Timbales come in sets of two shallow, high-pitched drums, to which a percussionist often attaches other instruments like cymbals, cowbells and claves. Timbales appear in Latin musical genres from salsa to mambo to reggaeton. Sometimes a percussionist hits the top of the timbales, other time s/he keeps time hitting the sides. A little bit about the timbales, Enjoy a timbale solo, or two, or three.
COUNTRY: Cuba, Puerto Rico
KEY GENRES: Plena, Salsa
Is the bongo “the most Cuban instrument?”That’s what SalsaBlanca,com argues, and who’s to say they’re not right? The bongos, two small drums attached to one another that a percussionist can use to provide rhythmic accompaniment to most any Cuban music, originated in Cuba and became a staple drum for both changui and son. Watch the bongs in action in Cuba, and see how they fit into Havana son.
COUNTRY: Cuba, Puerto Rico (U.S.)
KEY GENRES: Salsa, Son, Salsa
The guiro is a staple percussion instrument found in many Latin-American types of music. Traditionally it is made of a hollow gourd with parallel notches cut into a side; musicians play it by scraping a wooden stick along the ridges.
COUNTRY: Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico (U.S.) and many others around the region
KEY GENRES: Plena, Salsa, Samba, Son and many more
Salsa is Puerto Rico’s most danceable musical export. The musical progeny of Cuban son from which it borrows its signature 3-2 and 2-3 clave patterns, the genre may have started in Cuba and Puerto Rico but really took root in the ’60s and ’70s in New York City where Puerto Rican immigrants fused son, mambo and little guaracha to make an extraordinary new musical form. Stars like Frankie Ruiz, Willie Colon, and Panamanian superstar Rubén Blades brought the music to the U.S., to Latin America, and by the mid ’70s to the world. Salsa bands are usually ambitions affairs, featuring many percussion instruments and horns, though the basic stripped-down ensemble consists of just claves, güiro, timbale, cowbell and congas. If you want to build your own rhythm, take a look at Stephen’s salsa page or the Salsa Beat Machine where you’ll be able to turn on and off the instruments as if you were leading your own big band. Speaking of which, see Colon and Blades together make a powerful duo on “Tiburon.”
COUNTRY: United States, Puerto Rico (U.S.), Cuba
KEY INSTRUMENTS: Bass, Bongo, Claves, Congas, Cowbell, Guiro, Maracas, Saxophone, Timbales, Trombone, Trumpet
SONG ON AATW: LATIN AMERICA CD: Un Barco Chiquitito (Cuban salsa)
COUNTRY: United States
LANGUAGE: Spanish
GENRE: Salsa
A rockin’ salsa tune by New York-based Willie Colon and Puerto Rican vocalist Hector Lavoe. The “murga” Lavoe is singing about is a reference to the groups of street musicians that gather during Carnival and march from spot to spot playing songs and getting people to dance. [wpspoiler name=”Willie Colon performs La Murga” style=”aatw-video” open=”true”][/wpspoiler]
“Barco chiquitito” is a Spanish song about a boat — a fantastic little boat, in our opinion. There are several versions of this song, but in the most widely sung, there is a little boat that can’t set sail for seven weeks, during which time provisions start to run out. In one translation, crew members get so hungry they eat their boots “with red sauce and a walnut,” get very sick and have to turn back. While our version is still a Spanish song about a boat, we not only let the ship sail, but say that it’s unable to stop sailing, then we also sing about an airplane that can’t stop flying, and, in class, we go through other modes of transport and say they can’t stop going either (a car, a bicycle, a pogo stick….).
Country: (many)
Language: Spanish
Genre on CD: Cuban salsa
Instruments on CD: Bass, Congas, Drum kit, Piano, Timbales, Trombone, TrumpetLYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION
Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Habia una vez un barco chiquitito
Que no podia, no podia, no podia parar.
Once upon a time there was a little boat
Once upon a time there was a little boat
Once upon a time there was a little boat
And it could, and it could, and it could not stop.
Vocals: Tony Perez
Bass: Rob Hagopian
Piano/Keyboard: John Stengel
Trombone: James Negron
Trumpet: Nelson Miranda
Drums/percussion: Francois Zayas
Percussion: Arturo Stable
Drums, keyboard and bass engineered and co-produced by Mark Wolfe at Audio Mind.
Vocals and horns engineered by Erich Miller
Original is "Un Barco Chiquitito" © Alpha Film Music on behalf of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, translation and arrangement by Jay Sand with permission, Instrumental arrangement by Arturo Stable
Listen to an original version performed by Octavio Corvalan on the Smithsonian Folkways release, "Vamos a Cantar: Let Us Sing: A Collection of Children's Songs in Spanish."
