How hard is it to play around in some Latin Music

[zephonic]

That's a good one to get the basic feel down, although I'd prefer to play the right hand on the fifth/sixth for more pleasant harmonic colors.

[Theo Verelst]

I've performed Latin before, like decades ago already, I'm not new to it, but it's nice music and some good examples here!

 

I don't think I'd master a neat performance of a well known Southern American orchestra, unless I'd go into my full Jazz acquisition mode and be allowed to improvise, there's I'm sure thousands of things I wouldn't "get" about all kinds of patterns, details, instrument cues, and the "feel" of a different continent's people may be not easy to even understand, let alone play along with.

 

T.

[uhoh7]

Thanks you guys for the input. I knew nothing about Latin Piano before last fall, except I liked "la bamba", and have tortured those notes for decades.

 

Now I'm at the stage where I know there's such a thing as clave... one bang bang four bang two and bang three bang one etc, and that this is very old and seen in music all over africa and brazil. It jumps back and forth between latin america and africa, literally.

 

Machito and his Afro-Cuban all stars brought it to the poly-rhythm starved USA and Tito Puente picked it up and really ran. It was in those bands the idea of a 2-3 or 3-2 clave got going. There is no such idea anywhere else. Clave is clave in Cuba, Brazil and Africa.

 

It's kinda like "modes". The originals never thought about church modes in jazz. Now everybody demands I know dorian etc.

 

The clave is obvious....or simply implied. But regardless it's the law. Except for the "tumbao" which ignores the clave often, it's the left hand in my example above. In 4/4 it's only two notes..."and of 2" then 4.

 

Then there is the Montuno, which you see in the right hand above. It does lock with the clave. Notated in 4/4 two bars the two side of the clave always has the accented "one" of the montuno and then the "2 + 2 and" which sets up the syncopation to follow.

 

The montuno was first played with a very old guitar called the "tres", and only in the 40s or later did the piano take it's place. The tres is a 6 string but with pairs, so if you don't look close it looks like a three string. It is not strumed, but used for single notes like the piano basically. (I know we are hitting various combos, but they appear as a stacato "note")

 

The Tres is a real cult instrument today, widely revered. It's the national instrument of Cuba. Many forms including electric.

 

This is pretty good intro:

[video:youtube]

 

The orignal Piano montunos which appeared on records in the 50s are now cliches like the classic left hand boogie woogie bass lines. They still sound great if you have not been over exposed.

 

In this early stage of piano montunos there was a real cross-over with Be-Bop, and Parker claimed Machito was a big influence on him. When you dig around in that time period you find some interesting stuff, some where the mix is seemless, other cuts where the mezcla is very artifical.

 

Moving into the 60's and 70's the piano montunos really begin to vary, even to the point of "hookness". The tension between clave law and improv can be remarkable. While Salsa evolved in NYC, a more organic "timba" came into being as a reaction in the now isolated island.

 

I'm starting with the oldest because its simpler. I put the drum machine into a real basic 4/4. The montunos alone are not super hard, except at speed, but keeping synced with the clave is the mountain to climb.

 

Once I'm a bit better with a tumboa in my left hand, under simple montunos, I will switch to a clave rhythum in my left hand. Then I want to add the Tumboa back with my 18 note bass pedals, and see if I can keep all three going.

 

After that I think the clave syncing will get easier.