Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

A place where discuss about secrets, tips and suggestions for practicing on congas and to improve your skill and technique ...

So if it's not a rhythm, why do they call it one?

Postby Miguel7 » Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:20 am

The other day I was watching El Gran Desifle de Navidad (the "Great Christmas Parade" in San Juan, Puerto Rico) and their percussionists played the rhythm that I know as a caballo. The closest thing I've ever heard on congas is merengue, but it was definitely not a merengue - it had cuatros and PR-style guiros, and a bongó playing martillo. I've heard that the a caballo rhythm is the same as martillo on bongos, so even though the congas played a merengue-like beat you could hear the similarity. But the music was jíbaro music, parranda music etc.

Now, it sounds to me like the history of the a caballo rhythm is similar to that of the congas as a whole: started somewhere in Africa (and I admittedly know nothing about African music lol) then made its way to Cuba, then throughout the Caribbean & US and eventually around the world. At some point the jíbaros apparently got into it and adapted it to Christmas music and guarachas (unless that rhythm was already in use in Cuban guarachas when PR started "jumping on the guaracha bandwagon" why back when). I can't think of any other explanation why it's used in so much Puerto Rican folkloric music.

But without a doubt "a caballo" is a rhythm, at least today. Teachers (both in videos like the one I mentioned earlier and people teaching congas on youtube) call it a rhythm, a pattern etc. It has also been called martillo on congas, and as a rhythm it's different from merengue. Some of the differences are obvious: more heel-tip beats where merengue just pauses, the last open tone is on the conga and not on the tumbadora (most of the time) and unlike the basic merengue pattern on congas it really does sound like a galloping horse (caballo). So, even if back then it started as a call-out like "hierro" (which BTW is very interesting), there's no doubt it's a rhythm in today's Latin music.
Miguel7
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:36 pm

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Anonimo » Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:02 pm

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR
Last edited by Anonimo on Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:14 am, edited 5 times in total.
Anonimo
 

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby congamyk » Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:25 pm

^ An older, sillier and (somehow) painfully more incoherent Dr Zaragemca "reincarnated" :roll:
congamyk
 
Posts: 1142
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2001 6:59 pm
Location: Vegas

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby davidpenalosa » Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:22 pm

congamyk wrote:Dr Zaragemca "reincarnated" :roll:


here we go again
User avatar
davidpenalosa
 
Posts: 1151
Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: CA

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby niallgregory » Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:33 pm

davidpenalosa wrote:
congamyk wrote:Dr Zaragemca "reincarnated" :roll:


here we go again


we do indeed :oops:
niall gregory
niallgregory
 
Posts: 610
Joined: Thu May 24, 2001 2:09 am
Location: ireland

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:10 am

This is what I was recently taught was A Caballo by some salseros I play with. They wanted me to play this rhythm during the C section and first repeat of H section for Ruben Blades song Sin Tu Carino. I am not 100% sure of the clave direction, but my guess is 2/3 as I've written it. Interestingly enough the chart in Latin Real book calls for "bomba" for those two sections.
Last edited by bongosnotbombs on Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
bongosnotbombs
 
Posts: 2865
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:17 am
Location: San Francisco, Ca

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Anonimo » Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:49 am

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR
Attachments
Conga Martillo.jpg
Conga Martillo.jpg (7.89 KiB) Viewed 6688 times
Anonimo
 

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Thomas Altmann » Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:33 am

Geordie,

you can always play your own arrangement of a given tune; but originally the part in "Sin tu cariño" is indeed Bomba.

Cuco has provided us with the correct "A Caballo" pattern for one conga drum. Most people should be familiar with this pattern, I think. I play a finger stroke on 4+ because I don't want to hear a bass note there, but that's my personal style. Cuco's example is the original.

If you wanted to play the pattern on two congas, you may want to place the ponche (heavy tone on 4) on the hembra. This way you are free to play a double downbeat every two bars on the macho as you notated. However, the rest stays the same. I'm afraid you transcribed it wrong: The bass note stays on the 2+ (bombo) in each bar, and the ponche has to be maintained, too. Doublecheck that.

Changuito has taught me a version where he plays the first of the double downbeat strokes on the hembra, the second on the macho. The ponche (4) preceding this downbeat he puts on the hembra, the other ponche on the macho.

In my experience, I found that the open tones on the downbeat do indeed fall on the 3-side of the clave, other than the contemporary segunda placement we know from rumba. David, have you ever researched this?

I'd like to add also that there is a way of playing a kind of a slow Caballo movement in Cha-Cha-Chá numbers, as played by the congueros in the former Conjunto Rumbavana. Rolando Sigler did it, and I don't remember whether Yoel had done it, too. It's a one-bar pattern, albeit with changing variations in the 1+ position.

Thomas

P.S. re "the Zaragemca Syndrome": It has indeed become awkward and arduous to post on this forum, and as a matter of fact, I thought about leaving the thread as it was, so what. I don't need to offer my information, period. My arena is somewhere else, anyway; there is life outside the internet. At the end I decided that, as long as I'm still in this forum, I am not going to abandon anyone in the dark subterranean kingdom of barely literate bochinche. (No, Dario, I don't think that this "virtue" is exclusively a feature of cubanismo.) Should I ever leave the forum, however, I admit that wouldn't really miss this ever dormant streetgang feeling. I drew back the latinjazz forum because of that. It's still a pain to read for me, and impossible to write.

P.P.S: In other words, Cuco, make up your communication manners, if you can! Don't put anything in my mouth that I did not say. Keep to the facts. Focus on information instead of struggling for patronizing superiority; because that's an abuse of this medium. It is no secret that your writing is not always exactly academic, but please have at least the courtesy to read carefully what others say before you comment. That's simply a matter of respect. -TA
Thomas Altmann
 
Posts: 897
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:25 pm
Location: Hamburg

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Anonimo » Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:40 pm

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR
Last edited by Anonimo on Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Anonimo
 

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby bongosnotbombs » Thu Dec 30, 2010 3:43 pm

Reviewing my previous post, I realize I did accidentally put the open note for the conga in the wrong place in the first measure of the transcription. Apologies. The corrected rhythm should look like this. The open note on the conga is indeed supposed to be played in the same place for both measures. Pardon my mistake.

Regarding the Real book and Sin Tu Carino, when I played the bomba pattern, the guys I played with just didn't like it so they kept saying "A Caballo". None of them were congueros, I had never seen or been taught a caballo, so it wasn't until another conguero sat in with our practice and played congas for this song in the rehearsal, with me on bongos that I learned it, or tried to pick it up. Of course I remember the hembra strike occurring at the same time as the tumba stroke. It is possible also that the H actually was played on the 2&, and not the 2 as I previously notated. We play this tune at a pretty fast cadence. Indeed, at the pace we play this song, I just might stick to this more simplified version without so much manoteo. However I'm glad to be able to review my memory of the rhythm here on the forum and make corrections.
Attachments
A Caballo.jpg
Last edited by bongosnotbombs on Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
bongosnotbombs
 
Posts: 2865
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:17 am
Location: San Francisco, Ca

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby davidpenalosa » Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:05 pm

Thomas Altmann wrote:In my experience, I found that the open tones on the downbeat do indeed fall on the 3-side of the clave, other than the contemporary segunda placement we know from rumba. David, have you ever researched this?


Are you speaking of a caballo only?

Thomas, I hope that you don't leave this forum. I always enjoy reading your posts.
-Davied
User avatar
davidpenalosa
 
Posts: 1151
Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 6:44 pm
Location: CA

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Anonimo » Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:07 pm

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR
Anonimo
 

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby Thomas Altmann » Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:41 pm

@David:

Are you speaking of a caballo only?

Yes.

Thomas, I hope that you don't leave this forum.

No. I would only leave if I felt that the majority of the members were getting funny.

@Cuco:

You put something in my mouth by protesting: "You are totally wrong in what you are saying there is no rhythm of a caballo none what so ever ." I have never said that there wasn't such a rhythm. All I said was that I don't know any other name but "A Caballo".

As a matter of fact, you did not correct me at all. I said that "the new dance became a craze in the 1960s", which you could not deny, because Belisario and Fajardo came to the States from 1960 on. All you added was that Davidson had a show in Cuba before 1959, which (1) is to be verified and (2) does not necessarily mean that he promoted his new dance in this show before 1959.

You were the one who was wrong when you said: "A Caballo is not a Rhythm it's just a phrase the rhythm that is played when the Caballo is ask for is Pachanga ." You were wrong when you said: "This is a fifty's thing and inventor is Edwardo Davison of dance and rhythm no Africans none of what you are talking about", as David and I have proved - provided I interpreted this "sentence" the way you meant it.

What is worse, you are successfully forcing me to explain what lies obvious right before your eyes. That's what makes posting on this forum tiresome. It's no fun to post something reasonable only to be patronized without the least justification. And I remember it had happened before. And it happened again when you responded to David: "A Caballo pattern has nothing to do with generic's ''genus, class, group, or kind; general ". He never said that. He defined the term "generic", not the "A Caballo" pattern.

This is the last time I make any effort to negotiate between my idea of communication and your practice of keeping your head and shoulders above anybody else around. You would considerably increase your popularity, if you kept your knowledge and experience above your ego.

Thomas
Thomas Altmann
 
Posts: 897
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:25 pm
Location: Hamburg

Sorry for asking... =P lol j/k

Postby Miguel7 » Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:52 pm

Well one thing I've learned from all this is that the history of the rhythm is heatedly debated (an in my opinion unnecessarily). It sounds like has been and is still used in a variety of ways. I found the connection to Pambiche merengue very interesting, because they definitely are similar (and yes I know what that is, and I know what "a caballo" means, lol). I thought it was interesting that the rhythm was used to mimic the sound of a horse trot in old movies. What I didn't like was all the insults. I didn't meant o cause trouble on this forum and I apologize if I did.

But since we've been a little off-topic (talking about bomba and clave and specific songs) I wanted to ask if any of you can tell me about bomba - NOT the history (lol) but rather how it is played. I've heard it's played by more than one drummer (and technically not on congas) but then there are songs where the rhythm is played by just one conguero. So, does anyone know how the rhythm is played on 2-3 congas? Thanks in advance :)
Miguel7
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:36 pm

Re: Where is the "a caballo" rhythm from?

Postby niallgregory » Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:08 am

There are lots of people on here who can explain Bomba better than i can , here is some stuff easily found of the web .

" The instruments of a bomba group consists of two drums, a cua and one maraca. The two types of bomba drums,the buleador and subidor, were traditionally made from rum, nail or lard barrels. The bomba drums, shorter and wider than the more well known conga drums, have a deeper, fuller sound. The buleador, the larger drum, has a low bass tone and maintains the fundamental, constant rhythm throughout the dance. The subidor, the smaller drum, has a higher pitch and used for the improvisational rhythms that emerge in response to the dancers’ movements "

There a lots of different Bomba rhythms eg Holandes , sica , yuba etc .Different places like Loiza and santurce have there own styles and there and ways of playing things . Some great recordings are available from groups like paracumbe , los pleneros de la 21 , Hermanos ayala etc . some youtube stuff to check out .

Heres a vid of a bomba class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4fK7nNSWYE

Cepeda family http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1AdJ-kED6A

Loiza 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdITIp26BYI
niall gregory
niallgregory
 
Posts: 610
Joined: Thu May 24, 2001 2:09 am
Location: ireland

PreviousNext

Return to Congas Technique, Rhythms and Exercises

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests