congaplace.com

The Toque where the Caja marks clave and has the tone on the Bombo, and where the okonkolo marks clave with tones.. They use it for Elewa Nado etc..

Does anyone know where it originates from, and if songs like Elewa nado can be sung to different toques. I've been singing Elewa Nado to Latopa and have been transitioning into the arara toque when I start sing Jegan jegan Jegan so... Is this a sacralidge?

Just kidding , but does anyone have a take on this, and what can and cannot be done?
Thanks

Where's Thomas A when you need him ..

I'm awfully sorry, elrayo, but there's a reason for me not to respond: I don't know the answer! Arará songs are my blind spot.

For instance, I haven't heard "Elegua nado" with the toque Arará so far. Some of the Arará songs don't call for this toque. Some call for Yegua, some for Aketeoba. Where did you hear this song with toque Arará?

"Jegan Jegan" is for Asoyin (Babalú Ayé), as far as I know, not Elegua.

The chachá of the iyá does not necessarily mark the clave; the okónkolo does. The okónkolo pattern is directly taken from the original Arará cachimbo drum. I can't even tell you which cabildo (Sabalú, Dahomé etc.) it belongs to.

Thomas

Thomas , I didn't think you had any blind spots? You da man !

Thanks for getting back to me..
I heard Elewa Nado with the Arara toque I described on one of the Abbilona cd's where they go through a whole string of Arara songs for Afra ( Eleggua )..
The Iya pattern I play is the way Carlos Aldama teaches it.. s.o..s|.s.s.s
The okonkolo goes oso..o|so.T..
As far as "Jegan Jegan".. I'm sure it's for Eleggua ( Afra ). There is even a verse that goes "Afra jegan , sara jegan , jegan , jegan jegan so"...

I stumbled on singing Elewa Nado with the short bell pattern.. There is a family named Baro in jovellanos that sings Elewanado to a toque called Mahino.. I learned Mahino from John Amira.
It's played on Arara drums and uses the short bell pattern instead of the 2 clave long one used on the toque asojano, which is what it is sung too in almost every instance of heard it..
Anyway in singing it to the short bell, I started playing Latopa , and it feels great over it.. I'm just wondering if one who is very traditional and sort of a purist might take that kind of liberty?? What do you think about that?
Thanks , Always great hearing from you..

You see, I was wrong with "Jegan Jegan"! I was still thinking about it when I was in bed. I think I confused it with some other song.

Thanks for mentioning the Abbilona recording. I have to listen it over again.

As to your point of exchanging toques for the accompaniment of a song, I think the word "sacrilege" does not describe the issue properly. I have heard musicians state clearly that the song x goes with toque y, period. There are some songs that offer different options, but there again the hardliners insist that some of these options are simply the wrong choice. Lázaro Pedroso said that "Ayiloda ya o ku o" goes with Oyá por derecho; in his opinion, the choice of Tui Tui is not traditional and therefore basically incorrect. The broadest range and option by default seems to be Ñongo/Chachálokpafún. But there are also songs that must go with Ñongo and nothing else. Bolaño says that "Iborere o" for Yemayá must be played with Ñongo, although it is very often accompanied with Toque Aggayú, which he finds wrong.

With this in mind, I am usually happy when I find a reliable source that tells me what fits, and I stick to that. In the field of ritual music, my intention is less to be utterly creative, but rather to play what has to be played in the way it should be, and know the range of variability, and this even more as I am not inside the tambor business (and community) on a daily basis. It's not about committing a sacrilege, it's about either keeping the drum seat for a while or being replaced very soon by a more knowledgeable drummer (on a tambor). And that's the way how guys learn.

Sincerely,

(Not-) Know-It-All (Thomas)

Thanks Thomas..

I hear ya, and agree 100% .. You play what you is approporiate with the crew you are playing with when it concerns ceromony.. I was actualy coming at
it more secularly though.. I'm doing some performances with my crew and they secular performances. I want to stretch out a little on some recording projects as well. I'm trying to get some feedback as I wouldn't want any negative reaction to trying some new things and breaking the norm.. But , I guess that's the chance you take when you try something new..
Thanks again!

Luca Brandoli made a nice recording of "Elegua nado" with the Arara toque on bata. It has that "and-one" "and-three" "and-one" "and-three" beat sequence that often accompanies Arara songs; some of the sweetest songs in the Afro-Cuban repertoire. The recording I'm talking about is from his "Cantos Afrocubanos Elegua" Vol. 3 - Elegua46

Thank you Dave,

if it is accompanied only by these beats, this is also done on Lázaro Ros' Arara record. Usually handclaps, I think.

Thomas

Yes, but I'm referring to the sound the bata make that mimics the handclapping.

I stopped purchasing any expensive material past the 1st Brandoli series. I have piled up tons of footage so far, and enough is enough.

So he has arrived at vol. 3, meanwhile. Nice business. (Never mind.)

I would rather like to actually play some batá again, after all these years ... but I've probably become kind of picky about players, so it's my own fault in a way.

Would you send me an excerpt as mp3-file to arugbo@googlemail.com, so I get an idea of it? - Only if it's not too much effort for you! Or where can I hear it?

Thomas

Just sent it to you Thomas..
I’ve got a pattern written out in Gary Greenberg's "Bata Drumming" for the Arara toque as the original poster suggested with Okonkolo playing clave on enu, and Iya playing open tone on the second clave strike.
However with the Itotele playing a slap and muffed tone on the one and three, and also tones on the “ands” before the one and three, you get the necessary ingredients for the Arara slap sequence to be mimicked.

I looked through my work from this past summer in Cuba and I do have a transcription of Arara from Papo Angarica's lineage.

Okonkolo plays clave on the enu; iya plays the enu on the bombo, and a cha cha on the ponche and second note of the "2" side (in 6/8 clave). If needed, I've got a transcription.