by Thomas Altmann » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:15 am
Honestly, I was a bit reluctant to respond; at least I did not want to be the first (again), because I know we have other knowledgeable batá players in the forum, and I cannot imagine what should qualify me as the speaker. As a matter of fact, I feel a bit insecure on the batá at the moment, because I never play! I am practicing a lot and work to keep the repertory alive; however, I know exactly that playing the batá is a group affair, and that's what I am missing for years. It's my own fault, though: I don't want to play with anybody. I can teach "anybody", and if can I see that someone has the talent and the dedication, then I might open up the relationship a bit. Just fooling around on the batá with some djembe or conga player has become a thing of the past; it bores me.
The so-called rumbitas are the bread-and-butter toques of any tambor, and at the same time they are the rhythms that find the most widespread application in dance- or jazz bands. They are actually two-bar-, clave-oriented "rhythms", in the same sense as Son or Guaguancó, and most of the Latin dance rhythms. So they are fun to play, also for beginners.
When I accept batá students, I always start teaching the rumbitas for several reasons. They are versatile, they are motivating, they are easy to memorize, and they remain religiously unproblematic. They are not easy to play, however, neither technically nor rhythmically, and they have tons of conversations between the iyá and the itótele! You can easily spend a year on them until they really groove, until the articulation is there, and until all the conversations are in place. By the time I get to the oru seco, I know that the person is ready. Even then, I found that people used to disembark especially after Ageré Ochosi or after Osain.
"Open form" does not really apply to batá drumming. First off, the toques are what they are and what they are supposed to be; there is no reason to re-invent them, period. This is equally true for the rumbitas. On the other hand, however, we can see that nowadays all the toques seem to be opened up, especially in the hands of the Timba/Guarapachangueo generation. Already Fernando Ortíz lamented that "today santería music is often played 'with some rumba touch'", and for Ortíz "today" was in 1956!
I think it's safe to say that Ñongo and Chachálokafún are the most "open" toques batá as far as variations, inventos and conversations are concerned. Ñongo in particular is often abstracted to the degree of (collective) improvisation today; BUT there exists some sort of stylistic and musical framework, a certain territory which is not left. Sometimes passages or conversations from other toques are slipped into Ñongo, but in order to play with these devices, you have to know these other toques first. In a way, Ñongo may well be the most difficult toque of all, because it takes all your musicality, your knowledge of the batá repertory, plus a thorough understanding of general manners in Cuban musical practice.
Even in Rumba, the improvisational space for each part is stylistically limited, although the hardcore rumberos would never sense this limitation as a restriction. You cannot ruin the dance, and you cannot ruin the toque. There is room for innovation, but the freedom is socially negotiated, first and foremost with the participants. By the same token, what you do as a batá player has to be conceived and measured in conjunction with the other drum parts, the song, the dance, and the respective ritual situation.
A Jazz type of improvisation would be far out of batá playing conventions; in fact, it would not work for any Latin music tradition. That said, no one can prevent you from expressing yourself creatively and artistically on any instrument you may choose. It is only when you pretend to play a specific toque, a specific style or type of music, that you must take certain patterns into consideration and better study the material you are about to perform. This will mark the maturing from carefree chatting to literacy.
By the way, even in Jazz you have to stick to chord changes and form and build your solo in a meaningful manner.
Thomas