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by Dr. Christopher Washburne
In many musical discussions, styles of music found
in the Americas and the Caribbean are often referred
to as African-derived. Salsa is no exception and
the following discussion explores what is particularly
African about the music: clave, a rhythmic concept
found in a variety of Latin-American styles. Similarities
in sound and function to African bell patterns
provide evidence towards a theory of clave's origins
and an evolutionary link between African music
and salsa.
SYOTOS band at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, with
bandleader Dr. Chris Washburne on trombone and
Bobby Sanabria on drums.Salsa is a Latin musical
style that incorporates a variety of influences.
Originating in Cuba and Puerto Rico and emerging
from the musical climate of New York City in the
1950s, it has found popularity throughout the
Americas and the other Caribbean islands, as well
as in Europe and Japan. Salsa has its roots in
Cuban popular and folkloric music and is enhanced
by jazz textures. The name salsa, literally meaning
"sauce," has been in use since the late
1960s, popularized by New York's Fania Records
as a "catchy" marketing label. Salsa
is often thought of as Latin essence, as the word
"soul" has been a description for black
American essence (Baron 1977 : 217).
In Spanish, clave literally means key, clef, code,
or keystone. Fernando Ortiz believes that it is
derived from "clavija," meaning wooden
peg, reflecting the appearance of the instrument
which plays the clave rhythm, called claves (Ortiz,
1935: 9). Claves are two wooden sticks hit together
to produce a high piercing sound. If no clave
player is present in a salsa band, timbale players
will often attach a hollowed-out, hard plastic,
open-ended box to their cowbell stand and strike
it with their sticks to produce a clave sound.
In Latin music terminology, the word clave refers
not only to these instruments but also to the
specific rhythmic patterns they play and the underlying
rules which govern these patterns. Concerning
these rules, Steve Cornelius chooses the analogy
of a "keystone, the wedge shaped stone placed
at the top of an arch which locks all the other
stones in place" to describe the function
of the clave in relation to all of the other parts
in the music (Cornelius, 1991: 15). All musical
and dance components in salsa performance are
governed by the clave rhythm. In some way they
must correspond at all times to the clave rhythmic
pattern.
The
clave pattern is two measures in length "in
which each measure is diametrically opposed. The
two measures are not at odds, but rather, they
are balanced opposites, like positive and negative,
expansive and contractive, or the poles of a magnet.
As the full pattern is repeated, an alteration
from one polarity to the other takes place creating
pulse and rhythmic drive. Were the pattern to
suddenly be reversed, the momentum within the
rhythm would be destroyed…" (Cornelius,
1991: 15-6). The clave found in salsa, also known
as son clave is notated in example 4. How a song
begins determines which measure of the clave will
be played first. The phrasing of the melody is
the determining factor (e.g. where the accented
rhythms of melody occur). This is referred to
as either 3-2 or 2-3, meaning either the measure
with the three strokes is played first with the
two stroke measure following, or the two stroke
is played first followed by the three stroke measure.
According to tradition once a song begins the
clave does not change its measure order. For instance
there could never be a 3-2-2-3 clave sequence.
Once the song has begun it functions similarly
to the continuous bell patterns found in West
African musical traditions by providing a rhythmic
formula which serves as the foundation. As Roberta
Singer states "Clave is a rhythmic time line
that… functions as a rhythmic organizing
principle for the entire ensemble" (Singer,
1982: 168). The rhythm may be overtly played,
or implied. Competent musicians in salsa must
develop a "clave sense" similar to what
Richard Waterman labels a "metronome sense"
where a subjective pulse is felt by the participants
which may not be overtly heard and which functions
as an ordering principle (Waterman 1952).
The clave concept reaches far beyond the musical
context as demonstrated by the following excerpt
from the inscription found on the inside cover
of the first issue of New York's Clave magazine,
published throughout the 1970s:
Clave. …To us the word goes beyond explanations
and definitions. It means life, salsa, the food
of our leisure time, the motion of intense rhythm,
the emotion of 20,000 people simultaneously grooving
to the natural sounds of life. It's being in beat,
on key, on clave… It means to be on top
of things, to be playing it right... "Clave
is history, it's culture. African drums from far
off places like Nigeria, Dahomey, and Ghana married
the Spanish guitar to bring us clave. The seeds
were planted in the Caribbean and now their grandchild
is Salsa...
This declaration effectively illustrates the broad
range of the clave concept and some of its descriptive
uses. More importantly it reaffirms the African
roots of the rhythm.
The following evolutionary theory concerning the
clave rhythm's origins, which may explain why
Africa and its hereditary nature are mentioned
in the Clave publication, is based on three assumptions.
First, when the 700,000 African slaves arrived
in Cuba during the 1770s they did not forget the
bell patterns from the traditional music of their
past but rather incorporated them into music making
in their new surroundings. Secondly, this particular
pan-West African bell pattern (example 1) or something
similar existed during the 1700s. This assumption
is based on the pattern's prevalence today among
many different African peoples covering an expansive
area. Thirdly, as new practices emerged from the
combining of various African peoples in the New
World, new performance styles arose. As the above
inscription suggests, the performance of clave
is a living and breathing tradition shaped by
the performance practice of individuals. Each
musician contributes to the proliferation and
evolution of the tradition by their own subtle
variations of feel and nuance. Over time, a subtle
peculiarity or feel may become the standard replacing
an older practice.
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Rumba is a style of music originating from African
slaves and their descendants living in Cuba. Some
of oldest recorded Cuban rumba styles, such as
rumba Columbia originating from the small towns
of the island's interior, are performed with a
12/8 feel, similar to musics where the bell pattern
in example 1 is performed. However, in rumba Columbia
the bell pattern or clave is slightly different
from the one notated in this example. Instead
of consisting of seven strokes, two of the them
are omitted while the others remain intact (example
2). In some Haitian musical styles the same two
strokes are omitted but the pattern is started
on the third stroke instead. The reason for this
omission may never be known since it occurred
before recording technology was available. It
may have started with an individual variation,
or, was the result of the fusing of two or more
African styles.
Another later style of rumba emerged from urban
areas in a quasi-4/4 feel instead of 12/8 , called
Guaguancó. The duple meter feel may have
been the result of the influence of marching bands
and other Spanish styles often heard in the larger
cities throughout the 1700s. The clave used in
Guaguancó appears to be an adaptation of
the clave rhythm found in rumba Columbia to fit
the new metric feel (example 3). This is most
often referred to as rumba clave.
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The next step of the evolution came from a simplification
of styles. The son clave, used in salsa, displaces
the final stroke of the 3 part of the rumba clave
by one eighth note (example 4). This, consequently,
as with all of the other adaptations, changed
the musical parts. The name "son clave"
was coined because of its use in son , a Spanish-influenced
musical style originating in the rural areas of
Cuba in the early 1900s. The rhythm of son tends
to be much less complex, less syncopated and polyrhythmic,
than the rumba styles requiring the modification
of the clave rhythm.
Another factor that led to this simplification
was the growing popularity of Latin music in countries
other than Cuba. The foreign dancers were not
always able to assimilate the complex rumba dance
styles, therefore changes were made to accommodate
the new audience.
The rumba tradition has continually been a stylistic
influence on salsa music and performance, but
the predominance of this new expanding market
required change. The result was the preference
of the son clave over the rumba clave to facilitate
learning of the new dance styles. This theory
can be tested with any newcomer to Latin music.
The son clave will be inevitably easier to clap
than the rumba clave. The son clave grew to prominence
during the mambo dance craze of the 1950s in the
United States and Puerto Rico and has remained
in use in salsa performance today. Occasionally,
salsa arrangements will have short rumba sections,
or interludes, but will invariably resume the
son clave for the body of the arrangement.
Current drumming styles in Ghana also suggest
that a similar process of rhythmic adaptation
has occurred. Patterns resembling rumba and son
clave in both rhythmic construction and function
are occasionally found. For instance, in David
Locke's book Drum Gahu there is a description
of a "gankogui" pattern (example 5)
that "establishes the overall rhythm of Gahu"
and when playing this music one should "always
try to establish your feeling for timing and groove
by concentrating on this sounded phrase"
(Locke, 1987: 16-19). This is precisely how salsa
musicians use the clave rhythm. Notice that the
gankogui has five strokes and only differs by
one stroke from the son clave. How long this style
of music has been performed in Ghana is not clear.
This pattern may have been in existence during
the slave trade era.
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The
search for Africanisms in the music of the Americas
has been one approach scholars have taken throughout
the last fifty years to understand the roots of
black music. It is a quest that is wrought with
difficulties because of the degree of generalization
and speculation required due to the lack of objective
documentation in written or recorded form. The
processes of acculturation provide a complex of
issues that are too vast to address in this short
discussion. However, the similarities of the clave
rhythm and its function to African bell patterns
is worthy of note and may demonstrate the origins
of the clave concept found in salsa today. Throughout
this constantly evolving and changing process
there appears to be a process of simplification
occurring, if omitting strokes from the pan-African
bell pattern can be equated with simplifying,
as less rhythmically complex styles are fused
and merge with the African roots. This is not
to say that new types of complexities are not
formed with the newer styles but simply that music
change is constantly in motion. This one evolutionary
possibility is presented above in hopes to stimulate
future inquiries.
Dr. Christopher Washburne
Professor, Columbia University
Copyright
1999-2002 © C.Washburne
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