Afro-Cuban Music

Overview

Rich, rhythmically-based music practices combined with singing and dance are not uncommon in the Caribbean and South America. They are the results of various degrees of syncretism with West African music and dance. The shared history of slavery in this part of the world, in the context of European colonialism, helps tie this vast area together. Nevertheless, there are regional differences due to various kinds of responses by musicians, which are informed by diverse socio-cultural and historical circumstances. Afro-Cuban music is a case in point.

The Afro-Cuban music discussed in this video is rhythmically complex and associated with various religious chants and dance. The music’s connection to religion plays an important role in the retention of Afro-Cuban identity. Traditional Cuban rhythms associated with African-based religions – along with Western historical denigration of these religions – contributes to the importance of these instruments and practices as markers of traditional identity.

Musician

Magdelys Savigne

Born in Santiago de Cuba and based in Toronto, Canada, Magdelys Savigne is a percussionist, singer, and composer. She was classically trained in orchestral percussion at the University of Arts in Havana, Cuba. She learned to play the batá (which she demonstrates in the video) in the streets of Havana with some of the major exponents of the instrument. She composed and arranged for many bands and performing arts companies in Cuba. After moving to Canada in 2014 to record and tour with the well-known jazz musician Jane Bunnett and her Juno-award winning band Maqueque, Magdelys founded her own musical project OKAN. This band won a Juno in 2021 for the best world music album of the year. She has performed in venues and festivals all over the world such as The Blue Note and Birdland jazz clubs in New York, the Miami Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers in New York, Koerner Hall in Toronto, and the Sydney Opera House. “Mags” has been playing percussion for over 20 years and has been featured and interviewed many times on various radio and television outlets including the CBC, Jazz FM91 and CIUT 89.5FM.

Terminology

An understanding of the following terms would be helpful before proceeding with the Video Content.

• Batá
• Clave
• Polyrhythm
• Cajón
• Call-and-response
• Orisha
• Iyá
• Itótele
• Okónkolo

Video Content

During this video, Magdelys discusses her background, the role of gender in Afro-Cuban drumming, as well demonstrating the central instrument of Afro-Cuban drumming, the three-drum set, batá. She also demonstrates various rhythms and chants and their relation to Afro-Cuban deities. She discusses the instrument’s make-up and playing techniques, their connection to religion and social practices, the role of improvisation, the music’s connection to dance, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the role of the clave (the instrument and rhythms). She ends the session with a discussion of the cajón, another important percussion instrument used in Afro-Cuban music.

Transcript: Afro-Cuban Music

Video Time Cues

• 0:06 Self-introduction, gender, and the drums
• 5:54 Women and percussion
• 6:46 Demonstration of drums; names each one
• 7:50 Demonstration with singing
• 9:36 Technique on each drum
• 10:55 Batá cajón—’touring’ batá
• 11:26 Tuning the drums
• 12:00 Call and response—each drum pattern
• 13:58 How the rhythms of the drums fit together
• 14:28 Real batá (religious)
• 16:14 Making the drums
• 17:44 ‘Artistic ‘ batá
• 19:27 Discussion of religious and musical syncretism
• 22:15 Rhythms, chants, stories, and deities
• 24:00 History of slavery/religion/languages & ethnicity
• 25:20 Musical examples related to deities
• 28:55 Learning batá for each of the 21 orishas
• 32:35 Interlocking. Call-and-response
• 34:18 The role of improvisation
• 35:25 Music and language/call-and-response/dance/chants
• 37:22 Music, singing, and dance
• 38:28 Polyrhythms
• 43:35 Syncopation
• 43:58 Clave
• 49:30 Clave rhythms in performance/internal clave
• 53:19 Side view of batá in performance
• 56:00 Different sounds on the drum
• 58:24 Polyrhythm
• 1:01:48 Performer’s perception/listener’s perception
• 1:06:25 You need to know when to come in
• 1:07:05 Cajón: origins in Spain or Peru
• 1:11:20 Counting “nines” in different ways
• 1:12:51 Cajón is “Spanish,” not “African”
• 1:15:00 Clave and moving beat one
• 1:16:40 Gender: batá and cajón
• 1:18:40 Learning batá and status of batá

Suggested Activities and Assessments

Terms

Create a limited-access wiki of the terms and their definitions listed in the Terminology section above. Students can work individually to create their own “wiki” as text files, or in teams (e.g., through a course website). Students research the meanings, and if relevant, the history of these terms.

Participation

1. Clave
   1. Central to Afro-Cuban music is the clave, both the rhythm and the instrument. Ask each student to perform two versions of the clave rhythm and to count them (as demonstrated by Magdelys) as they do so. Consider breaking learners into small groups or into video conferencing breakout rooms.
   2. Madgelys demonstrates various rhythms on the batá using the variations of the clave rhythm (see the Video Time Cues section above). At one point she articulates the clave rhythm while playing various rhythms. Ask students to perform the clave rhythm while Magdelys performs rhythms on the batá.
   3. Ask half of the class to perform some of the basic rhythms while the other half performs the appropriate clave rhythm.
   4. What’s wrong with this clave? Demonstrate clave beats, face-to-face or online, some correctly, some incorrectly. Students must determine: is the demonstration correct or not? And, if it is correct, is it the 2-3 or 3-2 clave?
2. Polyrhythm
   Also important to Afro-Cuban rhythm is polyrhythm. In this case, the polyrhythm is three-against-two or -four, as demonstrated by Magdelys. Count to six and have the class clap every two counts ending up with three claps in six beats. Count to six and have the class clap every three counts ending up with two claps in six beats. Have half the class perform the three counts with the other half performing the two claps in six beats. Make sure they are all together on beat one. Now switch halves.
   The following diagram illustrates:

   Table: Afro-Cuban Polyrhythm

   Two groups of three	X			x
   Beat	1	2	3	4	5	6
   Three groups of two	x		x		x

3. Quiz: Game Show
   Name That Drum
   Madgelys demonstrates each drum separately (see the Video Time Cues section above). Play the example of each drum and test students on identifying which drum is being played. Each drum has its own sonority and pitch range.
4. Debate
   Afro-Cuban music is the same as West African music in every way that counts. Not everyone may agree about what “counts” in West African and Afro-Cuban music, or in which ways and the degree to which these traditions are the same or different. Suggested topics relate to sound, behaviour, and concepts.

Research

Magdelys refers to the role of women in Afro-Cuban music. Cuba claims to be a revolutionary Marxist state. Why aren’t women equal in Cuban music? Are they equal in other spheres of society? There are several assumptions being made in the way this question is framed. The objective is to open a conversation about these assumptions.