Tresillo ( ; ) is a
rhythmic pattern
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
(shown below) used in
Latin American music
The music of Latin America refers to music originating from Latin America, namely the Romance-speaking regions of the Americas south of the United States. Latin American music also incorporates African music from enslaved African people who were ...
. It is a more basic form of the rhythmic figure known as the
''habanera''.
:
\new RhythmicStaff
Tresillo is the most fundamental duple-pulse rhythmic
cell
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n and other Latin American music. It was introduced in the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
through the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
during the Colonial period. The pattern is also the most fundamental and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in
Sub-Saharan African music traditions
In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of music is not limited to entertainment: it serves a purpose to the local community and helps in the conduct of daily routines. Traditional African music supplies appropriate music and dance for work ...
.
The
cinquillo
A cinquillo is a typical Cuban/Caribbean rhythmic cell, used in the Cuban contradanza (the " habanera") and the danzón.Mauleón, Rebeca (1993: 51). ''Salsa Guidebook: For Piano and Ensemble''. Petaluma, CA: Sher Music. The figure is also a comm ...
pattern is another common embellishment of tresillo. Cinquillo is used frequently in the Cuban
contradanza
''Contradanza'' (also called ''contradanza criolla'', ''danza'', ''danza criolla'', or ''habanera'') is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th centu ...
(the "habanera") and the
danzón
Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Written in time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring se ...
.
Triplet (formal usage)
''Tresillo'' is a Spanish word meaning "
triplet"—three equal notes within the same time span normally occupied by two notes. In its formal usage, ''tresillo'' refers to a subdivision of the beat that does not normally occur within the given structure. Therefore, it is indicated by the number 3 between the halves of a horizontal bracket over the notes, as shown below. The first measure divides each beat in three: one, and, ah, two, and, ah. The second divides the span of two main beats by three (
hemiola
In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...
): one, one-ah, two-and.
:
\new RhythmicStaff
Duple-pulse correlative of 3:2
Tresillo-over-two
In sub-Saharan rhythm, the four main beats are typically divided into three or four pulses, creating a 12-pulse (), or 16-pulse ()
cycle. Every triple-pulse pattern has its duple-pulse correlate; the two pulse structures are two sides of the same coin. Cross-beats are generated by grouping pulses contrary to their given structure, for example: groups of two or four in or groups of three or six in . The duple-pulse correlative of the three cross-beats of the
hemiola
In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...
, is known in Afro-Cuban music as tresillo. The pulse names of tresillo and the three cross-beats of the hemiola (3:2) are identical: one, one-ah, two-and.
:
Cross-beat generation
The
composite pattern In software engineering, the composite pattern is a partitioning design pattern. The composite pattern describes a group of objects that are treated the same way as a single instance of the same type of object. The intent of a composite is to "compo ...
of tresillo and the main beats is commonly known as the ''
habanera'', ''congo'', ''tango-congo'', or ''tango''. The habanera rhythm is the duple-pulse correlate of the vertical hemiola (above). The three
cross-beat
In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to when the rhythmic conflict found in polyrhythms is the ...
s of the hemiola are generated by grouping triple pulses in twos: 6 pulses ÷ 2 = 3 cross-beats. Tresillo is generated by grouping duple pulses in threes: 8 pulses ÷ 3 = 2 cross-beats (consisting of three pulses each), with a remainder of a partial cross-beat (spanning two pulses). In other words, 8 ÷ 3 = 2, r2. Tresillo is a cross-rhythmic fragment. It contains the first three cross-beats of 4:3.
:
\layout
Basic rhythmic cell (common usage in Cuban popular music)
Habanera (Cuban contradanza)
The Cuban
contradanza
''Contradanza'' (also called ''contradanza criolla'', ''danza'', ''danza criolla'', or ''habanera'') is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th centu ...
, known outside of Cuba as the
''habanera'', was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif (tresillo and its variants). Tresillo is used as an
ostinato figure in the left hand. The habanera was the first dance music from Cuba to be exported all over the world. Because of the habanera's global popularity, tresillo and its variants are found in popular music in nearly every city on the planet. Later, Cuban musical exports, such as the
son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
,
son montuno
Son montuno is a subgenre of son cubano developed by Arsenio Rodríguez in the 1940s. Although ''son montuno'' ("mountain sound") had previously referred to the ''sones'' played in the mountains of eastern Cuba, Arsenio repurposed the term to de ...
, and the
mambo
Mambo most often refers to:
* Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form
*Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music
Mambo may also refer to:
Music
* Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...
continued to reinforce the use of tresillo bass lines and vamps.
![Sebastian Iradier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Sebastian_Iradier.jpg)
"
La Paloma
"La Paloma", "The Dove" in English, is a popular Spanish song that has been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was written by the Spanish Basque composer Seb ...
" (1863) is one of the most popular habaneras, having been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was composed and written by
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
Sebastián Iradier
Sebastián Iradier Salaverri (Salaberri) (20 January 18096 December 1865), or Sebastián Yradier, was a Spanish Basque people, Basque composer.
Biography
Iradier was born in Lanciego, in the province of Álava. His publisher in Paris urged him to ...
(later Yradier) after he visited
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
in 1861. In the excerpt below, the left hand plays the tresillo rhythm.
:
The "three-side" of clave
As used in Cuban popular music, tresillo refers to the "three-side" (first three strokes) of the son
clave pattern.
:
\new RhythmicStaff
The most basic duple-pulse cell
Although the triplet divides the main beats by three pulses (triple-pulse) and tresillo divides them by four pulses (duple-pulse), the two figures share the same pulse names: one, one-ah, two-and. The common figure known as the
''habanera'' consists of tresillo with the second main beat.
:
\new RhythmicStaff
The
cinquillo
A cinquillo is a typical Cuban/Caribbean rhythmic cell, used in the Cuban contradanza (the " habanera") and the danzón.Mauleón, Rebeca (1993: 51). ''Salsa Guidebook: For Piano and Ensemble''. Petaluma, CA: Sher Music. The figure is also a comm ...
pattern is another common embellishment of tresillo. Cinquillo is used frequently in the Cuban contradanza (the "habanera") and the
danzón
Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Written in time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring se ...
. The figure is also a common
bell pattern
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...
found throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
:
\new RhythmicStaff
Bass tumbao
Tresillo is the rhythmic basis of many African and Afro-Cuban drum rhythms, as well as the
ostinato bass
tumbao In music of Afro-Cuban origin, tumbao is the basic rhythm played on the bass. In North America, the basic conga drum pattern used in popular music is also called ''tumbao''. In the contemporary form of Cuban popular dance music known as timba, piano ...
in Cuban
son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
-based musics, such as
son montuno
Son montuno is a subgenre of son cubano developed by Arsenio Rodríguez in the 1940s. Although ''son montuno'' ("mountain sound") had previously referred to the ''sones'' played in the mountains of eastern Cuba, Arsenio repurposed the term to de ...
,
mambo
Mambo most often refers to:
* Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form
*Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music
Mambo may also refer to:
Music
* Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...
,
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
...
, and
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...
. The example below shows a tresillo-based tumbao from "Alza los pies Congo" by
Septeto Habanero
A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry. ...
(1925).
:
In art music
Because of the popularity of the Cuban contradanza (habanera), the tresillo variant known as the ''habanera rhythm'' was adopted into European
art music
Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...
. For example,
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
's opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' (1874) has a famous
aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
, "
L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
Habanera (" usic or danceof Havana") is the popular name for "" (; "Love is a rebellious bird"), an aria from Georges Bizet's 1875 opéra comique '' Carmen''. It is the entrance aria of the title character, a mezzo-soprano role, in scene 5 o ...
" based on a habanera pattern. The first seven measures are shown below.
:
\header
\score
In addition,
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.
Life and ca ...
's first symphony, ''
La nuit des tropiques'' (lit. "Night of the Tropics") (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba. Gottschalk uses the tresillo variant
cinquillo
A cinquillo is a typical Cuban/Caribbean rhythmic cell, used in the Cuban contradanza (the " habanera") and the danzón.Mauleón, Rebeca (1993: 51). ''Salsa Guidebook: For Piano and Ensemble''. Petaluma, CA: Sher Music. The figure is also a comm ...
extensively. With Gottschalk, we see the beginning of serious treatment of Afro-Caribbean rhythmic elements in New World art music. Tresillo and the habanera rhythm are heard in the left hand of Gottschalk's salon piano compositions such as ''Souvenir de la Havane'' ("Souvenirs From Havana"'')'' (1859).
Cinquillo-Tresillo in the French Antilles
Bélé
A bélé is a folk dance and music from Martinique, St. Lucia, Dominica, Haiti, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad and Tobago. It may be the oldest Creole dance of the creole French West Indian Islands, and it strongly reflects influences from ...
(also called ''belair'') was developed in rural
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
and is played on a drum of the same name. The drum is played by two performers: one straddles the drum, playing on the drumhead with both hands and a foot (which is used to dampen and undampen the drumhead in order to produce different pitches); the other performer uses a pair of sticks (called ''
tibwa
Historically, idiophones (percussion instruments without membranes or strings) have been widespread throughout the Caribbean music area, which encompasses the islands and coasts of the Caribbean Sea. Some areas of South America that are not geogra ...
'') to beat out characteristic and intricate cross-rhythms on the side of the drum.
In bélé, the cinquillo-tresillo is beat out by the tibwa, but it translates very well to the ''chacha'' (a
maracas
A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...
) when the rhythms are applied for playing
biguine
Biguine ( , ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, bigin) is a rhythm-centric style of music that originated from Saint Pierre, Martinique in the 19th century. It fuses Bèlè and 19th-century French ballroom dance steps with African rhythms.
History
...
music. The biguine, a modern form of bélé, is accompanied by
call-and-response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
singing and by dancing. The tibwa rhythm also provided inspiration for the
chouval bwa
Chouval bwa is a kind of folk music originated on the slave plantations of Martinique. There are two versions, traditional and modern. Chouval bwa has been popularized by artists such as Claude Germany, Tumpak, Dede Saint-Prix, and Pakatak.
...
and then for
zouk
Zouk is a musical movement pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm and a loud horn section. The fast zouk béton of Martini ...
(two Antillean popular music).
In zouk, the rhythm is often simplified to an almost-constant motif and played with
rimshot
A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of a drum with a drum stick.
The sound and various techniques
The sound of rimshots can be ...
s on the snare while the chacha or hi-hats play the cinquillo-tresillo rhythm.
In African-American music
Ragtime and jazz
African-American music
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slave ...
began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 1800s with the popularity of the Cuban
contradanza
''Contradanza'' (also called ''contradanza criolla'', ''danza'', ''danza criolla'', or ''habanera'') is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th centu ...
(known outside of Cuba as the
''habanera''). The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif (1803). Musicians from
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. and
would take the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform and not surprisingly, the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile city of New Orleans. The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States, and reinforced and inspired the use of tresillo-based rhythms in African American music.
From the perspective of African American music, the habanera rhythm can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the
backbeat
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...
.
:
\new Staff <<
\relative c'
>>
Tresillo in African American music is one of the clearest examples of African rhythmic retention in the United States. There are examples of tresillo-like rhythms in a few African American folk musics such as the foot stomping patterns in
ring shout
A shout or ring shout is an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, first practiced by African slaves in the West Indies and the United States, in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. ...
and the post-Civil War drum and fife music. Tresillo is also heard prominently in New Orleans
second line music.
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Award ...
considers tresillo to be the New Orleans "
clave", although technically, the pattern is only half a clave.
John Storm Roberts
John Storm Roberts (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2009) was a British-born, U.S.-based ethnomusicologist, writer and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of Original Music, a mail-order company that distributed world music bo ...
states that "the habanera reached the United States 20 years before the first
rag
Rag, rags, RAG or The Rag may refer to:
Common uses
* Rag, a piece of old cloth
* Rags, tattered clothes
* Rag (newspaper), a publication engaging in tabloid journalism
* Rag paper, or cotton paper
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Rags'' (1915 ...
was published."
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin ( 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, he was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his career, he wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ra ...
's "
Solace
Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and ...
" (1909) is considered a habanera. For the more than quarter-century in which the
cakewalk
The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black Slavery in the United States, slave plantations before and after End ...
,
ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
and proto-
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African American popular music.
Ned Sublette
Ned Sublette (born 1951 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American composer, musician, record producer, musicologist, historian, and author. Sublette studied Spanish Classical Guitar with Hector Garcia at the University of New Mexico and with Emilio Puj ...
postulates that the habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk", while Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass."
![MortonBricktopRowCropMortonFace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/MortonBricktopRowCropMortonFace.jpg)
Early New Orleans
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
bands had habaneras in their repertoire and the tresillo/habanera was a rhythmic staple of jazz at the turn of the 20th century. For example, "
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
" (1914) by
W.C. Handy has a tresillo bass line.
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
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." 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.
:
James P. Johnson
James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...
's influential "
Charleston" rhythm is based on the first two strokes of tresillo. Johnson said he learned the rhythm from dockworkers in the
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
city of the same name. Although the exact origins of jazz
syncopation may never be known, there is evidence that the habanera/tresillo was there at its conception.
Buddy Bolden
Charles Joseph "Buddy" Bolden (September 6, 1877 – November 4, 1931) was an African American cornetist who was regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of ragtime music, or "jass", which later ca ...
, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a tresillo/habanera-based pattern. The big four 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.
:
\new Staff <<
\relative c'
>>
In ''Early Jazz; Its Roots and Musical Development'',
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.
Biography and works
Early years
Schuller was born in Queens, New York City, ...
states:
R&B
![DaveBarth_Cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/DaveBarth_Cropped.jpg)
In the late 1940s,
R&B music borrowed tresillo directly from Cuban music.
In a 1988 interview with
Robert Palmer, Bartholomew revealed how he initially superimposed tresillo over
swing rhythm.
Bartholomew referred to son by the misnomer ''rumba'', a common practice of that time. On Bartholomew's 1949 tresillo-based "Oh Cubanas", we clearly hear an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music.
Fats Domino's "Blue Monday", produced by Bartholomew, is another example of this now classic use of tresillo in R&B. On Bartholomew's 1949 tresillo-based "Oh Cubanas" we clearly hear an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music. In his composition "Misery" (1957), New Orleans pianist
Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd) plays a habanera-like figure in his left hand.
:
The bass line on
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's 1956 "
Hound Dog" is perhaps the most well known rock 'n roll example of the tresillo rhythm pattern.
Post-bop
The first
jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...
composed by a non-Latin to play off of the correlation between tresillo and the hemiola, was
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...
's "
Footprints
Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hoof, hooves or paws rather than foot, feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by ...
" (1967). On the version recorded on ''
Miles Smiles
''Miles Smiles'' is an album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released on February 16, 1967 on Columbia Records. It was recorded by Davis and his second quintet at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City on October 24 and October 25, 1966. It i ...
'' by
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
, the bass switches to tresillo at 2:20. This type of African-based rhythmic interplay between the two pulse (subdivision) structures, was explored in the 1940s by
Machito
Machito (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. Ginell, Richard S. ''Biography''. Allmusic, 2011/ref> He w ...
's
Afro-Cubans
Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...
. Those structures are accessed directly by
Ron Carter
Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...
(bass) and
Tony Williams (drums), via the rhythmic sensibilities of
swing. Throughout the piece, the four beats, whether sounded or not, are maintained as the temporal referent.
In the example below, the main beats are indicated by slashed noteheads. They are shown here for reference and do not indicate bass notes.
:
Mongo Santamaria
Mongo may refer to:
Geography Africa
* Mongo, Chad, a Sahel city
* Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo (Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction)
* Mongo, Sierra Leone, a chiefdom
* Mongo River (Little Scarces River), Guinea and Sierra Leone, a tributa ...
used the tresillo bass pattern in his 1958 jazz standard “
Afro Blue
"Afro Blue" is a jazz standard composed by Mongo Santamaría.
Santamaria version
Mongo Santamaria recorded his composition "Afro Blue" in 1959 when playing with the Cal Tjader Sextet. The first recorded performance was on April 20, 1959, at th ...
”.
In Middle Eastern and Asian music
Tresillo is found within a wide geographic belt stretching from
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
to
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. Tresillo is used in many different types of music across the entire continent of Africa. Use of the pattern in
Moroccan music
Moroccan music varies greatly between geographic regions and social groups. It is influenced by musical styles including Arab, Berber, Andalusi, Mediterranean, Saharan, West African, and others.
Musical styles vary by geography. Andalusi music ...
can be traced back to slaves brought north across the Sahara Desert from present-day
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
. This pattern may have migrated east from North Africa to Asia through the spread of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. In Egyptian music and music from the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
, the Tresillo pattern is referred to as "Malfouf". African-based music has a
divisive rhythm
In music, the terms ''additive'' and ''divisive'' are used to distinguish two types of both rhythm and meter (music), meter:
* A divisive (or, alternately, multiplicative) rhythm is a rhythm in which a larger period of time is divided into smalle ...
structure.
[Novotney, Eugene D. (1998: 100). Thesis]
''The 3:2 Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics''
''UnlockingClave.com''. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois. Tresillo is generated through cross-rhythm. In
Middle Eastern and
Asian music
Asian music encompasses numerous musical styles originating in many Asian countries.
Musical traditions in Asia
* Music of Central Asia
** Music of Afghanistan (when included in the definition of Central Asia)
** Music of Kazakhstan
** Music ...
, the figure is generated through
additive rhythm
In music, the terms ''additive'' and ''divisive'' are used to distinguish two types of both rhythm and meter (music), meter:
* A divisive (or, alternately, multiplicative) rhythm is a rhythm in which a larger period of time is divided into smalle ...
, :
In divisive form, the strokes of tresillo contradict the beats. In additive form, the strokes of tresillo ''are'' the beats. From a metrical perspective then, the two ways of perceiving tresillo constitute two different rhythms. On the other hand, from the perspective of simply the pattern of attack-points, tresillo is a shared element of traditional folk music from the northwest tip of Africa to southeast tip of Asia. Today, through the global spread of hip-hop music, we hear the tresillo bass drum superimposed over traditional genres in dance clubs across the vast Africa–Asia "tresillo-belt".
Notes and references
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Cuban music
African rhythm
Articles containing video clips