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A B
C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Agogó
A percussion instrument of West African origin, the agogó
is essentially a two-note clapperless double-bell, joined by a curved
piece of metal and struck by a stick. Used in the African-derived
religions of Brazil, it is one of several new percussion instruments
introduced to the U.S. by Brazilian musicians during the 1970s.
Axé-music
General name for modern, popular music from Bahia, Brazil. A blend
of samba, baião, reggae and pop-rock.
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B
Bachata
From the Dominican Republic, a slower, more romantic dance music
than Merengue.
Baiáo
One of many rhythms of the African-influenced Northeast of Brazil,
the baiáo became popular in Rio de Janeiro around 1950 as
a reaction against the increasingly international popular music
of the time. Its most famous exponent, Luis Gonzaga, made the accordion-led
regional group extremely popular. A few U.S. jazzmen experimented
with the baiáo in the early 1950s, but it was too unsuccessful
to be called a bridge between the samba and the bossa nova.
Bajo Sexto
A form of 12-string guitar used as an accompanying instrument by
Chicano singers.
Batá Drums
Double-headed drums shaped like an hourglass with one cone larger
than the other. Sacred to Yoruba religion in Nigeria, they are also
necessary to Cuban and U.S. lucumí worship. A number of salsa
musicians have recently began using batá drums in secular
music.
Berimbau
A Brazilian musical bow of Congo-Angolan origin. An open gourd resonator
is held against the chest, and the instrument's string is tapped
with a stick.
Authentic Berimbaus from Bahia. Berimbaus come with
verga (bow), cabasa (gourd), baqueta (stick), caxixi (shaker) and
arame (wire).
Bolero (Clasico)
The Cuban bolero, originally a mid-paced form for string trios,
became very popular internationally, usually in a slower and more
sentimental form. The modern bolero is a lush romantic popular-song
form, largely distinct from salsa, and very few singers are equally
good at both.
Bolero Son
The Cuban bolero, originally a mid-paced form for string trios,
became very popular internationally, usually in a slower and more
sentimental form. The modern bolero is a lush romantic popular-song
form, largely distinct from salsa, and very few singers are equally
good at both.
Bolero Pirateado
The Cuban bolero, originally a mid-paced form for string trios,
became very popular internationally, usually in a slower and more
sentimental form. The modern bolero is a lush romantic popular-song
form, largely distinct from salsa, and very few singers are equally
good at both.
Bolero Vals
Bolero influence by the rhythm of Vals. It can be dance with Waltz
steps.
Bomba
Orginally a Puerto Rican three-drum dance form of marked west central
African ancestry, the bomba is especially associated with the Puerto
Rican Village of Loiza Aldea. In its old form it is still played
there at the festival of Santiago, and New York Puerto Rican folk
revival companies also perform it from time to time. Even in the
dance band form introduced by Rafael Cortijo in the late 1950s,
the bomba's melodies, as well as rhythmic pulse, are strongly African.
Bongó
Small double-drum played resting on the claves of a seated musician,
called a bongosero. Its heads are tuned a fourth apart. Widely used
in Cuban music of many sorts, especially the quartets and sextets
playing sones, and an integral part of the salsa percussion section.
In salsa, as in earlier string-based groups, the bongó tends
to be played more ad lib than other drums and to provide a complex
counterpoint to a number's main rhythmic pulse. The basic toque
for the bongó, called the martillo, can be rendered onomatopoeically
as "Dicka-docka-dicka-ducka."
Bossa Nova
A Brazilian fusion of cool jazz elements with various Brazilian
rhythms, including the baiáo but particularly the samba.
Often wrongly considered Afro-Brazilian, it is a sophisticated and
recent form developed by hip musicians and avant-guarde poets. Most
were white, though Bola Sete, a leading bossa nova guitarist, is
an exception.
Bugalú, Latin
The Latin bugalú was a somewhat simplified and more sharply
accented mambo with English lyrics, singing that combined Cuban
and black inflections, and r&b influenced solos. For a few years
the bugalú, and a less known Puerto Rican rhythm, the jala
jala, were staples of the "Latin soul" movement.
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C
Caja vellenata
Hand drum mainly used in vallenato orchestration.
Campana
A cow bell attached to the timbales-statnd or held in one hand,
played with a wooden stick. In salsa, it often plays a very steady
rhythm (1st and 3rd beat of the measure).
Cascara (see Palitos)
Catá (see Palitos)
Cencerro
Large hand-held cowbell played with a stick, producing two notes
according to where it is struck. In Cuban music and salsa, usually
played by the bongó player when the band goes into the "ride"
or mambo, after the main vocal sections.
Cha cha chá
The chachachá is said by some to have derived from the second
section of the danzón, by others to be a slower mambo. It
was sometimes called a "double mambo" in New York, because
its basic dance step was the mambo with a double step between the
fourth to first beats. The chachachá developed around 1953
in the hands of Cuban Charangas, most notably the Orquesta Aragón.
Charanga
A Cuban dance orchestra consisting of flute backed by fiddles, piano,
bass, and timbales. Charangas tended to play different dances from
the Afro-Cuban conjuntos, the most characteristic being the danzón.
Charangas ranged from large society units to small street-bands.
Modern charangas use bongó and conga in the rhythm section
and have taken on many more Afro-Cuban elements than their predecessors.
Charango
A small mandolin-like instrument from the Andes made from the shell
of an armadillo.
Choro
A Brazilian instrumental genre fusing European dances such as polka,
waltz, and schottisch with African-derived rhythms. It is characterized
by virtuosity, improvisation, and counterpoint. Choro first emerged
as a playing style in Rio de Janeiro during the second half of the
19th century, performed by small groups incorporating flute, cavaquinho,
and guitar.
Cierre
Essentially a break, the cierre ranges from a two-note bongó
phrase to a complicated pattern for a full band more like a bridge-passage.
Good cierres are fundamental to salsa structure, but they are so
varied and used in so many ways that closer definition would be
misleading.
Clave
An offbeat 3/2 or 2/3 rhythmic pattern over two bars, the basis
of all Cuban music, into which every element of arrangement and
improvisation should fit. Clave is an African-derived pattern with
equivalents in other Afro-Latin musics. The common 3/2 Cuban Clave
varies in accentuation according to the rhythm being played. Clave
seems to be part of the inspiration for the two-bar bass patterns
in modern black music. 2/3 reverse clave is less common, though
the guaguancó uses it.
Claves
Two strikers of resonant wood used less frequently in salsa than
in earlier Cuban music. The claves player usually plays the basic
clave pattern (q.v.), which is normally implied rather than stated
by modern bands. Many variants of claves exist throughout Latin
America.
Conga Drum
A major instrument in the salsa rhythm section, the conga is literally
the "Congolese drum," and it began life in the Afro-Cuban
cults. Arsenio Rodriguez is said to have introduced it to the conjuntos
on a regular basis, and Machito's Afro-Cubans were the first to
use it on New York bandstands. There are several types of conga,
including the small quinto, a solo improvising the instrument; the
mid sized conga; and the large tumbadora. Played by an expert, the
conga is capable of a great variety of sound and tone, not only
from the different ways of striking or rubbing the head, but through
raising the instrument from the ground when it is played held between
the knees. A conga-player is called a conguero or congacero.
Conga Rhythm
The Cuban conga was originally a carnival dance-march from Santiago
de Cuba, with a heavy fourth beat, but the rhythm is common to carnival
music in many parts of the New World. The conga rhythm is more easily
simplified than most Cuban rhythms and was a natural for nightclub
floor shows. It never became permanent in mainstream Latin music,
though Eddie Palmiere introduced a modified version called the mozambique
in the late 1960's.
Conjunto (lit. "combo")
Cuban conjunto sprang from the carnival marching bands and combined
voices, trumpets, piano, bass, conga, and bongó. Arsenio
Rodriguez ran a seminal Cuban conjunto that used the smoky tone
of the tres (q.v.) to balance the brass, and over the years conjuntos
began adding a trombone or even in New York substituting trombones
for trumpets. The Chicano conjunto consisted of an accordion lead,
guitar and/or bajos sexto (q.v.), often bass, and sometimes spoons,
with the addition of bongó or other Cuban-derived percussion
during the 1960s. Used strictly for instrumental dance music until
the 1930s, during the 1940s it became the standard backing for corridos,
rancheras, and other vocal forms. The Puerto Rican conjunto, the
basic group of jibaro country music, consisted of cuarto, guitar,
and güayo scraper, though trumpet and/or clarinet were added
at various times, and accordion-led conjuntos playing danzas and
waltzes for dancing were not uncommon. Contradanza 17th and 18th
century dance of french origin from which many Latin American ballroom
dances derive via mainland Spain, including the danzón and
the danza.
Coro
The "chorus." In salsa, the two or three-voice refrains
of two or four bars sung during montunos. The lead singer improvises
against the refrains. Coros are used in various ways in arrangements;
as reprises or, by an alteration of the refrain, to establish a
change of mood.
Corrido
This Mexican and Chicano ballad form developed during the 19th century
and reached its peak during the first half of the 20th. Pure folk
ballads in their simplicity, their detail, their deadpan performing
style, the corridos were the history books, news reports, and editorials
of the illiterate. They chronicled the whole of the Mexican Civil
war, almost all notable crimes, strikes, and other political events,
and a hundred other subjects besides.
Cuatro
A small ten-stringed guitar, one of the many guitar variants to
be found in Spain and Latin America. The cuatro is a major instrument
in Puerto Rican jibaro country music.
Cuica (or Guica)
A small Brazilian friction drum with a tube fastened to the inside
of the drumhead, which is rubbed to produce a squeaky sound on the
same principle as children use with a wetted finger and a window
pane, but infinitely more varied. The cuica became a familiar sound
in 1970s disco music, jazz, and salsa.
Cumbia
The most popular dance rhythm of Colombia, and the one that has
been the most widely spread throughout Latin America. Cumbia is
not a clave-based rhythm, but as with many rhythms, can be played
"in clave."
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Danzón
A Cuban ballroom dance derived from the contradanza in the late
1870s. It was regularly played by flute-and-fiddle charangas until
the early 1950s. The danzón bears the mark of Europe and
its first section was usually a promenade, but its charm is not
merely nostalgic. Its melodies echo from time to time in modern
salsa.
Descarga
The word means "discharge" and is a Latin musician's slang
term for a jam session. Descargas occupy a position midway between
salsa and Latin-jazz, since they tend to preserve the Cuban structures
yet contain far more jazz soloing than does salsa.
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Frevo
A dance oriented music that emerged in the Northeast of Braizil
(Recife) at the end of the last century. It uses military band instruments,
and can be described as a highly syncopated up tempo march.
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Guagua (see Palitos)
Guaguancó
The mid-paced guaguancó has African roots and was originally
a drum form related to the rumba. Though often played 4/4, it has
strong 6/8 feel. The basic rhythm is traditionally carried by three
congas and usually includes a good deal of solo drumming. The theme
of a modern guaguancó is a somewhat loose melody line. It
is one of the few 2-3 reverse clave forms.
Guajeo
A riff in the charanga style, especially for violin. Functionally,
guajeos tie the melodic and rhythmic elements of a number together,
acting as a sort of trampoline for the flute and other solos. They
are melodic patterns firmly based on the basic clave and tumbao.
Guajira
The slow guajira came from the Spanish-Cuban music of the guajiros.
Much of its feeling comes from Hispanic melodies and guajeos that
were originally, and often still are, played on the tres. The guajira
is similar to the slow son montuno but is more delicate and less
driving. Its lyrics frequently deal with rural nostalgia.
Guajiro Music
The Spanish-derived idiom of the Cuban farmers. The main instruments
are the tres guitar and percussion, and the main form includes the
décima, a ten-line verse from the 17th-century Spain.
Guaracha
The original Cuban guaracha was a topical song form for chorus and
solo voice, with improvisation in the solo. It was presented in
3/4 and 6/8 or 2/4 time signature. The guaracha developed a second
section, employed for much improvisation, as in the son montuno.
It appeared to have almost died out in Cuba by the 1930s, yet it
is now one of the forms commonly used by salsa groups; a fast rhythm
with a basic chicka-chicka pulse. Its last section is the probable
source of the instrumental mambo. The guaracha is said to have originated
in 18th-century maisons d'assignation and its lyrics are still often
racy and satirical.
Guica (see Cuíca)
Güayo (See Güiro)
Güiro
A scraper. The Cuban and Puerto Rican güiro, often called güayo
in Puerto Rico, is made from a notched gourd and played with a stick.
Poor players produce a steady ratchet-like sound. Skilled ones provide
endless, crisp counter-rhythms against the rest of the percussion
section. The güiro, like maraccas, is usually played by a singer.
In the Dominican Republic, the güiro, also called the güira
there, is made of metal and played with a kind of metal fork. The
metal instrument's harsh sound adds a zest to country merengue playing,
but it is rarely used in salsa.
Güicharo
Percussion instrument similar to the guiro, but generally smaller
and with thinner ridges. It is played with a metal fork-like scraper.
It is used primarily in Puerto Rican music.
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Habanera
Cuban dance of Spanish origin, the first major Latin influence on
U.S. music around the time of the Spanish-American War. Provided
the rhythmic basis of the modern tango, which makes its influence
in 20th century American music difficult to trace. Hembra The bigger
drum of a pair of bongos.
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Inspiración
"Inspiration," an improvised phrase by a lead vocalist
or instrument.
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Jíbaro Music
The jibaros are the mountain farmers of Puerto Rico, and their music
is the most strongly Hispanic part of the island's folk tradition.
Mostly string-based, jibaro music uses many Spanish-derived forms,
including the ten-line décima verses-which a good singer
must be able to improvise. A notable instrument is the small cuatro
guitar. Many fine jibaro musicians, including singers Ramito and
Chuitin, and cuatro player Yomo Toro, live in New York. Though various
Puerto Rican salsa singers had used occasional jibaro inflections,
Willie Colon brought the style into salsa by hiring Toro for a Christmas
album in 1972.
L top of page
Latin Jazz
A hybrid of jazz and Latin music. The term could cover anything
from a Cuban number with a couple of Louis Armstrong phrases to
a straight jazz number with a conga, but is best confined to crosses
with a more or less full Latin rhythmic section, or one combining
several Latin and jazz elements, and an instrumental frontline.
Latin Rhythms
The basic meter of salsa is 4/4, organized by the two-bar clave
pattern. The individual forms, of which the most common are listed
below, are not simply "rhythms" that can be tapped with
a pencil, but combinations of rhythmic pulse, melodic phrases, speed,
song forms, and so on.
Latin Rock
A hybrid of rock and Latin elements. Most commonly rock-oriented
guitar and keyboard solos are played over salsa-derived rhythms,
but often rock and salsa rhythmic elements are blended; bands may
use sections with a salsa coro, and build rock solos out of Latin
guajeo.
Latin Soul
Hybrid style from the late-l960s, combining salsa and rhythm and
blues elements. Latin soul, which was based on early rhythm-and
blues and the bugalú, grew up among East Harlem and Bronx
teenagers, who used both Spanish and English lyrics over a music
that was somewhat more Latin than black.
Lucumí
Cuba's most widespread African-derived religion. Its theology is
based on the faith of the Nigerian and Dahomeyan Yoruba people,
and Yoruba is the liturgical language of Cuban lucumí. In
Latin-American terms, luccimí is one of many African-derived
faiths, and is widespread in Puerto Rico (and the Latin U.S.) under
the general name of "santeria." Lucumí gave important
elements to modern salsa, including much of its rhythmic basis,
several songs,and a great deal of African melodic flavor. Many modern
salsa musicians, especially in New York, are adherents of lucumí,
or santeria, and the sacred batá drums are coming back into
use in secular music. Macho The smaller drum of a pair of bongos.
M top of page
Mambo
An Afro-Cuban form that came out of the Conolese religious cult.
The big band mambo of the 1940s and 1950s developed characteristic
contrasting brass and sax riffs, which many musicians regard as
stemming from the last section of the guaracha.
Mambo Section
A section of contrasting riffs for salsa frontline instruments,
setting trumpets against saxes or trombones, for example, sometimes
under an instrumental solo. The section was said to derive from
from the guaracha, and got its name during the late 1940s and early
1950s.
Maraccas
A tuned pair of rattles made from gourds filled with pebbles or
seeds, one of a wide range of America-derived rattles. A skilled
maracca-player such as Machito plays a subtle role in the polyrhythmic
counter-point.
Mariachi
Mexican strolling groups of (usually) semi-professional musicians.
Originally string orchestras, since the 1940's they have become
trumpet-led ensembles. Their name stems from a corruption of the
French marriage, since they were frequently hired for weddings.
Marimba
A form of xylophone with wooden slats over resonators. The name
is African, but the marimba is widespread in western Columbia, parts
of Mexico, and in particular Guatemala. Marimba groups were very
popular in the U.S. during the 1920's.
Marimbula
A bass descendant of the African finger-piano, the marimbula consists
of a wooden box with prongs of metal fastened to it, tuned to play
a series of bass notes. The marimbula was common in Cuba and the
Dominican Republic, as well as in several non-Latin Caribbean islands.
Maxixe
An old Brazilian dance derived from an earlier local ballroom dance
heavily influenced by the early 20th century tango, It was briefly
popular in the U.S. around the First World War, but never caught
on to any permanent extent.
Merengue
Though dances by this name are found in many countries, the merengue
is originally from the Dominican Republic, where it dates back at
least to the early 19th century. The modern merengue has a notably
brisk and snappy 2/4 rhythm, with a flavor very different from the
somewhat more flowing Cuban and jaunty Puerto Rican dances. The
country form, for accordion, tambora drum, metal scraper, and voice,
is heard everywhere in the Dominican Republic. The big band version
of Dominican bands like johnny Ventura's and Felix del Rosario's
is often heard at New York concerts.
Montuno Section
A vehicle for improvisation in Cuban and salsa numbers, based on
a two or three-chord pattern repeated ad-lib under the instrumental
or vocal improvisations. The piano often maintains a repeated vamp
of guajeos, a process known as montuneando.
Morna
A musical style from Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, similar
to a Brazilian choro without the percussion. Cesaria Evora is the
most well-known singer of this music.
N top of page
Norteno (see Tex-Mex)
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Orquesta Típica
A "Typical Orchestra." In Cuba, a now extinct type of
group combining a flute and two clarinets, with timbales prominent
in the rhythm. In Mexico, a group organized by "trained"
musicians to present cleaned-up versions of folk and popular music.
P top of page
Pachanga
The pachanga was a rage among New York Latin teenagers around 1961,
as played by the then hugely popular charangas. There is some dispute
as to its origins. It seems to be Cuban, but it never reached the
popularity there that it enjoyed in the eastern U.S. It had a fast,
syncopated ta-tum ta-tum pulse. The pachanga died out because the
dance involved proved to be too energetic for most.
Palitos
Two sticks played against the side of a drum in rumba. Other terms
are guagua, cascara, and catá. The rhythms they play are
slight elaborations on clave. They serve the same purpose in that
they play the same two bar pattern without variation for the whole
tune.
Plena
An Afro-Puerto Rican urban topical song form said to have been developed
in Ponce during World War 1. The plena has four or six-line verses,
with a refrain. Lyrical content is social comment, satire, or humor.
Instrumentation has ranged from percussion through accordion or
guitar-led groups to various dance band formats. Its most famous
composer and exponent was Manual Jiménez, known as Canario.
It has been a minor influence on salsa through the work of Rafael
Cortijo in the late 1950s and Willie Colon in the 1970s. Quinto
Smallest drum in the Conga set with the brightest sound.
R top of page
Ranchera
The ranchera, developed in the nationalist theater of the post-1910
revolution period in Mexico, became very much the equivalent of
U.S. commercial country music. Professional singers developed an
extremely emotional style, one of whose characteristics is a held
note at the end of a line, culminating in a "dying fall"
that could drop a third or more. Rancheras became an important part
of Chicano music from the 1950s onward as moved from a folk-popular
form to a greater professionalism.
Rumba
Most of what Americans call rumbas were forms of the son which swept
Cuba in the 1920s. The Cuban rumba was a secular drum form with
many variants, including the guaguancó and the Columbia,
though modern musicians tend to regard all theses as separate. Its
descendent variations can be heard in New York parks any summer
weekend played by groups called rumbas or rumbones. By analogy,
a percussion passage in a salsa number, or a percussion-only jam
session, is sometimes called a rumba or rumbón.
S top of page
Salidor (see Tumba)
Salsa
A contemporary word for hot, up-tempo, creative Latin music, it
means "gravy" or "sauce." Originally it was
used as a descriptive such as "swinging" or "funky."
The origins of the current usage are obscure, but it began to circulate
in the late 1960s.
Samba
An African-Brazilian dance with several variations in different
parts of Brazil. The best-known are the urban sambas, said to derive
from the maxixe and the highly persuasive sambas of the carnival
"schools" of Rio. The characteristic shuffling 2/4 rhythm,
fused with jazz, was part of the bossa nova.
Septeto or Sexteto
The Cuban septetos and sextetos of the 1930s played mostly sones
and boleros. They were trumpet-led string groups, usually with tres,
guitar, maraccas, bass and bongó. Famous groups included
the Septeto Nacional and the Sexteto Habanero. The music they played
fell somewhere between the guajiro string groups and the brassier
conjuntos. Septeto trumpet style is singularly lyrical, moving between
19th-century brass-band cornet and jazz in its inspiration. The
Septeto syle as a whole is subtle, crisp, and charming.
Shekere
An African-derived rattle made of a large gourd with bead held by
a string net on the outside. It is one version of a rattle common
in Africa and African-Latin America and works on the opposite principle
from maraccas.
Son
The son is perhaps the oldest and certainly the classic Afro-Cuban
form, an almost perfect balance of African and Hispanic elements.
Originating in Oriente province, it surfaced in Havana around World
War 1 and became a popular urban music played by string-and-percussion
quartets and septetos. Almost all the numbers Americans called rumbas
were, in fact sones. "El Manicero" ("The Peanut Vendor")
was a form of son derived from the street cries of Havana and called
a pregon. The rhythm of the son is strongly syncopated, with a basic
chicka-CHUNG pulse.
Son Montuno
A reverse clave (2-3) form, usually mid-paced or slow, with a pronounced
CHUNG-chicka feel. The son montuno developed as a separate form
from the general con tradition. It was, like the guaracha, one of
the first forms to include a second, improvised section, the montuno.
Though it is not fast, the Afro-Cuban son montuno has an intense,
almost relentless quality.
Sonero
In the strict sense, a man who sings or plays the Afro-Cuban son,
but now the improvising lead singer in the salsa style. A good sonero
improvises rhythmically, melodically, and verbally against the refrain
of the coro. The word guarachero is a synonym, though less used.
Surdo
A low tom played with heavy mallets. Used to keep the beat in sambas.
T top of page
Tambora
A double-headed drum, basic to the Dominican merengue. It is played
with a single stick, while the other head is damped by hand to give
tonal variety.
Tango
Probably the world's best-known dance after the waltz, the modern
tango developed in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century.
It took its rhythm from the Cuban habanera and the Argentinian milonga,
and its name probably from the Spanish tango andalúz.
Tejano (see Tex-Mex)
Tex-Mex
Also known as tejano, norteno or banda, this is the music of the
Mexican people living in Texas, and shares the accordion as their
common instrument.
Timbales
A percussion set-up consisting of two small metal drums on a stand,
with two tuned cowbells, often a cymbal and other additions. The
timbales descended from a small military dance and concert bands.
They were originally confined to the charangas and orquestas típicas,
to which they imparted a distinctive, jaunty, march-like rhythm,
but during the 1940s they came into wider use. The timbales are
played with sticks, with the player striking heads, rims , and the
sides of metal drums. All this plus cymbal and cowbells make for
a varied instrument. A standard timbales beat, the abanico, is a
rimshot-roll-rimshot combination.
Tipico
An imprecise but extremely important concept in modern salsa. Literally
it means "typical" or "characteristic," but
it is more generally used to identify the downhome, rural, popular
styles of the Latin countries. Thus, the Cuban tipico music that
became so important in New York in the 1960s and 1970s was basically
conjunto and charanga music. But the septetos are also tipico, since
their style is simple and popular rather than bourgeois.
Toque
A "beat," but essentially a standard rhythmic phrase for
percussion. Many toques derive from African religious drumming,
in which particular rhythmic patterns were used to summon individual
gods. A Latin percussionist is judged not by his energy level, but
by his knowledge and use of standard toques and variations in his
improvisations and in support of the band.
Tres
A nine-string Cuban guitar; a mainstay of guajiro music and of the
Afro-Cuban septetos. The tres was established as an important part
of the Cuban conjunto by Arsenio Rodriguez, himself a fine player.
The instrument came into New York salsa during the Cuban típico
revival of the late 1960's and early 1970s.
Tumba (or Salidor)
Largest drum in the Conga set with the deepest sound
Tumbadora
Cuban term for congas
Tumbao
A repeated rhythmic pattern for bass or conga drum. Based on the
fundamental calve, the bassist's tumbaos provide the scaffolding
for the constant rhythmic counterpoint of the percussionists.
V top of page
Vallenato
Its origin is from the Atlantic coast of Colombia. Vallenato actually
refers more to an orchestration than a specific rhythm. A traditional
vallenato group consists of an accordion, a guacharaca, and a caja
vallenata. Vallenato groups traditionally play four rhythms called
son, paseo, merengue, and puya.
Z top of page
Zabumba
A Brazilian drum
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