The cajón is a rectangular wooden box that percussionists sit upon, tilt slightly forward and slap with their hands to create the sounds of a drum. It first appeared in coastal Peru in the 1800s and became a fixture of Afri-Peruvian forms of music. The instrument could conceivably descend from a family of box-like musicians from West and Central Africa, or perhaps it arose more recently within the last century when musical Cuban fishermen used crates to ship cod. During the era of Peruvian slavery, when slave-owners forbade slaves from making music, slaves used common household items or seemingly innocuous items like shipping crates as instruments.

COUNTRY: Peru, Colombia
KEY GENRES: Afro-Peruvian, Cumbia

[/wpspoiler] [wpspoiler name=”Funky cajon solo by Juro videon” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”]