Bamboche

[windhorse]

Well, the programs I used are presently in a state of flux. I use a retina 15 inch macbook pro 2013, which is still going strong. I film with my I phone on a tripod. Camtasia is the video editing software, but I'll probably move to Final Cut Pro when this version stops working. I'm guessing it'll be next time I update the OS. Just Garage Band for sound, and a little bit with Audacity. I've got a really nice USB mic - Samsun G-Track.

When you make it to the Columbia on Vimeo, you'll see this one's noticeably different from the rest, and that one's recorded and edited with my friend Paul who has Final Cut Pro, really nice video cameras - two per shot (1 closeup the other wide angle), and really good dynamic mics.

Thanks for saying something Chtimulato!
-Dave

[windhorse]

No monetization, no ads, no joining a service. Just a place to look for info you want.
Hopefully this is helpful.
https://vimeo.com/772848651

[windhorse]

Here's Palo. I did all the parts with a click track except for some backup vocals and shaker with a friend.
https://vimeo.com/791340372

[Chtimulato]

Nice work, windhorse.

[Thomas Altmann]

Hi Dave,

sounds pretty good to me!

Not really being an expert on the Congolese stuff, I'd like to know who taught you to apply this type of bell pattern? I remember having heard it somewhere in Arará music, but not in Palo.

Greetings,
Thomas

[windhorse]

Hi Dave,
sounds pretty good to me!
Not really being an expert on the Congolese stuff, I'd like to know who taught you to apply this type of bell pattern? I remember having heard it somewhere in Arará music, but not in Palo.
Greetings,
Thomas

Thanks Thomas. My main teacher here, Dave L. taught Palo to us with this bell. He got it from Geoff Johns, and my knowledge stops there. We call it "long bell" which Dave Peñalosa calls downbeat 6/8 bell. My teacher explains that those songs fit more easily over this bell. I would agree they're tailor made for that bell. I have not heard a Cuban who played bell this way. We asked Lazaro Galarraga once in a lesson, how often they use that bell pattern and he said rarely and usually on slow stuff. Good question.

[Thomas Altmann]

Thank you Dave.

As a matter of fact, I have learned two types or styles of Palo, none of which I found represented in the available field recordings. I might check them again specifically for bell variations, but I tend to confine myself to your information. It is more than an impression of mine that the Congolese culture, being the oldest African tradition in Cuba, has proved to be the most permeable, adaptive, variable, flexible corpus, whatever you call it. No big wonder then, if this bell pattern had its place in Palo, too.

Thomas

[windhorse]

This latest one is my imitation of Calle 54's "Compa Galletano". It pushed us to our limits (the reason for doing it), as you might imagine if you've heard the song. A virtual masterpiece with so many Afro Cuban legends playing together. Loads of drums with Andy González on bass. So, a very humble interpretation: https://vimeo.com/811053947

[windhorse]

Slow Bembe with 2 drum caja, mula, kachimbo, brass bell, shekere, vocals for Chango: https://on.soundcloud.com/71mo7cWSv6uREpC67 This will replace a link currently in the book on pp. 70-71. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVR1Q1V5

[Chtimulato]

I just listened to it. Good work. I could it use as a practice play-back track.

[windhorse]

Rumba Tonada
This project was one of the fastest. Only a couple of weeks. 6-8 Clave, Shaker, Kachimbo, Quinto, Low Tumba, I do lead vocals, 1 coro track, and harmony, 1 female, and another male have coro tracks. The most fun for me was working out harmonies and attempting a bonko-like quinto like the Tonada we're emulating from Ilu Aña.

https://vimeo.com/1045880999

[windhorse]

https://vimeo.com/1067985247?share=copy#t=0

At the end of March a good friend got married and he wanted us to play something at the wedding. So, I did some research and found that the Orisha most appropriate for weddings is Ochun. So I decided on a sweet slow 6/8 Yeye Yeo Adideu, and an Iyesà done in a unique percussive style with only Ochun songs.
So, as the date of the wedding approached, the woodshedding as always would be a recording. I added two of my friends to the coro, and just today finished the final edits and mix.


Those of you who know the shekere parts may have the lead shekere as: "boom boom shika shika [rest] boom shika shika", rather than the opposite choice which I took here: "shika shika boom boom [rest] shik boom boom.

This is rhythmically a special version that includes an interplay on the first big beat of 3-2 clave, rather than the more traditional Low onbeat bell saying "downtown cricket" on both sides of the measure, and the high bell offbeats "[space] ditty, [space] ditty."

I have to call this a hybrid invento because I played the lead shekere with a quick lope "into" the bombo rather than on it, and the bells include a loping pattern interplay on the 3 side of clave rather than offset over the whole second half of clave as in a traditional Iyesà.

The high drums and the low drum are pretty standard, but the lead drum is played differently by every teacher I've experienced. So, I first tried a stick Matancero style which just wasn't working. I kept squeezing the bombo note too close to the downbeat, then I tried the one I learned from my original teacher. It's his interpretation that came from the Muñequitos when they visited Colorado in 1996. Hope you guys appreciate the effort. <3

[Thomas Altmann]

Thank you David!

Honestly, I have never learned the chékere parts for Yesá in a Güiro setting. Are they the same as the ones in your drum version?

Thomas

[windhorse]

They are generally played the opposite of what I did here. Lead shaker: "boom boom shika shika, –rest- boom shika shika"
and the high shaker does "shika shika boom boom, shika shika boom boom"

You get pretty much the same affect either way. IMO

[Thomas Altmann]

Yes, you wrote that - thanks.

I imagine, however, that a güiro ensemble would more or less mirror the drum parts. And one of the parts might have the low notes (the tumbao) at the end of the bar, as you notated on your chart. It could be on counts 3 & 4 or the 4 only. Then the high sounding gourd might play on 1 & 3 (all counted in cut time /alla breve), with some shaking in between. Your idea of alternating 1 & 2 with the "and" of 1 in the other bar reminds me of the basic solo part of the iyá, at least in the batá Iyesá toque. So couldn't it be all three rhythms together? I'm speaking of a Güiro type of event now, not your drum arrangement; so you would have 2-3 chékeres, a guataca and perhaps 1 conga drum.

Thomas