Thanks for posting that guys.
Regarding "Era una gran señora," David wrote:
• “Era una gran senora” (1955) by Alberto Zayas uses “clave Havana” (son clave). The segundo begins on the three-side... Interestingly, the segundo changes to the two-side at 0:18 and remains there for the rest of the song.
Not exactly true — it gets even more interesting!
Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this, but I hear not one segundo playing but two, tuned to different notes.
At around 0:18 they not only start playing on the two side, but also in the same place, similar to what occurs in certain versions of Abakuá.
(OT: I think even the intervals to which the drums are tuned would make for a nice-sounding Abakuá. Anyone else agree with that?
I find this Abakuá connection especially interesting because Gregorio Hernández "El Goyo" has a theory that rumba evolved predominately from the Abakuá (the salidor mimics certain drum patterns), and that the Abakuá were principally responsible for the popularization of rumba in Matanzas and Havana, as Abakuá members from one city would go to plantes in the other, and after the ceremonies would play rumba together. Goyo is admittedly an "abakuá-centric" source, but it seems plausible to me. This recording might be an illustrative example.)Then, at around 1:16 the segundo(s) return to the variation used in the beginning, BUT...
they stay on the two-side! Which, if there were just one note involved, would make it a "modern" Havana-style guaguancó.
But then, to make it even more interesting, at the beginning of the montuno (2:18), the clave player begins playing... "clave matanzas."
Rather than any sort of regional marker I think this clave was used to "ramp up" the energy level of the montuno, as that style basically imitates a palitos pattern (as I think someone else here mentioned).
Quickly running through the other tracks on this same recording (released on CD as "El Yambú de los Barrios") one can also hear: rumba clave played on a bell for a few bars at the beginning, then switching to son clave (in Dónde andabas anoche?); "clave matanzas" played on claves for a few bars, dropping out after the palitos come in ("A mi no me tocan campana, no"); Rumba clave played for one cycle, followed by a few cycles of son clave, then switching back to rumba clave for the rest of the song ("Consuelate como yo").
Another curious characteristic to note about these early recordings is that one is as likely to hear either claves OR palitos as much as one hears both.
So, one thing is for sure: at the time of these recordings, rumba was definitely in a "state of flux."