the author of the massive batá treatise to which I frequently refer, because the "odd personal" aspects of timba, and of Tomasito's style, are so directly related to batá music.

It is very nice of you to refer to my book in demonstrating the relation between timba drumming concepts and the construction of some toques batá, but of course you needn't; the cantos lukumí existed before I transcribed a few of them.

As a matter of fact, your hint to the batá connection was interesting and illuminating, at least for me. A direct reference of Cuban dance music styles to traditional Afro-Cuban forms of music isn't anything new, but the principal most evident resource had been Congolese music so far, with spots for Carabalí and Iyesá influence, while elements of batá drumming were to be found at best in soloing. However, I don't think you have to go as far back as to the batá to find a model for reinforcing and paraphrasing a song melody on the drums; bongoceros have always done that in Son and in Salsa. Now that the bongos have lost some popularity from the era of Songo on to Timba, the conguero has occasionally taken over this role. Thus, no quantum leap here.

The marcha lasts 2 or 4 claves instead of just one, and contains a musically interesting internal phrase structure

Mozambique featured a four-bar tumbao since the beginning of the 1960's. Four-bar structures can be found not only in batá music, but also in a familiar Arará bell pattern. Actually, I wouldn't refer to a four-(and more-) bar cycle in batá drumming as a marcha or a tumbao. The facts that (1) these cycles can extend over up to 12 or 16 measures and (2) the same toques are equally played seco, suggest that the drums themselves carry a melody lead on their own, as opposed to just providing a rhythm that matches the respective song. There is a qualitative difference.

Anyway, I agree that there is a tendency of one-bar cycles to evolve into two-bar cycles, and the same is certainly true for two-bar cycles evolving into four-bar cycles. I think I am citing David Peñalosa here, but sooner or later I might have made the same observation. Guarapachangueo, which I associate with the same stylistic era as Timba, has a 4-bar cycle, too.

The singer or lead drummer produces a signal which causes the rest of the rhythm section to switch their parts, often with a break or bloque at the beginning or end.

Considering that montuno, mambo, solo and extro sections that follow ad lib passages of variable length have always been "cued in" by the singer, the timbalero or the bongocero (or the pianist), this is neither anything new to me, nor anything that is confined to batá drumming. The change in rhythm might not always be as drastic as in Timba (or batá drumming), but whenever a different rhythm is called for, like doble tiempo or Bembe in Cha-Cha-Chá, or Guaguancó or Mozambique in a Salsa tune, it may be signaled "on cue". This is traditional African musical practice, which is maintained in every genre of Afro-American music, even in Jazz.

So I am sorry to conclude that I actually do "miss the three massive conceptual quantum leaps" that you associate with Timba drumming.

The job, at its core, is about playing a pitched drum in a way to relates to the arrangement as a whole, rather than just as a producer of short generic time-keeping patterns. The job, at its core, is to be able to participate in a rhythm section that, like a batá battery, is improvising form based on cues from other members. The job, at its core, is not to learn to imitate Tomás Cruz, but to walk through the door he and others of his generation have opened and invent a new personal and group style of your own which utilizes longer, more creative marchas, and creative, spontaneous ways of switching between them.

Kevin, thank you for this explanation; this is exactly what helps me in understanding Timba drumming, and what I extracted from the Tomas Cruz books without even trying to play the patterns that he demonstrated. As I said before: “Once again, I will extract my 5 percent profit from the books, while I keep on playing my own stuff. And who knows, maybe I will have a chance to go and see Tomas Cruz actually perform one day, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.” If there is anything that I learned about Timba drumming, it would be that there is basically no “generally applicable material”, as I called it above, aside from occasional quotations of traditional patterns.

The real quantum leap in Cuban percussion, however, as far as I can see, is a general shift from playing identifiable ostinato rhythm patterns to a continuo of collective, interactive improvisation that merely utilizes traditional patterns as a common ground for displaying "cubanistic" musical practice that is only definable by its manners of phrasing, articulation, and improvisation. Be it Timba, Guarapachangueo - or the ever-evolving batá tradition, which presently incorporates an improvisational approach to a degree that makes one toque sound like any other: There is less and less to hold on to for a non-Cuban like me. This refers to me as a listener as well as a player. If you don't expose yourself to this music full-time, you are no longer in; you lose the track. When I asked our bass player Omar (from Matanzas) how in the world the Cuban drumset players developed their distinctive style without sacrificing their timekeeping function in Timba bands, he said: "Look, these are hungry young guys, studying, working and hanging out together all day long, breathing the music. How could they avoid to step forward and deal with the music like that?"

As I tried to express before: I hope that you don't take my criticism too personally. I greatly appreciate your work, and I'm glad to read you on the board.

Thomas

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[ABAKUA]

Kevin,


welcome to the forum. Great to see another Timba fan onboard.
I look forward to many great discussions with you. Keep up the good work over @ Timba.com

Tomasito Cruz DVD's have some excellent content, while moving a little too slow for my liking (due to my personal experience/playing level) however some very good information nonetheless.

[davidpenalosa]

And where instrumental technique is considered (even on video), it should be more representative, likewise more generally applicable, to serve the needs of a learner. . . . The real quantum leap in Cuban percussion, however, as far as I can see, is a general shift from playing identifiable ostinato rhythm patterns to a continuo of collective, interactive improvisation that merely utilizes traditional patterns as a common ground for displaying "cubanistic" musical practice that is only definable by its manners of phrasing, articulation, and improvisation. . . . There is less and less to hold on to for a non-Cuban like me.

Hi Thomas,
Are you familiar with Changuito's History of Songo? How would you compare that video tape with with the Tomas Cruz books/DVDs? They strike me as similar in as far as they both show specific patterns for specific songs (or song sections).

Prior to what I refer to as the "songo era," the repertoire of Cuban band rhythms consisted of genres associated with specific dances and specific eras. For example, the son montuno, chachachá and pachanga were each created in different decades, when they reigned as the "dance craze" of the day.

Beginning in the songo era, various bands (mostly charangas) created many new rhythms in a wave of creativity. The rhythms were associated with specific bands (songo—Los Van Van, nueva onda—Ritmo Oriental, bata-cinco—Tipica Juventud, etc.) Sometimes the rhythms were used for a single song and sometimes they were used for several different songs composed over a span of time. I have heard Cuban musicians state more than once that there is "no songo rhythm," it is an approach, analogous to the modern approach to guaguancó—there is no "modern guaguancó rhythm" per sé. And yet, Ignacio Berroa for example (Mastering Art Afro-Cuban Drumming), demonstrates the standard songo timbales/traps ride we all know, immediately after stating that there is no such thing as a songo rhythm.

Through articles and instructional videos, I had come to know a "basic songo" part for congas and timbales/traps. I recognized this template as the basis for what I heard on records, particularly those by Ritmo Oriental and Orquesta Aliamen.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I think you were looking for a basic timba part. I would be interested in hearing Kevin address this, but I don't think the wide spectrum of timba conga inventos are condusive to being distilled down to a single template. I think the structures are too varied.

I disagree with your point that timba congas don't play identifiable ostinato rhythm patterns. Tomas Cruz plays the same invento for the same song, or same section, everytime.

I think the real quantum leap in Cuban percussion is the explosion of new rhythms composed for specific songs. However, this leap began over 30 years ago. While the bass and to a greater degree, the piano, have experienced revolutionary expansion in timba, I hear the congas in timba as being more a part of a steady evolution. I hear timba congas as a continuation of the approach initiated by Changuito and others several decades earlier.

-David

[kevintimba]

Thomas: But in my opinion he does not present the kind of technique that is recommendable as a foundation for beginners. Hell, I say it: I found it horrible! He is "grabbing" the closed slaps, he travels too long distances on the playing surface, he does not incorporate the natural fall or gravity, he does not rest his hands on the edge of the drum when he could, he lifts the arms/hands too soon, he is pressing his fingers together for open tone strokes and even for slaps, causing tension in the forearms, making a relaxed stroke impossible. The sound comes out accordingly. As far as I can see, there are only a few mistakes he does not make.

How do you define "mistake"? It seems to me that the type of technique you use is dependent on the context. Andrés Segovia's technique works for the Concierto de Aranjuez and Jimi Hendrix's technique works for Voodoo Chile. Tomasito's technique works for playing in a big loud Cuban dance band. Tomasito had to play for many hours at a stretch, night after night, with a huge band, with a full drumset, two keyboards, four horns and a bongosero/campanero. The sheer volume level is ridiculously loud. But if you look at Tomasito's hands they're as soft as a baby's. He never uses tape. His technique allows him to swing like crazy at high volume without physical damage and with a warm, solid, consistent tone that cuts through a very loud and dense musical texture. One of my favorite parts about the stroke by stroke video approach we used is that you can learn the part without ever taking your eyes off the television, so that you can soak up his body language and hand position by osmosis. Of course, since you don't like the way he plays, it's clearly the wrong book for you!

As for whether it's appropriate for beginners, the method Tomasito presents in Volume 1 is precisely the method that Changuito used at la ENA to teach almost everyone in Tomasito's generation. The books are about learning to play congas in the Cuban dance bands of the last several decades. This is how they play, and how they learned to play that way.

[Thomas Altmann]

Hi David,

luckily I am in possession of the Changuito and Ignacio Berroa VHS tapes. It seems that at least Changuito's video has not been re-released as DVD so far, and guys have difficulties obtaining copies. To me, both of these videos are central learning tools and objects of study.

Changuito is not known primarily as a performing conguero, but here is someone with a marvellous technique that can take a student anywhere he wants. By the way, I once heard a private recording of Changuito playing a conga solo. He definitely has his own style, and a lot of his exercises make much more sense when you hear him incorporate them in his own playing. When I had my two-days lessons with him, he had an even less sideways-cup-hand slap, like more straight and fingers only slightly bowed. The slap that he plays on the video (sideways/cup-hand) automatically creates more of a cave under the hand, plus more contact surface with the fingertips, because the pinky participates more in the stroke; hence you get more attack. But you have to turn your wrist sideways for every single slap stroke, and a beginner is tempted to "grab" the slaps by pulling the fingers inward after hitting the drum.

Grabbing slaps is archaic technique from a time when skins were thinner and more slack. It requires more force, creates more tension, and is hard on the finger joints. Usually it doesn't sound and feel as beautiful and loud as a "thrown" slap, but the advantage of it is: It is dependable and works always, even if you hadn't practiced congas a lot before performing. So, grabbed slaps might be ideal for allround percussionists who have to spend a lot of time on shakers and tambourines.

I must remark here that there are enough congueros who are convincing artists or even rhythmic geniuses who incorporate this ancient grabbing technique into their style of playing and who sound overall great with it. Folklore drummers often don't bother about what technique might be the best. They play, do it right, sound great, f... it! These are not the people of my concern. These are the people who I'm trying to learn from. I am concerned about the student, the one who takes lessons and buys conga methods.

Well, back to the Changuito video and his song-specific rhythms. Berroa said "there is not such a thing as the Songo rhythm". And he is right, of course, as proven by the multitude of patterns that he - and Changuito, independently - have demonstrated. Most of the rhythm patterns that these people created were two-bar (or even one-bar) ostinatos that maintained a strong connection with existing standard tumbaos, technically as well as rhythmically. They did not sound as if they were arbitrarily designed just in order to create something new and different, but as if they were developed naturally, or just popped out of rehearsal or concert practice. As a result, all of these patterns are universally applicable, and they fall from the hands comfortably.

By the way, in your list of "specific bands" you omitted the band with the perhaps most creative conguero in the history of Cuban dance and jazz bands: Irakere's Jorge Alfonso "El Niño" - at least as far as steady patterns are concerned. There was a time when I sat down and examined all my favourite Irakere tunes for conga parts, and he played something own almost on each number! I transcribed a few of his rhythms and practiced them. Each one of these rhythms was still technically and rhythmically tied to a traditional rhythm pattern, in that it had some elements in common with them. You could still feel the derivation. Some of them were just individual interpretations of Conga, Guaguancó, Guaracha, or everything at once (what my first Cuban teacher Rodolfo "El Moro" called picadillo style). A lot of his stuff was congruent with the Songo or Onda patterns that were played in other bands. I am still using adaptations of El Niño's rhythms, or fragments of same.

All of that had been initiated about 20 years before the term timba came in use as the name for a definable style of music. Quantum leap? Perhaps; but, as you stated yourself, not ascribable to the era of Timba.

I disagree with your point that timba congas don't play identifiable ostinato rhythm patterns. Tomas Cruz plays the same invento for the same song, or same section, everytime.

That's correct. I was thinking about this after I had submitted my post but decided not to edit it for that. First, I wasn't referring exclusively to the conga part, but to percussion in general. In Timba music, my hypothesis would rather be true for the drumset. Second, as I was trying to explain, inventing conga parts was not anything new when the Timba movement started, and playing set patterns in each performance is not something to be mentioned in the context of Kevin's "Timba quantum leap". But (thirdly) the open, freer concept of drumset playing in Timba is new and characteristical, as well as the same concept in Guarapachangueo and in folkloric/religious music like batá. I see a parallel there, an analogy, like a historical stylistic period. (4) As to the conga inventos, these might even resemble the open/free approach, in that their fixed patterns are nearly as arbitrary, temporary and hand-tailored for specific situations as any improvisation.

Thomas

@Kevin: I totally agree with you as to what could be called technical "mistakes". I think I have covered this and all of my answers to your questions in this post to David, so I don't know what else I should say. -TA

[kevintimba]

Thomas: "The real quantum leap in Cuban percussion, however, as far as I can see, is a general shift from playing identifiable ostinato rhythm patterns to a continuo of collective, interactive improvisation that merely utilizes traditional patterns as a common ground for displaying "cubanistic" musical practice that is only definable by its manners of phrasing, articulation, and improvisation"

Okay - this is quite true if applied, for example, to Alexis "Mipa" Cuesta, the conguero of Manolín and Team Cuba, now in Miami with El Pikete, but very much not the case with Tomasito, who consciously composes specific marchas for specific parts of specific songs and then plays them more or less as written. He improvises extensively in other very specific parts of the arrangement, such as the mambos and the songo con efectos gear. Mipa, on the other hand, does what you describe. He has a vocabulary of traditional (and not-so-traditional) patterns which he mixes in a more improvisational, less compositional way. Most of the other recent Cuban congueros fall somewhere in-between but on the whole I'd say that the average style is closer to Tomasito's than Mipa's.

Now, if I were writing a book on Mipa (and I very much intend to!), I would use an approach more like the one I've used in the "Beyond Salsa Piano" books on Melón Lewis, describing the style as "controlled improvisation" and having the person learn a series of variations to master it. So whether it's timba, salsa, guaguancó or batá, we can find a wide range among players in the degree to which they stick to the part and the degree to which they delve into, as you put it, interactive improvisation that merely utilizes traditional patterns as a common ground.

But as David says, the best way to get ourselves onto the same page with all of this is to forget entirely about the confusing word "timba" and focus strictly on the actual parts being played on the congas. David makes the absolutely critical point that there is no "timba rhythm". As he points out, there's not even really a "songo rhythm". If you look at the songo chapter of the second Tomás book, there are nine or ten very different marchas, and a list of songs in which each is used. Clearly, the song-specfic conga marcha predates timba. In fact, it even predates songo if you take batá music into account. Note however, that none of the songo marchas is longer than one clave. When you double or quadruple the length it geometrically expands the possibilities for creating a unique and recognizable part.

Spiro has a fabulous way of explaining how to play more coherently and musically, whether it be in a solo, or playing a lead drum like the quinto in guaguancó. He uses the terms "part" and "lick" - so you "play the part", then "play the lick", then play the part again, then play another lick or a variation of the first one. The result is a conga part which lasts four claves instead of one and has an internal phrase structure which the listener can follow - as Lester Young said, it's like "telling a story". Tomasito simply applies this approach compositionally while listening to the bass and vocals, until he finds a two or four clave phrase that fits musically and then associates that new marcha with the song in question. It's that simple - and it can be applied to any genre, not just "timba". The conga is an incredibly expressive instrument - why not compose for it in addition to using it to keep time?

[Thomas Altmann]

Kevin,

sorry - we were probably writing at the same time, so our messages clashed in some points.

Apart from what I have said already that could equally serve as answers to your recent post, I must stress that I do not discourage anyone from being creative and composing for his instrument, heaven forbid! And I couldn't care less about a musician's instrumental technique as long as he transports an artisic statement. This has never been my point, as I was trying to express.

I have this Steve Gadd video "Up Close", where he has to explain his "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" thing. Now, this is very specific, too. I have never practiced that one, either; but obviously there are always enough drummers who want to see how he did it. I concede that I might have been unaware of a broad demand among Timba congueros for Tomás Cruz to demonstrate his "How-I-Did-It". I repeat, I'm not at all inside the Timba movement. I just have my own idea of what I want to see in a conga method, apart from a "Making-Of" or "Up-Close" report, and I have explained that.

Thomas

[davidpenalosa]

Most of the rhythm patterns that these people created were two-bar (or even one-bar) ostinatos that maintained a strong connection with existing standard tumbaos, technically as well as rhythmically.

Hi Thomas,
For me, there was a big departure from the existing standard tumbaos and bell patterns when the songo congas began incorporating rumba quinto and the timbales/traps parts embellished the guaguancó guagua pattern. The with-clave tone on bombo was removed on the congas and replaced with counter-clave "quinto" strokes.

Ironically, by the time all of that wonderful songo instructional material became available in the US, the era had pretty much passed in Cuba. Like the buried ruins of the Etruscans, who ruled southern Italy before the Romans, there is a lot of great material from the songo era that has never been re-issued on CD. Some of the recordings were only released on 45 rpm records.

It seems that the current trend towards hip-hop and reggaeton are logical moves away from the complexity of timba, just as the chachachá was a matter of "de-Africanization" in reaction to the more contrapuntally complex mambo. It's hard for me to imagine future Cuban popular musics being more rhythmically complex than timba, but then, I've been surprised before.
-David