abakua

[davidpenalosa]

Some of my thoughts to comments made about bonko, quinto, guaguanco Matancero and guarapachangueo –

Ralph:
>>"I think yes the connection between the columbia and abakua are more evident in the quinto, and in the dance i would say... I can't recall where I’ve read this, but supposedly the ekon part replaced the son clave that was used primarily for rumba, although son clave is typically still used in yambu as we all have heard time and time again..."

Me:
That might have been me who said that about the ekon and son clave in this forum. A lot of abakua members worked on the docks of Matanzas and those docks are often cited as one of the birthplaces of rumba columbia.

I wish I could post Finale charts here, because I have some cool comparisons of bonko and quinto I’ve generated. I’ll just have to use this keyboard. If you convert the following "charts" to size 12 Courier font everything will properly align.

This archetypal bonko sample is also an archetypal quinto phrase:

||XoXooX|oXoXoo|| 6/8 rumba clave (ekon bell)
||oOoOoO|ooSooo|| bonko sample
||1+a2+a|3+a4+a|| main beats

o = rests
O = open tone
S = slap

Rhythmically speaking the Matanzas quinto "lock", like most other lead drum motifs, spans one cycle of clave. It’s basic melodic structure though, is a two-clave phrase. That’s because the tone-slap melody reverses with every clave. The first clave is tone-slap-tone and the second clave is slap-tone-slap. This melodic factor is one of the most significant elements distinguishing quinto from bonko. You can see that the following quinto sample is rhythmically identical to the previous bonko sample. The tone-slap melody alternately reverses though:

||XoXooX|oXoXoo|| 6/8 rumba clave
||oOoOoS|ooOooo| quinto sample (two-clave phrase)
|oSoOoO|ooSooo||
||1+a2+a|3+a4+a|| main beats

o = rests
O = open tone
S = slap

Abakua employs double-time subdivisions (dividing the main beats into six as well as three pulses), but it’s still solidly in 6/8. Rumba on the other hand is poly-metric; 6/8 and 4/4 exist simultaneously. One meter will be primary and the other secondary. In columbia 6/8 is primary and 4/4 is secondary, while in guaguanco 4/4 is primary and 6/8 is secondary.

While the previous sample of quinto in 6/8 can be played in any rumba, it’s more typical of Matanzas columbia. The following quinto sample is the same as the previous one, but in 4/4. This would be typical for Matanzas yambu and guaguanco:

||XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|| 4/4 rumba clave
||oOooOooS|oooOoooo| quinto sample (two-clave phrase)
|oSooOooO|oooSoooo||
||1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|| main beats

Besides the above-mentioned alternating tone-slap melody and oply-meter, there are of course other factors that distinguish bonko from quinto. One can usually tell within a few seconds if a drum is playing bonko or quinto phrases. Even if the same rhythmic patterns are used, the particular stylistic phrasing of each lead drum part is unique enough to distinguish it from the other. Also, bass tones are essential to bonko, but not quinto. Still, bonko and quinto share so much that their connection is undeniable.

Ralph:
>>"…w/ guarapachanguero where the chinitos family is the family that supposedly invented this form, although one could argue that los munequitos where doing this way before them.."

Guarachon :
>>" the Muñequitos with a style considered "looser" than Habana style, have never played guarapachangueo. The closest they have come maybe was on "Vale Todo" on 1995's "Vacunao" CD."

Jorge Ginorio:
>>"Under which style you will classify track two "Candela" on the attached link below?
Munequitos-Rumberos de Corazon
Feels like their own Guarapachangueo invention."

me:
I don’t know where I read this (I think in an on-line forum, perhaps this one), but somebody said that the Chinitos family’s guarapachangueo was inspired by the Muñequitos’ guaguanco inventos.

I know I’ve said this before in a forum (stop me if you’ve heard this - - true story…), I was playing rumba with Miguel Bernal from Havana and he called the tumba variations I was playing "guarapachangeo". I was using Muñequitos-based tumba variations and Miguel remarked that I was playing guarapachangeo. I tried to explain to him that they were actually Matancero variations, but he was insistent that it was guarapachangeo. Who was I to argue? You can hear a sample of Miguel’s arrangement of guarapachangueo at:

http://www.latincoolnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1561

In terms of quinto, I consider the Matanzas version to be the more structured and the Havana-style looser. As for the Matanzas tumba and segundo, the roots of the guarapachangeo-like inventos heard on "Candela" and "Vale Todo" can be traced back to "Los Beodos" (1953); the very first ’78 recorded by Los Muñequitos (then called Conjunto Guaguanco Matancero). By the way, you can hear a sample of this historical recording on itunes and download it for 99 cents if you wish.

Los Muñequitos’ tumba player in 1953 was Goyo, the same tumba player on "Vale Todo" (1995). We can hear Goyo’s ideas on "Los Beodos" as the basis for future tumba inventos.

"Los Beodos" tumba and segundo melody:

||XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|| 4/4 rumba clave
TM||MooBSSTo|SS0000TM|| tumba and segundo
||1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|| main beats

0 = rest
T = tumba open tone
M = tumba mute tone
B = bass tone on tumba
S = segundo open tone

The three consecutive strokes on the tumba (TMM) are on 4+, 4a and beat 1. This is the basic template that most of the great Matanzas inventos for the following four decades were built upon.

"Vale Todo" inverts or reverses this basic rhythmic motif by having the bass cajon play 2+, 2a and beat 3. In fact, at 5:31 the segundo flips the part as played on "Los Beodos" so that the two-drum rhythm is completely reversed.

"Vale Todo" at 5:31 –

||XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|| 4/4 rumba clave
||SS0000BB|B000SS00|| bass cajon and segundo
||1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|| main beats

B = bass cajon
S = segundo open tone

While "Vale Todo" reverses the standard motif, the bass cajon riff (2+, 2a and beat 3) can be considered a combination of the typical tumba (three-side) and the segundo. Here’s how those strokes may be divided between the tumba and segundo in the old-style Matanzas guaguanco:

||XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|| 4/4 rumba clave
||ooooooTS|SoooooTo|| tumba and segundo
||1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|| main beats

T = tumba open tone
S = segundo open tone

Guarapachangeo tends to be a two-clave drum melody. Here’s a version I learned:

||XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|XooXoooX|ooXoXooo|| 4/4 rumba clave
||TooTooBB|BooSoSoo|ooooooBB|BooSoSoo|| tumba and segundo
||1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|1e+a2e+a|3e+a4e+a|| main beats

T = tumba open tone
S = segundo open tone
B = tumba and segundo bass tone

To summarize; the bass tones on guarapachangeo and "Vale Todo" are in the same place. While this is the opposite position of the typical Matanzas tumba variation, it can be rationalized as replicating the strokes of the tumba and segundo.

Anybody still with me?

I imagine most Cuban folklorists would be amused by this analysis, or have a headache by now!
-David

[ralph]

Me:
That might have been me who said that about the ekon and son clave in this forum. A lot of abakua members worked on the docks of Matanzas and those docks are often cited as one of the birthplaces of rumba columbia.

I imagine most Cuban folklorists would be amused by this analysis, or have a headache by now!
-David

It is a wealth of info....David...i think overanalysis (not on your part) and the need to label have led us to say what is guarapachangueo/guarapachanguero, and what is not...

I really see is as a variation on rumba, sometimes the bass note plays on the 1 of the clave, sometimes on the bombo note, sometimes if plays a fill after the tres golpes and land on the one, sometimes the tres golpes is there, sometimes not...sometimes there is no tumba, sometimes there is cajon, conga, sometimes there is only a cajon and bongo (a la Ecue Tumba)...if someone asked what's guarapachangueo, i would tell him to listen to Pancho's "El En Solar El Cuevo Del Humo"...

I don't think guarapachangueo wants to be completely confined, it wants to breath, it wants to take on other characteristics, it wants to be difficult to label, because it is a composite of various things...i'm going off the deep end here...

[davidpenalosa]

I don't think guarapachangueo wants to be completely confined, it wants to breath, it wants to take on other characteristics, it wants to be difficult to label, because it is a composite of various things...i'm going off the deep end here...

Ralph,
I generally agree. However, the Cubans I've encountered have been consistent in defining the parts for guarapachangueo. Certainly Pancho Quinto and others took it to another level though, creatively expanding on the original idea.

Los Muñequitos continually built upon their original 1950's template, so that their revolutionary inventos of the 80's represents continuity. Another significant development of that decade was Afrocuba’s bata-rumba, which opened up rumba to bata and other transplanted African influences. Guarapachangueo became the rage in Havana in the 80’s and strikes me as a deliberate break from Havana guaguanco. It freed-up rumba in Havana like the Muñequitos and Afrocuba had done in Matanzas.

I don’t know if guarapachangueo is the term used to describe the contemporary rumba inventos by groups like Iroso Obba or Clave y Guaguanco. Nowadays rumba is extremely fluid and pliable.

Cuban folkloric teachers of course don’t use theory.
Analysis is typically limited in Afro-Cuban drumming to helping players properly orientate themselves. It’s mostly used as a practical tool, rather than a branch of music theory. My pet peeve is that a good portion of the conventional theory used by North American conga teachers is flawed, because of fundamental contradictions. Most of my posts in on-line forums are about that subject. Any time theory enters a discussion I usually jump in.
-David

[guarachon63]

Thanks for that great analysis David, that is a very valuable reference. (I knew we should have made this a new thread...)

Can you maybe take screen shots of the Finale pages? Or print them to pdf and convert to jpg?

I was playing rumba with Miguel Bernal from Havana and he called the tumba variations I was playing "guarapachangeo"...he was insistent that it was guarapachangeo. Who was I to argue?

I love stories like this... I don't know either of you but I can totally see it happening. This may be another instance of the looseness of terminology so common in Cuban music - where at the word "guarapachangueo" we tend to think of the part we learned, whereas he may be using it as kind of a shorthand way of saying "you're playing all fancy..."

[tamboricua]

David,

That was great! Thanks for taking the time to clarify all.

I'm interested in checking out those Finale charts, if you don't mind.

Saludos,

Jorge Ginorio

[davidpenalosa]

Can you maybe take screen shots of the Finale pages? Or print them to pdf and convert to jpg?

I can get it into TIFF format, but am not aware of any way to get it into JPEG form. The truth is, I don't understand the difference. My TIFFs will open with a JPEG program, but I can't post them here alas.
-David

[zaragenca]

To all the brother,I think that this subject was touched before,so you could do some research in the forum,but to make it clear, both,(the Cabildos Carabalies and the Guaguanco are from Habana and trasplanted to Matanzas,....(The Habana was founded long before Matanzas was given the proclamation to become City, and after that, was given the permission to bring blacks for the purpose of commercialization,and by that time there were already Cabildos in Habana....In the Guaguanco subject,before even being called Guaguanco it was called,Coros de Clave,and all the multiple articulations,and interaction between the differents percutive parts have not been developed by any single person,but through years of development, changes and modification which were taken places when groups of people would meet to challenge each other,(again,I still have the change to observe this which was still taking place where I was born), I also said that there were not just one style in Habana,different people developed different approaches to the soloing,(becouse you couldn't get to the top by imitating what somebody else did),....not in the 'Die Hard Rumba',neither in the Comparsa/competition,notbody told me this I observed this competition for years.Dr. Zaragemca

[82-1089072427]

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Edited By RumBa808 on 1168971963