Afro-Cuban jazz

Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and

“Spanish tinge”—the Cuban influence in early jazz#

Although clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-20th century, the Cuban influence was present at the birth of jazz. African-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the 19th century when the habanera gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as “congo” can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans took the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera took root. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera “reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published”. For more than a quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime, and jazz were forming, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. “St. Louis Blues” (1914) by W. C. Handy has a habanera/tresillo bass line. The first measures are shown below. Handy noted a reaction to the habanera rhythm included in Will H. Tyler’s “Maori”: “I observed that there was a sudden, proud and graceful reaction to the rhythm…White dancers, as I had observed them, took the number in stride. I began to suspect that there was something Negroid in that beat.” After noting a similar reaction to the same rhythm in “La Paloma”, Handy included this rhythm in his “St. Louis Blues,” the instrumental copy of “Memphis Blues,” the chorus of “Beale Street Blues,” and other compositions." Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. Morton stated, “Now in one of my earliest tunes, ‘New Orleans Blues’, you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz—Morton (1938: Library of Congress Recording).” An excerpt of “New Orleans Blues” is shown below. In the excerpt, the left hand plays the tresillo rhythm, while the right hand plays variations on cinquillo. Although the origin of jazz syncopation may never be known, there’s evidence that the habanera/tresillo existed at its conception. Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a habanera-based pattern. The big four (below) was the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. In Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, Gunther Schuller states, The Cuban influence is evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes, but rhythmically they are all based on single-celled motifs such as tresillo, and do not contain an overt two-celled, clave-based structure. “Caravan”, written by Juan Tizol and first performed in 1936, is an example of an early pre-Latin jazz composition. It is not clave-based. On the other hand, jazzy renditions of Don Azpiazú’s “The Peanut Vendor” (“El manicero”) by Louis Armstrong (1930), Duke Ellington (1931), and Stan Kenton (1948), are all firmly in-clave since the 2-3 guajeo provides the primary counterpoint to the melody throughout the entire song.

Mario Bauzá and Machito#

The consensus among musicians and musicologists is that the first jazz piece to be based in-clave was “Tanga” (1943) composed by Cuban-born Mario Bauza and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans. “Tanga” began humbly as a spontaneous descarga (Cuban jam session) with jazz solos superimposed on top. The right hand of the “Tanga” piano guajeo is in the style known as ponchando, a type of non-arpeggiated guajeo using block chords. The sequence of attack-points is emphasized, rather than a sequence of different pitches. As a form of accompaniment it can be played in a strictly repetitive fashion or as a varied motif akin to jazz comping. The following example is in the style of a 1949 recording by Machito, with René Hernández on piano.

Ten innovations by Machito’s Afro-Cubans#

Written by Bobby Sanabria, published on November 28, 2007 on a blog called latinjazz@yahoogroups # The first band to make congas, bongo, and timbales the standard percussion in Afro-Cuban based dance music. The use of broken bell patterns by the bongocero in mambo horn sections, the increased rhythmic vocabulary of the conga drum and its function in a band setting, the increased importance of the timbales in setting up figures played by the horns and accenting them as a jazz drummer would do in a big band. e.g. “Nagüe,” also the first recorded example of all three percussion instruments playing as a section. # The first band to explore jazz arranging techniques with Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis, giving it an identifiable sound. Cuban big band arranger Chico O’Farill stated, “This was a new concept in interpreting Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers.” # The first band to explore modal harmony from a jazz arranging perspective through the recording of “Tanga”. Of note is the ‘sheet of sound’ effect in the arrangement through the use of multiple layering. # The first big band to explore, from an Afro-Cuban rhythmic perspective, large-scale extended compositional works. e.g. “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite” by Chico O’Farill. # The first band to combine big band arranging techniques within an original composition with jazz oriented soloists using an Afro-Cuban based rhythm section, e.g. Gene Johnson – alto, Brew Moore – tenor, composition – “Tanga” (1943). # The first multi-racial band in the United States. # The first band in the United States to use the term “Afro-Cuban” in its name (Machito & The Afro-Cubans), alluding to the West African roots of their music. This was an overlooked contribution by the orchestra to the burgeoning civil rights movement which compelled the Latin and African-American communities of New York to deal with their West African musical roots. # The first Afro-Cuban dance band to explore clave conterpoint from an arranging standpoint. The ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement. # Music director Mario Bauzá and lead vocalist Machito promoted a standard of excellence for subsequent band leaders, such as José Curbelo, Tito Puente, Marcelino Guerra, Tito Rodriguez, and Elmo Garcia. Although it could be argued that Xavier Cugat established such a standard much earlier with his orchestra at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel (1931), the sound emulated by bandleaders in New York City was different from Cugat’s. Cugat performed for the high society of New York City, not the Latino community in East Harlem (El Barrio) and the South Bronx. Cugat’s music was one they may have heard on the radio, but this community had little access to it. # The Machito Afro-Cubans provided a forum for progressive musical ideas, compositions, and arrangements. They explored the fusion of Afro Cuban music with jazz arranging and jazz-oriented soloists in a multiracial framework. Bauzá developed the 3-2/2-3 clave concept and terminology. A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. When the progression begins on the three-side, the song or song section is said to be in 3-2 clave. When the chord progression begins on the two-side, it is in 2-3 clave. When clave is written in two measures (above), changing from one clave sequence to the other is a matter of reversing the order of the measures. Bauzá balanced Latin and jazz musicians in Machito’s band to realize his vision of Afro-Cuban jazz. He mastered both types of music, but it took time for him to teach the jazz musicians in Machito’s band about clave. When trumpeter Doc Cheatham joined the band, Machito fired him after two nights because he could not cope with clave.

Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo#

Mario Bauzá introduced bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie to the Cuban conga drummer, dancer, composer, and choreographer Chano Pozo. The brief collaboration of Gillespie and Pozo produced some of the most enduring Afro-Cuban jazz standards. “Manteca” (1947), co-written by Gillespie and Pozo, is the first jazz standard to be rhythmically based on clave. According to Gillespie, Pozo composed the layered, contrapuntal guajeos (Afro-Cuban ostinatos) of the A section and the introduction, while Gillespie wrote the bridge. Gillespie recounted: “If I’d let it go like Chano wanted it, it would’ve been strictly Afro-Cuban, all the way. There wouldn’t have been a bridge…. I … thought I was writing an eight-bar bridge. But after eight bars I hadn’t resolved back to B-flat, so I had to keep on going and ended up writing a sixteen-bar bridge.” The rhythm of the melody of the A section is identical to a common mambo bell pattern:

1940s –1970s#

In early 1947 Stan Kenton recorded “Machito,” written by his collaborator / arranger Pete Rugolo. Some consider the piece to be the first Afro-Cuban jazz recording by American jazz musicians. John Storm Roberts observes that the piece “has no Latino instrumentalists on it, a lack of that is obvious; the crisp, fast montuno with which the piece opens is weighed down by not-so-adept drumming from Shelly Mann.” “Afro Blue” was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2) cross-rhythm, or hemiola. The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of , or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato “Afro Blue” bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to “keep time.” In the mid-1940s, the mambo craze originated with the recordings of Perez Prado, who included jazz elements, and ideas from Stravinsky in his arrangements. Guajeos (Afro-Cuban ostinato melodies), or guajeo fragments are commonly used motifs in Latin jazz melodies. For example, the A section of “Sabor” is a 2-3 onbeat/offbeat guajeo, minus some notes. The following excerpt is from a performance by Cal Tjader.

1980s New York City#

Afro-Cuban jazz has been for most of its history a matter of superimposing jazz phrasing over Cuban rhythms. In the 1980s a generation of New York City musicians had come of age playing both salsa dance music and jazz. In 1967 brothers Jerry and Andy González at the ages of 15 and 13 formed a Latin jazz quintet inspired by Cal Tjader’s group. with Jerry on congas and Andy on bass. During 1974–1976 they were members of one of Eddie Palmieri’s experimental salsa groups. Andy González recounts, “We were into improvising… doing that thing Miles Davis was doing—playing themes and just improvising on the themes of songs, and we never stopped playing through the whole set.”

The Cuban branch#

“Jazz bands” began forming in Cuba as early as the 1920s. These bands often included both Cuban popular music and popular North American jazz, and show tunes in their repertoires. Despite this musical versatility, the movement of blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz was not strong in Cuba itself for decades. As Leonardo Acosta observes: “Afro-Cuban jazz developed simultaneously in New York and Havana, with the difference that in Cuba it was a silent and almost natural process, practically imperceptible”.

Clave license#

More than a half century ago, Mario Bauzá developed arranging in-clave to an art. Another name for clave is guide-pattern, and that is how Bauzá related to it. He taught Tito Puente, and Puente’s arrangers learned from him. Bobby Sanabria laments the pervasiveness of this attitude in Cuba. “The lack of clave consciousness in Cuba is starting to be felt more and more where the rhythmic equilibrium established by the clave direction is being sacrificed due to lack of knowledge in how to work with it from an arranging standpoint by young arrangers especially in the timba movement”

Genre family: Cuban styles of music, Jazz genres