![]() They shot to world-fame when Ry Cooder recorded the seminal album Buena Vista Social Club, alongside several of the club’s regular patrons and musicians in 1997. So much so that its luminaries include a vast array of the most influential and important Cuban-style Latin musicians, such as Cachao Lopez and Ruben Gonzalez. This became a hotbed for Cuban musicians to play, develop and perform their craft. The Buena Vista Social Club was formed in Cuba, in the 1930s. Many of his songs have also been adopted into jazz and pop standard repertoire. Born in Rio de Janeiro in the 1920s, his songbook includes hundreds of titles, most famously ‘The Girl From Ipanema’, which is one of the most recorded songs of all time. One of the greatest exponents of purer forms of Latin music, particularly bossa nova songs, was the Brazilian songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim. ![]() Often these simply utilise the root and 5th of the chord. This creates a heart-beat style rhythm, uplifting and easy to dance to. A typical Latin bass-line in this style will emphasise the two half notes, with an ‘upbeat’ added. This means that, even if the music is written in 4/4 (four quarter-notes per bar), it is better to feel the music in 2/2 (two half-notes per bar). Again, we can show advanced improvisational skills easily here by shifting these triads up a semi-tone from the correct chord (creating harmonic tension) and back down again to resolve within the correct harmony.Īll instrumentalists, but especially bassists, should note the 2/2 feel for many Brazilian and simple-time variants of Latin music, particularly samba music. Think about taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a chord scale and using these together or in arpeggiated movements for melodies. Then you can resolve this by ending a phrase within the clave or partido alto.įor pianists and guitarists, whether accompanying or soloing, it is quite common to utilise block chords or simple triadic harmony. If you want to take the concept of rhythmic tension and release further, you could explore playing against the clave or partido alto rhythm to create ultimate rhythmic tension. Notice that the change-over happens in the middle of the bars, rather than the start or end. This shows you understand the underlying patterns. Good improvisers of all instruments should understand this way of creating rhythmic tension and release, with an ability to end phrases in the same places as the + or - beats. The rhythmic tension is resolved and ‘released’ by the on-beats, indicated by a ‘-‘ sign. In this graphic I have added a ‘+’ sign above the off-beat quavers which create tension. Amazingly, the only difference between the two is a shift in just one of the notes of the rhythm, by a quaver (in simple time) or triplet (in compound time). Here are a few examples.Ĭlave: This is known as the ‘keystone that holds the music together’ within Afro-Cuban styles and is usually either a ‘son’ clave or ‘rumba’ clave. A lot of these trends are common to several styles of Latin music – sometimes with minor changes – so even if you can’t identify the exact style immediately, you should be able to identify some of the features and improvise within these. On this note, it’s worth trying to get at least a basic grip on what some of the key trends are in different types of Latin music, how to identify these quickly and how to play within these traits. This might mean that you choose to prioritise rhythmic content, making simpler melodies and rhythms feel great, rather than performing complex lines or polyrhythms. ![]() It’s important to remember that whichever Latin style you are improvising in, it’s likely that the purpose of the music is to make people dance, so your playing should reflect this. The vast majority of Latin styles are intended as music for dancing, often featuring stylistically-specific rhythmic trends and ostinatos, such as ‘claves’ (a set rhythmic pattern or phrase around which the whole rhythmic structure of a piece is formed) or pre-determined call and response parts. Salsa, although developed by the Latin-American population more recently in the 1960s and 70s in New York City, is another popular style of Latin music. Some of these styles have roots as far back as the 16th Century, when European settlers arrived in South America. Some common examples of Latin styles are bossa nova, tango, samba and merengue. These styles sometimes also incorporate elements of African music, introduced by the slaves transported to and through the area. In this context, the term Latin refers to a large group of musical styles mostly originating from Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities in South America. By JJ Wheeler – musician, teacher and record producer ![]()
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