Salsa
Cuban son rebuilt in a New York basement, and the word a record label invented for it.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
Son clave, 3-2, is in the bottom lane: beat 1, the and of 2 and beat 4 of bar one, then beat 2 and beat 3 of bar two. Put that next to the rumba entry and only one stroke has moved. The bombo, in the kick lane, hits the and of 2 in both bars at 112, doubling the second clave stroke and outweighing everything else in the kit. Congas play a full marcha: quiet heel and toe strokes at 32 to 36, a slap on beat 2 at 90, and two open tones at 98 and 104 on beat 4 and the and of 4. The cascara runs eighths with gaps, accented at 92 where the clave sits. The hi-hat rows hold four hits between them across the whole loop, all of them closed, on beats 2 and 4, because the only cymbal here is a foot pedal and it never opens. Two things the grid misses: the bongo martillo, which fills every eighth this pattern leaves alone and which lives at notes 60 and 61 if you want to add it, and the bell that replaces the cascara once the coro starts.
What it is
Fania Records did not invent a rhythm, it invented a name. What the label was selling from about 1968 was Cuban son montuno and guaracha, played mostly by Puerto Rican musicians in New York, with Nuyorican arrangers writing harder and more angular horn parts than a Havana band would have. The rhythm section stayed almost exactly where Arsenio Rodriguez had left it: conga marcha, bongo martillo switching to the bell in the montuno, timbale playing cascara on the shells and bombo underneath. What New York added was volume, jazz voicings, and trombones. Musicians in Cuba have never much liked the word. The music it points at is still the clearest working example of how a two-bar clave organises a whole band.
What it sounds like
Horns first, everything else in support. Trombones voiced close and played loud enough to buzz, or trumpets in three-part harmony with no vibrato. The piano plays a montuno figure in octaves and stays in the middle of the keyboard. Bass is electric or upright, round, and anticipating every chord change by an eighth. Percussion is recorded live in one room: congas warm and mid-heavy, timbale shells dry and clacky, a bell that cuts through everything. The mix is wide but not deep, with very little reverb on the rhythm section and a plate on the vocals only.
Key elements
- The conga marchaHeel, toe, slap, toe on the first half of the bar and two open tones at the end of it. This is the same part songo plays; salsa just plays it without breaking it.
- CascaraSticks on the metal sides of the timbales, outlining the clave with extra strokes filled in around it. In the montuno the timbalero drops it and moves to the bell.
- The bombo strokeA pedal bass drum landing on the and of 2 of each bar, which is the second stroke of the clave. It is the heaviest single hit in the arrangement and it is not on a beat.
- The foot hi-hatThe timbalero's left foot closing a hi-hat on beats 2 and 4, quietly, and never opening it. It is the only cymbal in the pattern.
- Anticipated bassThe root of the next chord arriving on the and of 4, before the bar it belongs to. Play a salsa bassline on the downbeat and the whole arrangement flattens.
How to get them
- CongasThree samples: a soft heel or toe at around 34, a slap at 90 and an open tone at 100. The quiet strokes are half the part, so if you can hear them clearly in the mix you have them too loud.
- CascaraA dry stick on metal, high-passed at 700Hz, panned about twenty percent. Program it in eighths and take out enough of them that the pattern breathes rather than runs.
- BomboA small pedal bass drum, tuned high for a kick and damped, sitting around 90Hz. Put it on the and of 2 and give it more velocity than anything else in the kit.
- Bell for the montunoWhen the vocal coro starts, mute the cascara and bring in a bongo bell on the quarters with a couple of offbeats. That switch is the arrangement telling the dancers the section changed.
- PianoOctaves, right hand only for the first pass, and let the figure cross the barline. Record it slightly ahead of the grid; a quantised montuno sounds like a demo instantly.
- Tempo190 in the fast count that the band uses, so the thirty-two steps here are two bars and one full clave. Halve it to 95 if your project is at a house tempo and you want the cycle in one bar.
Reference points
Arsenio Rodriguez first, then Fania: Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades, and Tito Puente and Manny Oquendo on timbales. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.