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TOURS - GIRAS
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Timba In 2004, I edited and cowrote The Tomás Cruz Conga Method, a 3-volume Mel Bay book/DVD series. Volume I is a beginning conga method book, Volume II covers a wide range of pre-timba rhythms which Tomás drew upon in developing his style, and Volume III shows in detail how the congas are played in one specific timba group, Paulito FG y su Élite, with particular emphasis on a crucial organizational concept for which I coined the term "gears". The gear concept worked perfectly for Paulito FG's music but I was disappointed when I tried to apply it to the other timba bands. Finally, Orlando Fiol, another co-author of the Tomás Cruz series, began to come up with a series of brilliant ideas which hinted at the possibility of a more general theory of gears. Since then, I've found myself obsessively, but systematically, running Orlando's theories through the full range of Cuban music -- from its Afrocuban folkloric origins, to the many 20th Century genres which preceded timba, to the full pantheon of major timba bands of the 1990s and 2000s. I hope to compile all of this research into a new 4-volume set with the ultimate goal of explaining how all of the rhythm section instruments are played in all of the major timba bands. The working title is "Timba: Understanding Cuban Rhythms". This "book" will be published entirely online here at timba.com. Unlike The Tomás Cruz Conga Method, this new project doesn't deal with the technique of playing the instruments. Its target readers are listeners, dancers, and arrangers seeking to understand the overarching rhythmic concepts of Cuban music. It doesn't attempt to teach you to play, but rather, how to listen and understand. The current blueprint calls for four volumes: Volume I: The Roots of Timba -- A study of the history and rhythms of Cuban music, concentrating on the artists and eras that were most important to the development of timba. Volume II: The Elements of Timba -- A study of each instrument of the rhythm section - the elements that are combined to create "gears". Volume III: Timba Gears -- The central premise of the book is that the "gear" concept introduced in the Tomás Cruz books can be generalized to apply to all of the major timba bands. Each gear, and each family of gears is explained in depth. Volume IV: The History of Timba -- A survey of the major timba bands, continuing the timeline that began with The Roots of Timba, and showing how the generalized gear system applies to each one. How to Listen to and Obtain the Musical Excerpts Writing a book "online" has various advantages, but there's one which outweighs all the others, and even outweighs the most compelling disadvantage (you don't make any money!). This all-trumping advantage is simple: musical examples can be embedded directly into each paragraph [source], and as long as I don't quote the whole song, and provide a link to a site where you can buy the whole album, I can embed examples to my heart's content. And the reader can listen to the example being discussed while reading. Once you get used to this -- simply put -- there's no going back. This is the only way to write about music. Don't get me wrong -- I'll be the first one in line to buy Ned Sublette's next book -- but it's because he's a master storyteller -- not because I didn't need to buy 100 compact discs to fully appreciate his last epic odyssey. Music streaming will work automatically on most computers -- try clicking here [source] -- but if it doesn't, all you need to do is download a free program like WinAmp that can play .m3u files. Here's how it works:
When you click on Orquesta Aragón there will be a short delay for downloading and then you'll hear the musical excerpt through your computer's speakers. Try resizing the music application so that it's out of the way of the main page and doesn't interfere with your reading. You can also set the application to play the excerpt once, or to keep repeating it until you click on the next one. Note that after each musical link is a link that says (source). This will take you to a web page where you can buy the CD containing the excerpt. If it's available electronically from LatinPulse (our parent company), we use that link. Otherwise, we search reputable online stores like amazon.com and descarga.com and look for the best compilation at the best price. If any these links has stopped working, you may have to do a google search. Other blue links are links to other web pages. In short, if you see text in blue, clicking on it will do something to enhance your reading experience! How to Read the Rhythmic Notation Here's a typical example of the type of notation used in this book:
The red 0's indicate notes and the black x's indicate rests. Each line represent one clave, and the first line always shows the clave itself. If you find it difficult to follow, just listen to the MIDI example while following along and you'll quickly see that this is the easiest way to notate rhythm and also the way which best allows you to understand how it fits in with the clave and other parts. Since mono-spaced fonts are used, it's easy to see from the vertical alignment how the accents of each rhythm section part fit with the clave. Most examples will have two excerpts. In this one, bass tumbao will play a short excerpt from the original recording and MIDI will play a slowed down MIDI sequence to enable you to hear the part easily. Once you get it into your ear, you'll find it much easier to pick out of the audio excerpt. At the end we refer you to a source where the complete recording can be purchased. We also have a longer tutorial which (we claim) will teach you to read this type of notation in a mere 10 minutes! (en français: Didacticiel) Table of Contents
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