How To Write For Latin Percussion
The year was 2003, I was 9 years old, and my sister was driving me down a street somewhere in the suburbs of Sydney. She asked me to put on a new CD she had just bought by the band The Cat Empire and what happened next changed my life forever. Not only was that the first album I enjoyed listening to, but it was a mix of so many different styles. Without knowing it, I was absorbing influences of Cuban culture, jazz, and so much more.
In the years that followed my interest for music grew and even though I primarily focused on swing styles in high school, the enjoyment for Latin music always sat dormant at the back of my mind. In 2012 I stumbled upon a video of the Manhattan School of Music Latin Jazz Big Band performing and like the first time hearing The Cat Empire, it blew my mind. I knew I loved big band music, but I had never heard anything quite like that. From that point on I was hooked.
As I progressed into university I took classes with Jose Aponte who opened more doors to the world of Latin Jazz but I still really didn’t know anything (even though I thought I did at the time). This was made abundantly clear in 2019 when I invited Jose to be a guest with my youth program and in a rehearsal he called me out for not respecting the authenticity of the music we were trying to perform. I was devastated. Even though I had spent a few years writing for Jose’s band at that point, I obviously still knew nothing. At that moment I decided it was time to finally put in the work to understand Latin music.
What came next nobody could’ve predicted, a global pandemic. With all of the bad things that came with that period, one positive was that it allowed me a considerable amount of research time. For nearly two full years I dedicated myself to reading books and listening to Cuban music, trying to piece together how it all worked. And to my delight, I finally was able to work it out. As with everything, the more you know, the more you realize what you don’t know and my experience with Cuban music is no different. However, I do know enough to help others with the role of the various latin percussion instruments and how they can fit into a big band setting.
As this newsletter is already dragging on, I’ll focus on a few patterns that can be applied to numerous contexts. To put it in perspective, Cuba’s history goes back 500 years (that’s 5x longer than jazz) and features hundreds of styles with unique rhythms and percussion patterns. Depending on the context, a lot of different rhythms may be applicable, but what I mention here may not be the best option in all cases. The specific criteria I’ve chosen for these rhythms is based on the most common Latin big band charts I’ve run into, and will operate as a great starting point for most directors/arrangers.
So up first is the mighty conga drum. Almost every school has a pair of these lying around and every time I’ve gone to workshop with a band, the student playing them is an extra drummer who has been assigned to the instrument so that they can be included. They can work in a lot of settings which is one of the reasons they are the most popular latin percussion instrument. However, the key is to know how to use them properly and not just “feel” it…
By far the most common groove played on the conga is the tumbao (a fun word which means ostinato). There are dozens of variations which can be played on one, two, or three drums. The pattern itself is a mix from early Son and Rumba, which combined the roles of a few different instruments together. As such, it can be found in almost every Latin style these days other than those in 6/8. To keep things simple we will focus on the one bar, one drum variation, which is clave neutral and requires the least amount of equipment. As soon as you start looking at two bar grooves you need to be mindful of clave direction so this is the perfect starting point for those who may not understand clave.
The pattern is made up of three techniques:
Slap: A high pitched accented strike with no sustain (similar to a rim shot on a snare drum) notated with a cross notehead
Open tone: A sustained strike (similar to hitting a tom) notated with an O
Muffle tone: A muted strike with no sustain or accent (similar to hitting a tom with one hand muting the skin) notated with either an H or T. These have a two part motion, the first strike is with the palm and the other is with the fingers also known as heel and toe, or H and T
The groove itself is a set of consistent quavers/eighth notes with the slap and open tones reinforcing the backbeat. It is used in slow tempo styles like Bolero, as well as medium and upbeat styles like Cha-Cha-Cha, Mambo, and Guaracha too. Due to its versatility it has also been used in non Latin styles like Funk, Latin Jazz, and Rock. If you have a conga player and don’t know what to give them to play, this is what I would recommend.
Moving over to the bongos, this set of drums operates in a different way to the congas. Although the congas have versatility based on the context (such as a soloistic role in Rumba), most often they operate as a supportive role, maintaining the overall groove. The bongos however, have a lot more freedom and often improvise around the other percussion instruments. Think of them like the snare in a jazz setting. Sometimes they hold down a consistent groove and other times they interact with the soloist or other instruments.
Before letting a bongo player loose to improvise, the most common pattern they play is called the martillo (or the hammer in english). Like the tumbao, it reinforces a consistent feel of quavers/eighth notes with accents on the backbeat. It is made up of four techniques:
Open tone: Similar to the conga, notated with an O
Slap tone: Similar to the conga but played with the fingertips, notated with an S
Edge tone: A sustained open tone but played with the fingertips on the edge of the drum with the right hand, notated with an F
Muted edge tone: An edge tone which is muted with the thumb or finger of the left hand hand, notated with an F or Th to indicate Finger or Thumb
Being another one bar pattern, the martillo is great for many styles and you don’t need to worry about the clave direction of a piece. It works at all tempos and other than 6/8 styles, can be used in almost any Latin chart. Traditionally the bongo player also has one other trick in their arsenal, the cowbell. When the montuno kicks in and the music has high energy, the bongo player will put down the bongos and go to a large cowbell called the campana. There are two common rhythms played on the bell, a one bar variation (clave neutral) and a two bar variation (clave direction marked on the graphic). This is a great way to spice things up in an arrangement so that the percussionist can have more impact when the volume starts rising. Typically the bell is played in two places, near the mouth giving a low tone and on the other end for a high tone.
Finally we have the timbales. These are the closest to the drum kit so are most likely to be added last if you happen to have enough percussionists. There are many different tones available on the instrument leading to a considerable amount of variation. They include:
Shells: The sides of the drums themselves offer a metallic woodblock type of sound
Skins: Can have an open sound like any other drum as well as be muted
Bells: Typically a smaller bell called the cha-cha bell, metallic and lightly sustained sound
Cymbals: Usually a small ride/crash cymbal, has the same characteristics of the cymbals used on a drum kit
To help you out, the two most commonly used rhythms are clave and cascara, both of which can be played with any one of the techniques mentioned. You can experiment with the textures and have the musician change depending on the volume of each section. For simplicity, the graphic includes the cascara rhythm alongside clave. If it were in a real setting I would clarify which texture I would want on each rhythm, eg. shells cascara, bell clave.
Hopefully you found this newsletter entry helpful. Remember that this is only an entry point and like other instruments, there is a lot more complexity to each of the instruments mentioned. And with that, we have come to the end of another entry. Next week I’m going to keep going with the world of percussion before moving on, specifically looking at 6/8 grooves and when you may need to change the drum kit parts to accommodate hand percussion instruments.
Thanks,
Toshi