“There can’t be many places left in the world that could make God smile, but Yemen is one of them….” So starts the LonelyPlanet.com entry on Yemen. Do the Lonely Planet travel writers love Yemen? You bet: “To travel in this most traditional of Islamic countries, surrounded by a people whom the Prophet once described as as the most gentle-hearted of men,” they continue, “is a privilege you will not quickly forget.” Yemen is not a standard
tourist destination, which both means there is little infrastructure in place to accommodate a foreign visitor and there’s also not an onslaught of visitors from the outside to poke, prod and over-photograph any of its most interesting destinations. If you do go to Yemen, gushes Lonely Planet, you’ll find “a little of everything,” such as:

— San’a, the capital, the world’s oldest city, which is still mysterious yet welcoming after all these years. [Watch this video, which makes San’a seem pretty darned funky.]
— Suqutra (Socotra) Island, “the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean,” which is said to a place in which you can find the secret of life. [Look at these incredible photos of Socotra’s unbelievable flowers and plants.]
— Shaharah, a fortified village that is difficult to reach but well worth the effort. [You can see for yourself in this video.]
— the Wadi Hadramawt oasis. [This video, some of which is shot by hot air balloon–seriously!–takes you through the desert on camels, so when you finally reach the oasis you understand how happy travelers were to arrive.]
— Zabid, which is not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its the hottest city on earth.

If you’re curious about what kind of adventures you may have if you get yourself to Yemen, visit the Yemeni entries on the seasoned traveler Joe’s travelblog called, “Joe’s Trippin.'” Joe, who lived and worked in Aden for several months until his unwilling and
abrupt departure, will take you on a virtual tour of some of his out-of-Aden explorations. Thinking of going to the beach down of al Khokha? Don’t bother. It’s overrated.
Same with the coastal city Hodaidah. Sierra Castle, though..? That’s worth the long, hot, sweaty, uphill hike.

The Latin/Caribbean “clave” is the pattern of beats that lays the rhythmic foundation for many genres of Latin music, from Cuban son to Jamaican mento to Puerto Rican salsa and beyond. But the clave is much more than a pattern–it’s a feeling, a motion, an unspoken sense. One may say the clave “originated” in Cuba due to the fact that Cuban “son” music was the first to feature a full manifestation of a syncopated rhythm that mixed syncopated African 6/8 beats with the Spanish 4/4 (look at the Everything is a Drum rhythmic overview if you have no idea what those numbers mean,), but really the clave is a pattern that developed in Africa over hundreds if not thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of years and just happened to accompany African slaves on their forced passage to the colonized West. (MamboCity’s introduction to clave, “Clave: the African Roots of Salsa,” seems to lay out the West Africa to Cuban son [via Cuban “rumba”] history well.)

Remember also that musical notation, especially rhythmic notation, doesn’t make the music but only feebly attempts to represent it so those of us who may not intrinsically “get it” can “understand.” The music itself comes first–what feels real, what feels right. For much Caribbean music, the pattern we’ll come to know as the clave feels “right” as a foundation. Clave is the heart and soul of so much Latin music. Let’s not allow the head to get in the way.

With that said, the beats of clave do have a very distinct and specific location within particular measures. There are four basic clave patterns. Click on the links to listen. (This Rhythmweb page lays it out fairly clearly and provides the audio examples linked below.)

— the 3-2 son clave: within two 4/4 measures the 3-2 son clave has three beats in the first measure and two in the second. Try counting, putting emphasis on what’s in bold and in caps

ONE and two AND three and FOUR and, one and TWO and THREE and four and. (Go ahead, count it out. Don’t be afraid.)

— the 2-3 son clave: two beats in the first measure, three in the second: one and TWO and THREE and four and, ONE and two AND three and FOUR and.

— the 3-2 rumba clave: three beats in the first measure, two in the second, with a slight pause before the third beat in the first measure.

ONE and two AND three and four AND, one and TWO and THREE and four and.

— the 2-3 rumba clave: two beats in the first measure, two in the second, with a slight pause before the third beat in the second measureone and TWO and THREE and four and, ONE and two AND three and four AND.

Whether a song’s clave is 3-2 or 2-3 depends on the way that particular piece of music feels. If musicians don’t find the right rhythmic essence of a song and start off on a 2-3 clave when the song is 3-2, they risk being “out of clave,” which is, to passionate Latin musicians, a dreadful sin. Throughout the tour of Caribbean genres we’ll take below we’ll note which genres rely on the clave, which don’t, and which take the clave and disrespectfully turn it on its ear.

The basic clave pattern does have its roots in Africa, where the syncopated rhythm appears as “the bell pattern” (often played on the gankogui bells) that is the cornerstone of many rhythms. For example, a common West African bell pattern is very much like son clave–listen to the 1-2-3, 1-2 pattern this drummer uses to start his lesson, using a kpanlogo drum. In class, to get into the spirit of the African roots of the Caribbean/Latin clave, we’re going to listen to “Makola Kwakwe (Kpanlogo)” by Emashie, a multicultural “Afrosoul” ensemble based in Switzerland (Enmashie’s homepage | Watch Enmashie on their “Colours” tour in 2007). After that, we’ll count out the four claves. Then we’ll try, if we can manage it, to stop counting and FEEL.