What type of drumming style is this???

[JohnnyConga]

The version of Descarga Cubana i think your reffering to is from the Cal Tjader album "SoulBurst" circa 1965. Patato also plays the "tres" guitar so his tuning on congas comes from that. Now Patato is not known as a Batalero and his style of playing is definetly his own. Though Candido started playing 3 drums before anybody, he played them straight across Patato plays all 4 to his right. Bata drumming has a lot to do with what we play today on congas. The original Descarga Cubana comes from the album with Cachao and Tata Guines which came out before Cal's version-"Cuban Jam Session in Miniatures" is the name of that famous album,it is now on CD....a su orden...JC JOHNNYCONGA....

[James McKaskle]

Guaguanco in question:

Tumba Open-O
Conga Open-C
Conga Slap-X

R L R L R L R L L R L L
O X C X C X O X X X X X

Traditional Guaguanco:

Tumba Open-O
Conga Open-C
Conga Slap-X
Heel-Tip (drop)-D
Tip-Heel-Tip-T

R L R L R L R L R L
O X C X C X O D X T

The first pattern is in 12/8 (or two bars of 6/8), like Lucumi liturgical music, Palo, Abakua, Columbia, Yambu, etc..., but guaguanco is traditionally in 4/4. Although, the traditional guaguanco you transcribed looks like it has 13 beats: 9/8 + 2/4, or 3/4 + 3/8 + 2/4, unless the O D is a triplet pattern, then it's in 12/8.

https://webspace.utexas.edu/shabadu/www/violao.html

[RayBoogie]

Hey James, hope all is well. Have you tried these two rhythms together going back and forth?

[Johnny Conga]

#### James ...I'm impressed. You've done your homework....JC JOHNNY CONGA...

[James McKaskle]

Doing my homework, but I've got years to go!

Hey, Ray. All is well.

This is a bembé pattern for 2 congas:
<tt>
c |X|_|X|_|X|X|_|X|_|X|_|X|
h |B|_|_|O|O|_|S|_|O|O|O|_|
l |O|_|O|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

c |X|_|X|_|X|X|_|X|_|X|_|X|
h |S|_|O|O|O|_|S|_|O|O|O|_|
l |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|O|
</tt>

C=clave, h=high, l=low, S=slap flam

Alternation of the left and right hands gives the 2 against 3 polyrhythm that sort of defines the bembé sound. You could also play the high conga pattern with one hand and the clave on the low with left hand. This is just one generic bembé. There are alot of Oru Seco rhythms for the different Òrìsàs. The fun in playing this is to come up with variations to add on the low drum.

[James M]

Yambu is in 4/4.

[kinoconga]

Rayboggie:

If the last five slaps on this phrase are quarter notes, whats the time for the first seven notes?

Is this a one bar phrase or a two bar phrase? In other words, whats the total number of quarter notes in this phrase?

Sincerely,

KinoConga

[kinoconga]

Whats the traditional tempo of guaguanco? Is the traditional tempo in the range of 160 to 180 bps or faster?

In practicing guaguanco to tumbao and back to guaguanco transitions today, I had some problems keeping a steady tempo, when coming out of the transitions.

If I try to slow the tempo below ~ 180 bps, guaguanco seems slow while the tumbao still feel ok.

As always, you input is appreciated.

Saludos,

KinoConga

[zaragemca]

The traditional Guaguanco is little faster of the Yambu,which later switched to a faster pattern( where the singer would show the capacity to do improvisations),in a Drumming Ensemble without singer, the feature would be the ability to articulate the solos.

[James M]

Thanks for the explanation. One of things most often missing when we talk about styles of music is the way they are connected to eachother regionally, in time, etc...

Is Yambu from Habana, Matanzas, some other area? Why is the Columbia called Columbia? I think I remember reading somewhere that it was named after a street or bus station where people would gather and dance to it?

[zaragemca]

All of them originally develop in Matanzas,but some percussionists developed their own styles,Columbia were kind of housing,reunion places.



Edited By zaragemca on 1081265366

[Johnny Conga]

What I know about Rumba Columbia is that it was created by the dock workers that would jam on their lunch hours on the docks out of Matanzas.-JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[zaragemca]

We could not say it was created in one specific place,or by one specific group of people, becouse the incorporation of all the patterns involved, are the syncronization of several African Cultures and something was put in here and something was put in there and also it took time to develop,I was growing up observing a lot of rumberos jamming every weekend,right at the house where I was living,and they would come out with differents way to do the same thing(according with the specific knowlege-skills-style of the players,the same thing would happened with the Comparsas,playing on a basic core, different groups would set-out the style-flavor which would be the characteristics of each group,and that by itself(individual characteristics) would keep evolving.



Edited By zaragemca on 1081466940

[Johnny Conga]

Well it is possible, it was because there were all kinds of individuals from different 'tribes' in Cuba,that played together and shared there"tribal" knowledge. so the possiblity is there. NO?.........Though the comparsas were something that grew out of community involvement and past histories. JC JOHNNY CONGA...

[gilbert]

Guaguanco in question:

Tumba Open-O
Conga Open-C
Conga Slap-X

R L R L R L R L L R L L
O X C X C X O X X X X X

Traditional Guaguanco:

Tumba Open-O
Conga Open-C
Conga Slap-X
Heel-Tip (drop)-D
Tip-Heel-Tip-T

R L R L R L R L R L
O X C X C X O D X T

The first pattern is in 12/8 (or two bars of 6/8), like Lucumi liturgical music, Palo, Abakua, Columbia, Yambu, etc..., but guaguanco is traditionally in 4/4. Although, the traditional guaguanco you transcribed looks like it has 13 beats: 9/8 + 2/4, or 3/4 + 3/8 + 2/4, unless the O D is a triplet pattern, then it's in 12/8.

https://webspace.utexas.edu/shabadu/www/violao.html

actually RayBoogie said that the last 5 slaps are quarter notes so i dont think its an 12/8 pattern its just a 4/4 signature (2 bars)