guarachon63 wrote:Offhand, based on my memories of recordings (and not local practices) I would say that the "long clave" (to coin a term - I'm referring the 7-note one called "Matanzas Yambú Clave" in the video) is indeed commonly used in Matanzas for yambú.
Some exceptions though that come to mind are "Congo Yambumba" and "El Kikirikí" on the Muñequitos' "Congo Yambumba" album, which are listed in the notes as yambús and use rumba clave, though they are only moderately slower than the guaguancós on that album.
On the other hand, I can't recall hearing the "long clave" in a yambú of any havana-based group, though it come up quite a bit in early rumba recordings (at faster tempos in both guaguancós and columbias) and you can hear it in columbias in more modern recordings (I think the ones on "Rapsodia Rumbera."
In my personal experience I once (mid-1990's) played the long clave during a workshop on yambú with a famous rumbero in Havana and he looked at me like I was crazy, saying he had never heard that played in a yambú before.
Havana groups seem to use both son clave and rumba clave in yambus. Rumba clave has been used in yambu by havana-based groups Afrekete, Carlos Embale, and Oba-Ilu.
For me it is really up to the players to decide how they want to do it, and if the song is a yambú (but it doesn't have to be) , and if the tempo is slow enough (but it doesn't have to be), then it's pretty safe to call it a yambú in my book.
The only thing I know for sure is "en el yambú no se vacuna"!
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