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Conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). Congas were originally used in Afro-Cuban music genres such as conga (hence their name) and rumba, where each drummer would play a single drum. Following numerous innovations in conga drumming and construction during the mid-20th century, as well as its internationalization, it became increasingly common for drummers to play two or three drums. Congas have become a popular instrument in many forms of Latin music such as son (when played by conjuntos), descarga, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, songo, merengue and Latin rock. Although the exact origins of the conga drum are unknown, researchers agree that it was developed by Cuban people of African descent during the late 19th century or early 20th century. Its direct ancestors are thought to be ...
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Conga (music)
The term conga refers to the music groups within Cuban comparsas and the music they play. Comparsas are large ensembles of musicians, singers and dancers with a specific costume and choreography which perform in the street carnivals of Santiago de Cuba and Havana.Millet, José and Brea Rafael 1989. Del carnival santiaguero: congas y paseos. In Oscar Ruiz Miyares (ed) ''Guía cultural de Santiago de Cuba''. The instrumentation differs between ''congas santiagueras'' and ''congas habaneras''. ''Congas santiagueras'' include the ''corneta china'' (Chinese cornet), which is an adaptation of the Cantonese suona introduced in Oriente in 1915, and its percussion section comprises bocúes (similar to African ashiko drums), the quinto (highest pitched conga drum), galletas and the pilón, as well as brakes which are struck with metal sticks. ''Congas habaneras'' lack the ''corneta china'' but include trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and they have a different set of percussion instrume ...
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Conga (music)
The term conga refers to the music groups within Cuban comparsas and the music they play. Comparsas are large ensembles of musicians, singers and dancers with a specific costume and choreography which perform in the street carnivals of Santiago de Cuba and Havana.Millet, José and Brea Rafael 1989. Del carnival santiaguero: congas y paseos. In Oscar Ruiz Miyares (ed) ''Guía cultural de Santiago de Cuba''. The instrumentation differs between ''congas santiagueras'' and ''congas habaneras''. ''Congas santiagueras'' include the ''corneta china'' (Chinese cornet), which is an adaptation of the Cantonese suona introduced in Oriente in 1915, and its percussion section comprises bocúes (similar to African ashiko drums), the quinto (highest pitched conga drum), galletas and the pilón, as well as brakes which are struck with metal sticks. ''Congas habaneras'' lack the ''corneta china'' but include trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and they have a different set of percussion instrume ...
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Salsa Music
Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montuno, with elements of Mambo (music), mambo, Latin jazz, Bomba (Puerto Rico), bomba, plena and guaracha. All of these elements are adapted to fit the basic son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa. Originally the name salsa was used to label commercially several styles of Latin dance music, but nowadays it is considered a musical style on its own and one of the staples of Latin American culture. The first self-identified salsa bands were predominantly assembled by Cubans, Cuban and Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican musicians in New York City in the '70s. The music style was based on the late son montuno of Arsenio Rodríguez, Conjunto Chappottín and Roberto Faz. These musicians included Celia Cruz, Willie ColónRuben Blade ...
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Cuban Rumba
Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, namely Abakuá and yuka, as well as the Spanish-based ''coros de clave''. According to Argeliers León, rumba is one of the major "genre complexes" of Cuban music, and the term rumba complex is now commonly used by musicologists. This complex encompasses the three traditional forms of rumba (yambú, guaguancó and columbia), as well as their contemporary derivatives and other minor styles. Traditionally performed by poor workers of African descent in streets and ''solares'' (courtyards), rumba remains one of Cuba's most characteristic forms of music and dance. Vocal improvisation, elaborate dancing and polyrhythmic drumming are the key components of all rumba styles. '' Cajones'' (wooden boxes) were used as drums until the early 20th cent ...
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Quinto (drum)
The quinto (literally ''fifth'' in Spanish) is the smallest and highest pitched type of conga drum. It is used as the lead drum in Cuban rumba styles such as guaguancó, yambú, columbia and guarapachangueo, and it is also present in congas de comparsa. Quinto phrases are played in both triple-pulse (12/8, 6/8) and duple-pulse (4/4, 2/2) structures. In columbia, triple pulse is the primary structure and duple pulse is secondary. In yambú and guaguancó duple-pulse is primary and triple-pulse is secondary. Quinto performance in rumba The optimum expression of quinto phrasing is shaped by its interaction with the dance and the song, in other words, the complete social event, which is rumba. Quinto interaction with the song During the verses of the song the quinto is capable of sublime creativity, while musically subordinate to the lead vocalist. There are natural pauses in the cadence of the verses, typically one or two measures in length, where the quinto can play succinct phr ...
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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 rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban Music, https://worldmusic.net/blogs/guide-to-world-music/cuba-son-and-afro-cuban-music Afro-Cuban jazz emerged in the early 1940s with the Cuban musicians Mario Bauzá and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. In 1947, the collaborations of bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and percussionist Chano Pozo brought Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, such as the tumbadora and the bongo, into the East Coast jazz scene. Early combinations of jazz with Cuban music, such as " Manteca" and "Mangó Mangüé", were commonly referred to as "Cubop" for Cuban bebop.{{cite book , last=Fernandez , first=Raul A. , title=From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WO7YevK_18C&pg=PA6 ...
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Yoruba People
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 42 million people in Africa, are a few hundred thousand outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 21% of the country's population according to CIA estimations, making them one of the largest List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger–Congo languages, Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers. In Africa, the Yoruba are contiguous with the Yoruboid languages, Yoruboid Itsekiri to the south-east in the northwest Niger Delta, Bariba people, Bariba to the northwest in Benin a ...
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Songo Music
Songo is a genre of popular Cuban music, created by the group Los Van Van in the early 1970s. Songo incorporated rhythmic elements from folkloric rumba into popular dance music, and was a significant departure from the son montuno/mambo-based structure which had dominated popular music in Cuba since the 1940s. Blas Egües was the first drummer in Los Van Van, but it was the band's second drummer, José Luis Quintana "Changuito", who developed songo into the world-wide phenomenon it is today. Songo is the most famous of the post-Revolution Cuban rhythms, beginning with the mozambique, which drew from the deep well of Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms (mainly rumba). During the 1970s, many Cuban bands created their own original rhythms: Los Van Van invented songo; Orquesta Ritmo Oriental—''nueva onda''; Orquesta Tipica Juventud—''bata cinco'', and Orquesta Revé named their invention—'' changüí'', after the "funky," folkloric proto-son music of the 19th century. Songo is a precurs ...
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Merengue Music
Merengue is a type of music and dance originating in the Dominican Republic, which has become a very popular genre throughout Latin America, and also in several major cities in the United States with Latino communities. Merengue was inscribed on November 30, 2016 in the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. Merengue was developed in the middle of the 1800s, originally played with European stringed instruments ( bandurria and guitar). Years later, the stringed instruments were replaced by the accordion, thus conforming, together with the güira and the tambora, the instrumental structure of the typical merengue ensemble. This set, with its three instruments, represents the synthesis of the three cultures that made up the idiosyncrasy of Dominican culture. The European influence is represented by the accordion, the African by the Tambora, which is a two-head drum, and the Taino or aboriginal by the güira. The genre was later promoted ...
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Son Cubano
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section ( bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin. Around 1909 the son reached Havana, where the first recordings were made in 1917. This marked the start of its expansion throughout the island, becoming Cuba's most popular and influential genre. While early groups had between three and five members, during the 1920s the ''sexteto'' (sextet) became the genre's primary format. By the 1930s, many bands had incorporated a trumpet, becoming ''septetos'', and in the 1940s a larger type of ensemble featuring congas and piano became th ...
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Makuta (drum)
''Makuta'' drums are tall cylindrical or barrel-shaped Afro-Cuban drums, often cited as an important influence on the development of the ''tumbadora'' or conga drum. They are used in sacred dance-drumming ceremonies associated with the descendants of slaves brought to Cuba from Central Africa. The word ''makuta'' is also used to refer to the dancing and rhythms associated with these drums. Construction Makuta drum construction has a number of regional variations, but the ensemble usually consists of only two drums. Generally, all are created from wooden staves, similar to the way a barrel would be constructed. Both sizes have a goat skin head at the top of the drum and are open on the opposite end. They are commonly around 1 meter in height and their heads vary from approximately 30 cm to 40 cm in diameter. The large lead drum is known variously as ''caja'', ''nsumbi'', or ''ngoma'' and is usually barrel shaped. Its head is attached with a tensioning system of metal r ...
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Yuka (music)
Yuka is a secular Afro-Cuban musical tradition which involves drumming, singing and dancing. It was developed in western Cuba by Kongo slaves during colonial times. Yuka predates other Afro-Cuban genres of dance music like rumba and has survived in Kongo communities of Pinar del Río, specifically in El Guayabo and Barbacoa, San Luis. Since the 1940s, yuka performances have been recorded by researchers such as Harold Courlander and María Teresa Linares.Linares, María Teresa. 1981. Liner notes to ''Antología de la música afrocubana Vol. 5: Tambor yuka'' ecorded in 1978 EGREM: Havana, Cuba. Music Drumming The Bantu word ''yuka'' means "to beat" and is also used to refer to the drums used in yuka performances. According to Fernando Ortiz, yuka drums were known in the Kongo language as ''ngóma bobóla mámbu'', where ''ngóma'' means "drum", ''bobóla'' "deep sound" and ''mámbu'' "collective business". These drums are made from hollowed-out trunks of the avocado tree. Leather i ...
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