Several years have passed since my journey to Cuba, and yet I remember the street where I lived very clearly…the people, the music, the food, the long walks, and the lessons: wealth and poverty.
In this piece I aimed to narrate a series of musical encounters from the Cuban tradition, combined with my experience of the language of jazz.
Listening back to the piece, having played it as part of various projects, I recognize the clear influence of my experience playing with Kenny Wheeler in the way I play it on the instrument. This approach was further developed through Postacchini’s writing.
The composition is introduced by an eight measure ballad.
At letter A unison timbales, congas and drums begin a solo.
The piece continues at letter B with a groovy rhythm with a mixed meter, where the soprano sax comes in with a solo. The first measures of C act as a rhythmic bridge for the homorhythmic tutti entry in measure 36.
After the climax at letter C the track settles down into a new part of the arrangement, beginning at letter E. Here the rhythm section enters in an overlapping style, accentuating the ternary beat that acts as a rhythmic skeleton for the entire composition. Please note: the score for the piece has been written in 6/8 by the arranger, but for the drum examples in this PDF I decided to rewrite the parts in 12/8. I did this to make it easier to read, as usually when writing for drums one measure equals one clave.
The groove at letter E (in a funk/Afro-Cuban style) gives a half time flavor.
Things change at letter F, on the wave of the same clave, with the start of the theme. Here the groove is centered on the ostinato rhythm in the piano (combined with the typical 12/8 bell pattern). If the combination of the two rhythmic loops makes you lose your head… don’t panic, choose just one and try to sing the other without playing it. Alternatively, Benny Greb’s suggestion is to say “chid” in dotted fourth notes as a beat, whilst playing the drum rhythms separately with your hands.
The second part of the theme takes off at letter H, where it is met by the Cuban abakua rhythm, which is very interesting due to its “implication”/overlapping of an accent every four notes over a beat of three. At the advanced level the drums accentuate the contrast of 2 against 3 with the drummer’s feet (hi-hat and pedal bell).
The solos begin at letter M with a duet played by congas and timbales, during which the drums and bass play a rhythmic illusion of 4 against 3, changing the starting note of the cycle every four measures.
Are you still there? If you haven’t already gone off to bin this PDF, let me tell you that the solo section relaxes at letter N with a 3/4 firstly played in one (listen to Paul Motian) and then a bit quicker (listen to Elvin Jones if you don’t already have it in your blood).
At letter O the horns decree the return of the eighth note triplets, as a beat made up of secondary accents. Here the drums at the advanced level pay homage to the drumming of Horacio El Negro Hernandez (Un-cha).
The drum solo begins at letter Q: listen to the horn phrases carefully, because they offer many different rhythmic pointers, and their position in relation to the beat can never be taken for granted (if you count in 12/8 the solo lasts 13 measures: better not to count at all… 🙂
Once the solo is over, you weren’t planning to take it easy, were you? 🙁
A captivating piano and marimba duet begins, which takes the piece to the exposition of the final theme.
But it doesn’t end there…! Watch out – like many compositions, this too has a coda! It’s shuffle time!
The final exposition ends with a big fill, which kick starts a shuffle groove, during which you move from suddenly playing forte to piano, where you fade out without a fill at measure 303. All this is accompanied by a very gradual diminuendo.
By now, you’ve probably realized that walks in Cuba are very long… 😉
CONCERTO LIVE
TUTORIAL
MINUS DRUMS – DRUM SHEET MUSIC
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1harkiWTyqiJei-y71-JCLxAY_KY_noF5/view?usp=sharing
Ebook
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