Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, which includes samba and bossa nova.
Afro-Cuban jazz
"Spanish tinge"—The Cuban influence in early jazz and proto-Latin jazz African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the 19th century, when the habanera (Cuban contradanza) gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as congo,Manuel, Peter (2009: 69). Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. tango-congo,Acosta, Leonardo (2003: 5). Cubano Be Cubano Bop; One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books. or tango Mauleón (1999: 4) Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. .) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. Wynton Marsalis considers tresillo to be the New Orleans "clave," although technically, the pattern is only half a clave."Wynton Marsalis part 2." 60 Minutes. CBS News (26 June 2011).
"St. Louis Blues" (1914) by W. C. Handy has a habanera-tresillo bass line. Handy noted a reaction to the habanera rhythm included in Will H. Tyler's "Maori": "I observed that there was a sudden, proud and graceful reaction to the rhythm...White dancers, as I had observed them, took the number in stride. I began to suspect that there was something Negroid in that beat." After noting a similar reaction to the same rhythm in "La Paloma", Handy included this rhythm in his "St. Louis Blues", the instrumental copy of "Memphis Blues", the chorus of "Beale Street Blues", and other compositions.Father of the Blues: An Autobiography. by W.C. Handy, edited by Arna Bontemps: foreword by Abbe Niles. Macmillan Company, New York; (1941) pages 99, 100. no ISBN in this first printing Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo-habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz.Roberts, John Storm 1979. The Latin tinge: the impact of Latin American music on the United States. Oxford. The habanera rhythm can be heard in his left hand on songs like "The Crave" (1910, recorded 1938).
Now in one of my earliest tunes, "New Orleans Blues," you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz—Morton (1938: Library of Congress Recording).Morton, "Jelly Roll" (1938: Library of Congress Recording) The Complete Recordings By Alan Lomax.
Although the exact origins of jazz syncopation may never be known, there is evidence that the habanera-tresillo was there at its conception. Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a habanera-based pattern. The big four (below) was the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march.Marsalis, Wynton (2000: DVD n.1). Jazz. PBS As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.
It is probably safe to say that by and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions. Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed. It may also account for the fact that patterns such as [tresillo have] . . . remained one of the most useful and common syncopated patterns in jazz—Schuller (1968).Schuller, Gunther (1968: 19) Early Jazz; Its Roots and Musical Development. New York: Oxford Press.
The Cuban influence is evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes, but rhythmically, they are all based on single-celled motifs such as tresillo, and not do not contain an overt two-celled, clave-based structure. "Caravan", written by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington and first performed in 1936, is an early proto-Latin jazz composition. Mongo Santamaría recorded ever green "Watermelon Man" in 1962. Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham, and Willie Bobo released latin jazz albums. Willie Bobo fused jazz, latin, and R&B music.
Jazz in-clave
The first jazz piece to be overtly based in-clave, and therefore, the first true Latin jazz piece, was "Tanga" (1943) composed by Mario Bauza and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans the same year, 1943. The tune was initially a descarga (Cuban jam) with jazz solos superimposed, spontaneously composed by Bauzá.
The right hand of the "Tanga" piano guajeo is in the style known as ponchando, a type of non-arpeggiated guajeo using block chords. The sequence of attack-points is emphasized, rather than a sequence of different pitches. As a form of accompaniment it can be played in a strictly repetitive fashion or as a varied motif akin to jazz comping.Peñalosa, David 2010. The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins p. 256. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. . The following example is in the style of a 1949 recording by Machito. 2‐3 clave, piano by René Hernández.Moore, Kevin (2009). Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v.2 Early Cuban Piano Tumbao (1940–1959) p. 17. Santa Cruz, CA: Moore Music/Timba.com.
The first descarga that made the world take notice is traced to a Machito rehearsal on May 29, 1943, at the Park Palace Ballroom, at 110th Street and 5th Avenue. At this time, Machito was at Fort Dix (New Jersey) in his fourth week of basic training. The day before at La Conga Club, Mario Bauza, Machito's trumpeter and music director, heard pianist Luis Varona and bassist Julio Andino play El Botellero composition and arrangements of the Cuban-born Gilberto Valdez which would serve as a permanent sign off (end the dance) tune.
On this Monday evening, Dr. Bauza leaned over the piano and instructed Varona to play the same piano vamp he did the night before. Varona's left hand began the introduction of Gilberto Valdes' El Botellero. Bauza then instructed Julio Andino what to play; then the saxes; then the trumpets. The broken chord sounds soon began to take shape into an Afro-Cuban jazzed up melody. Gene Johnson's alto sax then emitted oriental-like jazz phrases. Afro-Cuban jazz was invented when Bauza composed "Tanga" (African word for marijuana) that evening of 1943.
Thereafter, whenever "Tanga" was played, it sounded different, depending on a soloist's individuality. In August 1948, when trumpeter Howard McGhee soloed with Machito's orchestra at the Apollo Theatre, his ad-libs to "Tanga" resulted in "Cu-Bop City," a tune which was recorded by Roost Records months later. The jams which took place at the Royal Roots, Bop City and Birdland between 1948 and 1949, when Howard McGhee, tenor saxophonist Brew Moore, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie sat in with the Machito orchestra, were unrehearsed, uninhibited, unheard-of-before jam sessions which at the time, master of ceremonies Symphony Sid called Afro-Cuban jazz.
The Machito orchestra's ten- or fifteen-minute jams were the first in Latin music to break away from the traditional under-four-minute recordings. In February 1949, the Machito orchestra became the first to set a precedent in Latin music when it featured tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips in a five-minute recording of "Tanga." The twelve-inch 78 RPM, part of The Jazz Scene album, sold for $25—Salazar (1997).Salazar, Max (1997). "The Beginning and Its Best" Latin Beat Magazine v.7 n. 1.
Mario Bauzá developed the 3-2 / 2-3 clave concept and terminology. A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. When the progression begins on the three-side, the song or song section is said to be in 3–2 clave. When the chord progression begins on the two-side, it is in 2–3 clave. In North America, salsa and Latin jazz charts commonly represent clave in two measures of cut-time (2/2); this is most likely the influence of jazz conventions.Mauleón, Rebeca (1993: 52) Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. . When clave is written in two measures (above) changing from one clave sequence to the other is a matter of reversing the order of the measures.
Bobby Sanabria, who was Bauzá's drummer, cites several important innovations of Machito's band: The first band to explore jazz arranging techniques with authentic Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis giving it a unique identifiable sound that no other band in the genre of Afro-Cuban based dance music had at the time. Cuban big band arranger Chico O'Farill stated: "This was a new concept in interpreting Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers."Notes from The Mambo Inn -The Story of Mario Bauza. PBS documentary (1998). The first band to explore modal harmony (a concept explored much later by Miles Davis and Gil Evans) from a jazz arranging perspective through their recording of "Tanga." Of note is the sheet of sound effect in the arrangement through the use of multiple layering. The first big band to explore, from an Afro-Cuban rhythmic perspective, large-scale extended compositional works. e.g. "The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite" by Chico O'Farill. The first band to successfully wed jazz big band arranging techniques within an original composition with jazz oriented soloists utilizing an authentic Afro-Cuban based rhythm section in a successful manner. e.g. Gene Johnson - alto, Brew Moore - tenor, composition - "Tanga" (1943). The first Afro-Cuban based dance band to overtly explore the concept of clave counterpoint from an arranging standpoint. The ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement.
Bauzá introduced bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie to the Cuban conga drummer Chano Pozo. "Manteca" is the first jazz standard to be rhythmically based on clave. "Manteca" was co-written by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo in 1947. According to Gillespie, Pozo created the layered, contrapuntal guajeos (Afro-Cuban ostinatos) of the A section and the introduction, and Gillespie wrote the bridge. The rhythm of the melody of the A section is identical to a common mambo bell pattern.
On March 31, 1946, Stan Kenton recorded "Machito," written by his collaborator / arranger Pete Rugolo, which is considered by some to be the first Latin jazz recording by American jazz musicians. The Kenton band was augmented by Ivan Lopez on bongos and Eugenio Reyes on maracas. Later, on December 6 the same year, Stan Kenton recorded an arrangement of the Afro-Cuban tune "The Peanut Vendor" with members of Machito's rhythm section.
Latin Jazz 1950s - 1960s Kenny Dorham "Minor's Holiday", "Basheer's Dream", Hank Mobley "Recado Bossa Nova" and Sabu Martinez jazz tune developed Afro-Cuban jazz from 50s to 60s.
Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria recorded album "Afro Blue" in 1959."Afro Blue," Afro Roots (Mongo Santamaria) Prestige CD 24018-2 (1959). "Afro Blue" was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2) cross-rhythm, or hemiola.Peñalosa, David (2010). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins p. 26. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. . The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of 12/8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato "Afro Blue" bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to "keep time."
Bossa nova