Chtimulato wrote:Hello everybody.
I agree with every suggestion above. All these records/artists are very good to play along.
I may suggest also you use an app on a smartphone or a tablet if you want to practice slowly. I use Android, but I think it can also be used on iOS.
I suggest these, which are all affordable.
I also enjoy Rubén Blades, Willie Colon and Los Van Van.
It makes sense that they would be working from written arrangements.
Thomas Altmann wrote:Hi Faniatic,I also enjoy Rubén Blades, Willie Colon and Los Van Van.
Of these, Los Van Van is the only Cuban band. Oddly enough, it is exactly the most problematic band in terms of clave. After the Cuban revolution there was a trend among some Cuban musicians to "free" themselves from the "dogma of clave". Juan Formell was a Beatles fan, Changuito dug Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer Bobby Colomby. The music of Los Van Van is Cuban pop music. Clave is there, but you can almost bet that the clave flow will be interrupted at one point or another. You can hear crossed clave with a lot of Cuban bands, like Irakere, and you could go as far back as to the Sexteto Habanero or the Trio Matamoros. I must admit that I like most of this music anyway, but there is one Los Van Van record that I can't even listen to. While we should perhaps re-think the clave concept in Cuban music in general, and relax a bit, I still don't find this clave treatment ideal. Also remember that the music of Los Van Van is by definition Songo (meaning the style, not a particular rhythm); they were the ones who created it. It's definitely not Salsa.
It makes sense that they would be working from written arrangements.
I had the chance of meeting one of the leading Salsa timbaleros of all time, who cut some of the most pivotal Salsa recordings in history, and was surprised to learn that he could apparently not read music. I suppose he wasn't a singular case. He probably just played pick-ups when a cue was given, and whenever he guessed the phrasing of an ensemble figure, he hit it on trial & error basis. You know how that sounds. Anyway, we must recognize that there are musicians who can do it all just by ear. And before recordings or concert tours you usually have rehearsals.
Talking about myself, I have never been a great reader to this day. But the more I got into the professional field, I felt the absolute need to practice it. Writing out my own charts, especially for timbales, and then playing from them, was a good way to learn. I also decided I wasn't going to learn the 1000 arrangements that I'd be playing in my lifetime by heart. It just doesn't look cool for a Salsa band to have percussionists reading their parts on stage. I could imagine that in the top Salsa acts you are supposed to perform without written music and learn the stuff.
Thomas
May I ask, do you currently play in an ensemble?
I do intend to work back and study the Cuban roots of the style. I will search out earlier recordings to practice with where the musicians are clearly playing in clave, especially charanga and danzón, as you recommended.
Thomas Altmann wrote:Hi Faniatic,May I ask, do you currently play in an ensemble?
No, I'm sitting in my practice room, playing congas and batá for myself. Before Corona, I played mostly drumset in New Orleans- and Swing bands and miscellaneous percussion in Fusion bands (not the 1970s' Fusion). The times when I played just bongos, timbales or congas in Salsa or Latin Jazz bands seem to be gone, which is sad, to be honest. As I'm formally retired now, I can afford to do my own thing anyway, without applying for gigs that happen to correspond to the tastes of a broader audience.
Before Corona, there had also been plans to finally form a Latin ensemble at the Hamburg Conservatory ("Hochschule für Musik und Theater") that I would direct. No idea whether this will ever materialize.
Aside from that, I have currently more time to write comments in newsgroups
Here are two examples of me playing percussion in the Fusion projects of pianist Lorenz Boesche:
I do intend to work back and study the Cuban roots of the style. I will search out earlier recordings to practice with where the musicians are clearly playing in clave, especially charanga and danzón, as you recommended.
Charanga is important to study in order to learn about the tradition of the timbales as an instrument.
The home of clave, however, is conjunto music, starting with Arsenio Rodríguez. I recommend Chappottín y sus Estrellas, like this one:
https://www.discogs.com/de/Chappottin-Y ... se/2954387. You might try to find some of the titles on YT.
Traditionally, conjuntos didn't have timbales, only bongos and one tumbadora (plus claves and maracas). You could play timbales along, but 1) the sound is not up to today's standards, and 2) at least my ears wouldn't want to hear any timbales in this style. Maybe the SAR productions that Siete Leguas recommended come close to that tradition. I haven't listened to the recordings yet.
Greetings,
Thomas
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