Bomba
Puerto Rico's oldest drum music, where the high drum follows the dancer's feet.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
The low drum lane is the buleador and it does not move: beat 1, the and of 2, beat 3 and the and of 4, in both bars, with two extra strokes late in bar two. The cua is the sticks on the barrel and it is equally fixed, on beat 1, the a of 1, beat 2, the and of 2 and the same four positions in the second half, accented at 96 on beats 1 and 3. Against those two, look at the primo lane. In bar one it shares no position at all with either of them, and it plays a completely different figure in bar two, which is the point of the whole tradition: that drum is answering a dancer and it is supposed to change. The maraca runs eighths, loud and soft alternating. Both hi-hat rows are unfilled, because there is no metal anywhere in a bomba ensemble. What a grid cannot show is that a good primo player is looking at somebody, not at a screen.
What it is
Loiza, Ponce, Mayaguez and the sugar plantations around them, from the seventeenth century onwards. Bomba is barrel drums, a pair of sticks on the side of one of them, a maraca and a singer, and the thing that makes it unlike anything else in this family is the direction of the conversation. The buleadores hold a fixed supporting figure. The high drum, the primo or subidor, does not accompany the dancer; the dancer leads and the drummer answers, matching the movements of the skirt and the feet stroke for stroke. There are more than a dozen named rhythms in the tradition. Sica, the one written out here, is the most commonly taught and the one you will hear first at a bombazo.
What it sounds like
Barrel drums with goatskin heads, played with bare hands, in a courtyard or a community centre. The low drums are open and boomy with a long decay nobody tries to control. The primo is tuned high and hit hard, and its slaps are the loudest thing in the room by a distance. The cua is two sticks on the wooden side of a barrel, dry and sharp with a little wood knock in it. A maraca, single not paired, shakes underneath. The voice is unamplified and the chorus answers it in unison, and if there is a recording microphone it is usually one, in the middle.
Key elements
- The dancer leadsThe primo player watches the feet and answers them. A bomba drum part is a transcription of somebody's dance, so no two performances of the same rhythm match.
- Buleadores hold stillThe low drums repeat one supporting figure for the length of the piece and do not decorate it. All the movement in the ensemble comes from above them.
- The cuaSticks on the side of a barrel, playing a fixed pattern that sits between the low drum strokes. It is the timekeeper, and it is made of the drum itself.
- SicaOne of many named bomba rhythms and the usual entry point. Others, like yuba and holandes, use different cua figures and a different feel entirely.
- No claveNothing in bomba is organised around a two-bar clave. This is the Puerto Rican tradition that owes least to Cuba, and it predates all of it.
How to get them
- Low drumsOne sample, tuned down, with the tail left long and no gate. Two buleadores playing the same figure a few milliseconds apart will get you most of the way to the sound of a real ensemble.
- PrimoA high conga or a tight djembe sample, slap and open tone, at 90 to 110. Write a different figure in every bar. If you find yourself copying and pasting, you have stopped playing bomba.
- CuaA stick sample with body in it rather than a clave click, because it is being struck against a wooden shell and not against another stick. High-pass at 400Hz and leave a little of the knock in.
- MaracaOne maraca, on the eighths, alternating loud and soft. Pan it slightly and do not layer a second one; the paired shaker sound belongs to other music.
- Record the roomBus the drums to one reverb with a short predelay and a lot of early reflections. The separate reverbs a modern mix gives each drum will pull the ensemble apart.
- Leave the gridPull the primo strokes ten to twenty milliseconds off the line, differently each time. This is played on hands, watching a person move, and it is not going to be quantised.
Reference points
Los Hermanos Ayala of Loiza, Rafael Cepeda and the Familia Cepeda, Modesto Cepeda, Tata Cepeda, Bomba Evolucion, and the bombazo tradition generally. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.