A guajeo () is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term guajeo for ostinato patterns played specifically by a tres, piano, an instrument of the violin family, or saxophones. Piano guajeos are one of the most recognizable elements of modern-day salsa. Piano guajeos are also known as montunos in North America, or tumbaos in the contemporary Cuban dance music timba.
History The guajeo shares rhythmic, melodic and harmonic similarities with the short ostinato figures played on marimbas, lamellophones, and string instruments in sub-Saharan Africa. The guajeo is a seamless blend of African and European musical sensibilities, and was first played as accompaniment on the tres in the Afro-Cuban son and related music. The tres is a Cuban guitar-like instrument, consisting of three sets of double strings.
Changüí The guajeo emerged in Cuba during the 19th century, in the genres known as changüí and son.Lapidus, Ben (2008). Origins of Cuban Music and Dance; Changüí p. 16-18. Lanham, Massachusetts: Scarecrow Press. The following changüí tres guajeo consists of all offbeats.Moore, Kevin (2010). Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v.1 The Roots of Timba Tumbao p. 17. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com.
Son There are two types of pure son tres guajeos: generic and song-specific. Song-specific guajeos are usually based on the song's melody, while the generic type involves simply arpeggiating triads—Moore (2010).Moore, Kevin (2010). Beyond Salsa Piano v.1 p. 32. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com. The rhythmic pattern of the following "generic" guajeo is used in many different songs. Note that the first measure consists of all offbeats. The figure can begin in the first measure, or the second measure, depending upon the structure of the song.
Son montuno In the late 1930s Arsenio Rodríguez took the pivotal step of replacing the guitar with the piano in the son conjunto. The piano has ever since, been a staple of Cuban popular music, and its "offspring" salsa.
"Como traigo la yuca", popularly called "Dile a Catalina", may be Arsenio's most famous composition. The first half uses the changüí/son method of paraphrasing the vocal melody, but the second half strikes out into bold new territory – using contrapuntal material not based on the song's melody and employing a cross‐rhythm based on sequences of three ascending notes—Moore (2011: 39).Moore, Kevin 2009. Beyond Salsa Piano: The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v. 1. Beginning The Roots of Timba p. 39. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com.
Clave
Clave motif
3-2 clave
Most guajeos have a binary structure, with a specific alignment to the guide pattern known as clave. As Kevin Moore explains: "There are two common ways that the three-side is expressed in Cuban popular music. The first to come into regular use, which David Peñalosa calls 'clave motif,' is based on the decorated version of the three-side of the clave rhythm."Moore 2011 p. 32. Understanding Clave and Clave Changes. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com. The following guajeo example is based on a clave motif. The three-side (first measure) consists of the tresillo variant known as cinquillo. Because the chord progression begins on the three-side, this guajeo is said to be in a three-two clave sequence.
2-3 clave
A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. "One" can therefore be on either the three-side, or the two-side, because the harmonic progression, rather than the rhythmic progression is the primary referent.Peñalosa 2010 p. 136. The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins. Redway, California: Bembe Inc. . When a chord progression begins on the two-side of clave, the music is said to be in two-three clave. The following guajeo is based on the clave motif in a two-three sequence. The cinquillo rhythm is now in the second measure.
Offbeat/onbeat motif
3-2 clave
Moore: "By the 1940s [there was] a trend toward the use of what Peñalosa calls the 'offbeat/onbeat motif.' Today, the offbeat/onbeat motif method is much more common."Moore 2011 p. 32. Understanding Clave. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com. . With this type of guajeo motif, the three-side of clave is expressed with all offbeats. The following I IV V IV progression is in a three-two clave sequence. It begins with an offbeat pick-up on the pulse immediately before beat 1. With some guajeos, offbeats at the end of the two-side, or onbeats at the end of the three-side serve as pick-ups leading into the next measure (when clave is written in two measures).
2-3 clave
This guajeo is in two-three clave because it begins on the downbeat, emphasizing the onbeat quality of the two-side. The figure has the same exact harmonic sequence as the previous example, but rhythmically, the attack-point sequence of the two measures is reversed. Most salsa music is in two-three clave, and most salsa piano guajeos are based on the two-three onbeat/offbeat motif.
Ponchando Ponchando is a term for 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, California: Bembe Inc. . Clave is written in two measures.
This ponchando pattern is familiar to many as Santana's "Oye Como Va". Moore states: "Hip fans will often flaunt their knowledge by pointing out that the song was originally recorded by Tito Puente in 1963, and before that by Arcaño y sus Maravillas as "Chanchullo" in 1957, but it goes all the way back to Cachao's "Rareza de Melitón" in 1942.Moore, Kevin (2009: 16). Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v.2 Early Cuban Piano Tumbao (1940–59). Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com.
Moñas A moña is a horn guajeo, which can be written or improvised. A section of layered, contrapuntal horn guajeos is also referred to sometimes as a moña. Moñas differ from typical rhythm section guajeos in that they often will rest for a beat or two within their cycle. Those beats within a measure not sounded by the moña are often "filled" by a chorus, or counter moña. What's known as the Cuban típico style of soloing on trombone draws upon the technique of stringing together moña variations. The following example shows five different variants of a 2–3 trombone moña improvised by José Rodrígues on "Bilongo" (c. 1969), performed by Eddie Palmieri. The examples are written in cut-time (2/2); there are two main beats per measure.
Moña 1 sounds every stroke of 2–3 clave except the first stroke of the three-side. Melodic variety is created by transposing the module in accordance to the harmonic sequence, as Rick Davies observes in his detailed analysis of the first moña:
The moña consists of a two-measure module and its repetition, which is altered to reflect the montuno chord progression. The module begins with four ascending eighth-notes starting on the second [quarter-note of the measure]. This configuration emphasizes the ... two-side of the clave. In both of the modules, these four notes move from G3 to Eb4. Although the first, third, and fourth notes (G3, C4, and Eb4) are identical in both modules, the second note reflects the change in harmony. In the first module, this note is the Bb3 third of the tonic harmony; in the module repetition, the A3 is the fifth of the dominant. Of the final five notes in the module, the first four are [offbeats]; the final D4 is on the [last quarter-note] in the second measure of the module. Along with the final D4, the initial D4 on the [last offbeat] in the first measure of the module and the Eb4 on the [offbeat] immediately preceding the final note of the module are identical in both modules. The [offbeats] in the second-module measure reflect the harmonic changes. The first version of the module is over the dominant chord and contains the pitches A3 (the fifth) and C4 (the seventh). A Bb3 is sounded twice on the two [offbeats] in the module's repetition and represents the third G minor tonic chord.Davies, Rick (2003: 149). Trompeta; Chappottín, Chocolate, and the Afro-Cuban Trumpet Style. .
Piano
Son montuno When the piano was added to the son conjunto, the harmonic possibilities were widened, facilitating the adaptation of jazz chords into guajeos in the 1940s. As Rebeca Mauleón points out though, the main "role of the pianist in Afro-Cuban music is a more rhythmic one."Mauleón, Rebeca (1993) Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble. p. 117. Petaluma, California: Sher Music. . The piano guajeos of Arsenio Rodríguez's group were innovative for their binary rhythmic structure, reflecting clave. The piano guajeo for "Dame un cachito pa' huele" (1946) completely departs from both the generic son guajeo and the song's melody. The pattern marks the clave by accenting the backbeat on the two-side. Moore observes: "Like so many aspects of Arsenio's music, this miniature composition is decades ahead of its time. It would be forty years before groups began to consistently apply this much creative variation at the guajeo level of the arranging process" (2009: 41).Moore 2009. p. 41.
Voicings The typical voicings for piano guajeos is octaves. Sonny Bravo explains:
"You can play it in octaves—single notes in both hands. Or you could double it up. When you're backing a singer, you don't want to get too intense. But when the horns come in on the mambo, you've got to cut through a little more. At that point, I'll double the octave in my right hand, while still playing a single note in the left. To get really intense, I'll play double octaves in both hands."Boggs, Vernon W., ed. (1991: 319). Sonny Bravo quote in "Secrets of Salsa Rhythm." Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Mambo In the late 1940s Dámaso Pérez Prado popularized the mambo, a genre which had been by that time, evolving for a decade. Pérez Prado moved to Mexico City in 1948 and started his own band, where he composed and recorded his most famous mambos.León, Javier F. "Mambo." Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture. Ed. Cordelia Chávez Candelaria, Arturo J. Aldama, Peter J. García, Alma Álvarez-Smith. 2 vols. Connecticut: Praeger, 2004: 510 While in Mexico, Pérez Prado earned the title El Rey del Mambo ('King of the Mambo'), and he appeared in several Mexican films. Pérez Prado's recordings were meant for the Latin American and U.S. Latino markets, but some of his most celebrated mambos, such as "Mambo No. 5" quickly "crossed-over" in the United States.León, Javier F. "Mambo." Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture. Ed. Cordelia Chávez Candelaria, Arturo J. Aldama, Peter J. García, Alma Álvarez-Smith. 2 vols. Connecticut: Praeger, 2004: 510. A "mambo craze" swept North America in the 1950s.
Descarga The right hand of the "Tanga" piano guajeo is another example of a ponchando pattern. "Tanga" was initially a descarga (Cuban jam session) with jazz solos superimposed, spontaneously composed by Mario Bauzá at a rehearsal (May 29, 1943). Descargas were the "laboratories" where instrumentalists honed their skill of soloing in-clave. "Tanga" was, over time, arranged with more complexity, and is generally considered the first original Latin jazz, or more correctly Afro-Cuban jazz tune. The following example is in the style of a 1949 recording by Machito, with René Hernández on piano.Moore, Kevin (2009). Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v.2 Early Cuban Piano Tumbaos (1940–59) p. 17. Santa Cruz, California: Moore Music/Timba.com.
Jazz
Guajeo motifs