"Spanish tinge"—the Cuban influence in early jazz Although
clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-20th century, the Cuban influence was present at the birth of jazz.
African-American music began incorporating
Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the 19th century when the
habanera gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as "congo" can be thought of as a combination of
tresillo and the backbeat. {{block indent| \new Staff > }} Musicians from Havana and New Orleans took the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera took root.
John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published". For more than a quarter-century in which the
cakewalk,
ragtime, and
jazz were forming, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. "
St. Louis Blues" (1914) by
W. C. Handy has a habanera/tresillo bass line. The first measures are shown below. {{Block indent| { \new PianoStaff 8 4. 2 r8 c cis 4. 1 2 8 } >> \new Staff 4 g 1 d,4. fis'8 4 fis 4. fis'8 4 fis } >> >> } }} Handy noted a reaction to the habanera rhythm included in Will H. Tyler's "Maori": "I observed that there was a sudden, proud and graceful reaction to the rhythm...White dancers, as I had observed them, took the number in stride. I began to suspect that there was something Negroid in that beat." After noting a similar reaction to the same rhythm in "La Paloma", Handy included this rhythm in his "St. Louis Blues," the instrumental copy of "Memphis Blues," the chorus of "Beale Street Blues," and other compositions."
Jelly Roll Morton 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—Morton (1938: Library of Congress Recording)." 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. {{Block indent| { \new PianoStaff 4 r8 4 r8 } >> \new Staff 4. 8~ 4 4 4. 8~ 4 4 4. 8~ 4 4 } >> >> } }} Although the origin of jazz syncopation may never be known, there's evidence that the habanera/tresillo existed at its conception.
Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a habanera-based pattern. The big four (below) 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. {{Block indent| \new Staff } \repeat volta 2 { r8 \xNote a'\noBeam g, \xNote a' g, \xNote a'16. g,32 g8 } } >> }} In
Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development,
Gunther Schuller states, The Cuban influence is evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes, but rhythmically they are all based on single-celled motifs such as tresillo, and do not contain an overt two-celled, clave-based structure. "
Caravan", written by
Juan Tizol and first performed in 1936, is an example of an early pre-Latin jazz composition. It is not clave-based. On the other hand, jazzy renditions of
Don Azpiazú's "
The Peanut Vendor" ("El manicero") by
Louis Armstrong (1930),
Duke Ellington (1931), and
Stan Kenton (1948), are all firmly in-clave since the 2-3
guajeo provides the primary counterpoint to the melody throughout the entire song.
Mario Bauzá and Machito The consensus among musicians and musicologists is that the first jazz piece to be based
in-clave was "Tanga" (1943) composed by Cuban-born
Mario Bauza and recorded by
Machito and his Afro-Cubans. "Tanga" began humbly as a spontaneous
descarga (Cuban jam session) with jazz solos superimposed on top. {{blockquote|The first descarga that made the world take notice is traced to a Machito rehearsal on May 29, 1943, at the Park Palace Ballroom, at 110th Street and 5th Avenue. At this time, Machito was at Fort Dix (New Jersey) in his fourth week of basic training. The day before at
La Conga Club, Mario Bauzá, Machito's trumpeter and music director, heard pianist Luis Varona and bassist Julio Andino play El Botellero composition and arrangements of the Cuban-born
Gilberto Valdez which would serve as a permanent sign off (end the dance) tune. On this Monday evening, Dr. Bauzá leaned over the piano and instructed Varona to play the same piano
vamp he did the night before. Varona's left hand began the introduction of Gilberto Valdés' El Botellero. Bauzá then instructed Julio Andino what to play; then the saxes; then the trumpets. The broken chord sounds soon began to take shape into an Afro-Cuban jazzed up melody. Gene Johnson's alto sax then emitted oriental-like jazz phrases. Afro-Cuban jazz was invented when Bauzá composed "Tanga" (African word for marijuana) that evening. Thereafter, whenever "Tanga" was played, it sounded different, depending on a soloist's individuality. In August, 1948, when trumpeter
Howard McGhee soloed with Machito's orchestra at the Apollo Theatre, his ad-libs to "Tanga" resulted in "Cu-Bop City," a tune which was recorded by Roost Records months later. The jams which took place at the Royal Roots,
Bop City, and Birdland between 1948 and 1949, when Howard McGhee, tenor saxophonist
Brew Moore,
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie sat in with the Machito orchestra, were unrehearsed, uninhibited, unheard of before jam sessions which at the time, master of ceremonies Symphony Sid called Afro-Cuban jazz. The Machito orchestra's ten- or fifteen-minute jams were the first in Latin music to break away from the traditional under-four-minute recordings. In February, 1949, the Machito orchestra became the first to set a precedent in Latin music when it featured tenor saxophonist
Flip Phillips in a five-minute recording of "Tanga." The twelve-inch 78 RPM, part of
The Jazz Scene album, sold for $25. The right hand of the "Tanga" piano
guajeo is in the style known as ponchando, a type of non-arpeggiated guajeo using block chords. The sequence of attack-points is emphasized, rather than a sequence of different pitches. As a form of accompaniment it can be played in a strictly repetitive fashion or as a varied motif akin to jazz comping. The following example is in the style of a 1949 recording by Machito, with René Hernández on piano. {{Block indent| { \new PianoStaff 4 r r r8[ ] r[ ] r4 } >> \new Staff > >> } }}
Ten innovations by Machito's Afro-Cubans Written by Bobby Sanabria, published on November 28, 2007 on a blog called latinjazz@yahoogroups • The first band to make
congas,
bongo, and
timbales the standard percussion in Afro-Cuban based dance music. The use of broken bell patterns by the bongocero in mambo horn sections, the increased rhythmic vocabulary of the conga drum and its function in a band setting, the increased importance of the timbales in setting up figures played by the horns and accenting them as a jazz drummer would do in a big band. e.g. "Nagüe," also the first recorded example of all three percussion instruments playing as a section. • The first band to explore jazz arranging techniques with Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis, giving it an identifiable sound. Cuban big band arranger Chico O'Farill stated, "This was a new concept in interpreting Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers." • The first band to explore modal harmony from a jazz arranging perspective through the recording of "Tanga". Of note is the 'sheet of sound' effect in the arrangement through the use of multiple layering. • The first big band to explore, from an Afro-Cuban rhythmic perspective, large-scale extended compositional works. e.g. "The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite" by Chico O'Farill. • The first band to combine big band arranging techniques within an original composition with jazz oriented soloists using an Afro-Cuban based rhythm section, e.g. Gene Johnson – alto, Brew Moore – tenor, composition – "Tanga" (1943). • The first multi-racial band in the United States. • The first band in the United States to use the term "Afro-Cuban" in its name (Machito & The Afro-Cubans), alluding to the West African roots of their music. This was an overlooked contribution by the orchestra to the burgeoning civil rights movement which compelled the Latin and African-American communities of New York to deal with their West African musical roots. • The first Afro-Cuban dance band to explore clave conterpoint from an arranging standpoint. The ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement. • Music director Mario Bauzá and lead vocalist Machito promoted a standard of excellence for subsequent band leaders, such as José Curbelo,
Tito Puente, Marcelino Guerra, Tito Rodriguez, and Elmo Garcia. Although it could be argued that
Xavier Cugat established such a standard much earlier with his orchestra at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel (1931), the sound emulated by bandleaders in New York City was different from Cugat's. Cugat performed for the high society of New York City, not the Latino community in East Harlem (El Barrio) and the South Bronx. Cugat's music was one they may have heard on the radio, but this community had little access to it. • The Machito Afro-Cubans provided a forum for progressive musical ideas, compositions, and arrangements. They explored the fusion of Afro Cuban music with jazz arranging and jazz-oriented soloists in a multiracial framework. Bauzá developed the 3-2/2-3 clave concept and terminology. A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. When the progression begins on the three-side, the song or song section is said to be in 3-2 clave. When the chord progression begins on the two-side, it is in 2-3 clave. When clave is written in two measures (above), changing from one clave sequence to the other is a matter of reversing the order of the measures. Bauzá balanced Latin and jazz musicians in Machito's band to realize his vision of Afro-Cuban jazz. He mastered both types of music, but it took time for him to teach the jazz musicians in Machito's band about clave. When trumpeter
Doc Cheatham joined the band, Machito fired him after two nights because he could not cope with clave. The rhythm of the melody of the A section is identical to a common mambo
bell pattern: {{Block indent| { \relative c' { \time 2/2 \key bes \major \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 108 f4 aes aes8 bes r[ bes->~] bes[ aes] f[ bes] r[ aes->] r[ bes] } } }}
1940s –1970s In early 1947
Stan Kenton recorded "Machito," written by his collaborator / arranger
Pete Rugolo. Some consider the piece to be the first Afro-Cuban jazz recording by American jazz musicians. John Storm Roberts observes that the piece "has no Latino instrumentalists on it, a lack of that is obvious; the crisp, fast montuno with which the piece opens is weighed down by not-so-adept drumming from Shelly Mann." "Afro Blue" was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2)
cross-rhythm, or
hemiola. with Jerry on congas and Andy on bass. During 1974–1976 they were members of one of
Eddie Palmieri's experimental salsa groups. Andy González recounts, "We were into improvising... doing that thing
Miles Davis was doing—playing themes and just improvising on the themes of songs, and we never stopped playing through the whole set."
The Cuban branch "Jazz bands" began forming in Cuba as early as the 1920s. These bands often included both Cuban popular music and popular North American jazz, and show tunes in their repertoires. Despite this musical versatility, the movement of blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz was not strong in Cuba itself for decades. As Leonardo Acosta observes: "Afro-Cuban jazz developed simultaneously in New York and Havana, with the difference that in Cuba it was a silent and almost natural process, practically imperceptible". ==Clave license==