THE CLAVE IN HAVANA AND

NEW ORLEANS

Western African roots and cross-influences

Juri Schewe

Student ID 2052091

This work is presented as a bachelor thesis for the bachelor of music (pop-drums).

University for the Arts Rotterdam, Codarts. December 2013.

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Content

1. Introduction 3A word on notation 4What is music from Havana and New Orleans? 4

2. Havana and New Orleans – a related history 6The first colonizers 6Slavery – Western African roots are established 8The Spanish period in New Orleans 8Slave revolutions are changing policies 10New Orleans becomes part of the United States 11Cuba's way towards independence 13

3. The concept of clave 15The clave – terminology – key pattern or rhythm? 15African and Afro-Cuban clave patterns 16Basic ingredients of clave 18

4. The music discussed 23Cuba 23New Orleans 26

5. Conclusion 31Cross-influences – a one way street? 31Instrumentation 31Clave – Yes or No? And Why? 32African roots or a result of creolization? 32Acknowledgment 33

6. Bibliography Videography, Discography, Broadcastings, Conversations and Interviews 34

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1. IntroductionI have been fascinated by Afro-Cuban rhythms from an early age. I didn't understand much about them but as a drummer the rhythmical complexity combined with drive and pure energy were really appealing to me. These rhythms were speaking to me! Another key moment was when I listened to Wynton Marsalis' version of the jazz standard Caravan on the record Standard time Vol. 1 for the first time. I fell in love with the second-line groove played by drummer Jeff Tain Watts, a modern, jazzy adaption of a traditional New Orleans rhythm. Although back in the day I did not dig more into these two rhythmical fields, a seed was planted.

When I started studying at the Rotterdam Conservatory, Codarts in 2010, I started digging deeper into latin music. Finally in summer 2012 I travelled to Cuba in order to learn more about the Cuban music tradition. I took drum set lessons with three drummers, had several dance lessons and also saw traditional percussion ceremonies. I discovered how Cuban music does not only incorporate the clave as a rhythmical backbone and a played pattern but also that all musical elements are organized around the clave.

Currently I am residing in New Orleans for an exchange semester in order to study the local music culture. Here I could gather a lot of information, one the one hand through literature study, but mostly just through talking to musicians and even more important through listening to and watching them.

When I started to listen carefully to different music from New Orleans around one year ago, I discovered similarities with Cuban music, including similar rhythmical concepts and patterns and a similar instrumentation (including different bells and wood-/jam-blocks). I am going to research what exactly the clave is and how the underlying rhythmical structures and concepts, which originally derive from Africa, are functioning. I will examine the common history of New Orleans and Havana from their founding until the 1920s, when jazz emerged. By then, New York became one of the centers for Afro-Cuban music and the invention and wide dissemination of technologies like the radio and records had globalized the musical exchange.

In the next step I want to find out how the clave and associated rhythmical concepts are occurring in the music of Cuba and New Orleans and what kind of cross-influences between these two music traditions can be found. That I chose Cuba and New Orleans might seem quite random, but regarding the fact that I visited both places and that New Orleans has an outstanding unique role in the jazz tradition of the United States justifies a further investigation. Furthermore, music styles from New Orleans seem to be directly influenced by music from Cuba. I am aware of the fact that there are a lot different sub-genres within the Cuban music and a generalization is difficult. Nevertheless a strong clave-rooting can be found mostly. One more interest of this thesis is to get to know a lot of rhythms from Cuba and New Orleans and to get an inside understanding in their underlying concepts.

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A word on notationThere are several ways of notating African, Afro-Cuban and jazz rhythms. Sometimes these rhythms are notated in 4/4 (notating a four beat cycle in one bar, using a sixteenth note grid/pulse). Triple feels (also known as 6/8 or 12/8 feels) are notated in triplets. An other way would be to use cut-time notation instead (notating a four beat cycle in two bars, using an eight note grid/pulse). In this case triple feels would be notated in two bars of 6/8. For most jazz styles, including the music from New Orleans and more contemporary Afro-Cuban styles there is more agreement on notation. Music is usually notated in cut-time (although sometimes not indicated as such).

I am going to use the cut-time system for all examples. That means that every half-note is felt like one beat. A dancer would make his basic steps on these beats. That means that two bars of 4/4 generate a 4-beat cycle. This system might not always be the most „musical“, „logical“ or easiest to read way of notating rhythms. It is for sure confusing sometimes, especially for somebody who is not used two read in cut-time and to feel only two beats in one bar of 4/4.

However there are several advantages in using the cut-time-system. As I am going to compare different rhythms from New Orleans and modern as well as traditional Cuban styles, a lot of the rhythms are almost exclusively notated in a way that 4 felt beats span over two bars, sometimes indicated as cut-time, sometimes simply written in 4/4. Writing down clave patterns in two bars, rather than in 1 bar, helps also to demonstrate the interchangeability of the 2-stroke and 3-stroke-part of the pattern. All modern Cuban styles are almost exclusively notated in cut-time. I have seen a lot of grooves from New Orleans notated in 2 bars of 4/4. To me it would make more sense to simply change the meter indication to cut-time, because I have seen a lot of these rhythms being danced or marched by a brass band, feeling the half-notes as beats.

What is music from Havana and New Orleans?The reader of this thesis might ask himself what music from Havana or New Orleans is, respectively which styles are meant by this. I actually did not specify this question for myself until a very late state of my research.

In the end I decided to focus on some important styles, which are also influential on other styles. Naturally I focused more on folkloric and dance music styles, although also some classical composers implemented rhythmical concepts connected to the clave into their compositions. I also want to give some examples after 1920 that developed out of preceding styles.

I am examining in both places how the music of the early days might have sounded and how classical composers first implemented African concepts into their compositions. Regarding Cuba I am going to discuss the contradanza / habanera and its development to the danzón. Furthermore I will talk about son and the different rumba styles. New Orleans has a counterpart to the contradanza named contradanse. I will mention ragtime, early traditional jazz music and of course the music of the brass bands, which developed parallel to other styles and remained unchanged for long time, but was very influential in the development of other styles.

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This thesis refers to the city Havana, but this should not be understood too literally, at least in a musical sense. Havana can be seen as a representative for Cuban music on the one hand. There are a lot of similarities and common elements in all Cuban music. On the other hand there are the two big streams which can be clearly distinguished. Music from eastern Cuba and western Cuba is different in several ways.

Furthermore there is e.g. even a clear distinguishing between music from Havana and Matanzas, which are only 100 km away from each other. Nevertheless, these differences are in my opinion not major enough when considering the differences between Cuba and New Orleans. In the end Cuba is a vast musical cosmos with a common root. There are many styles, often with clear distinguishable and well preserved Western African roots.

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2. Havana and New Orleans - a related history

In this chapter, I am going to give an overview over the closely related history of Havana and New Orleans. Knowing the history can help us to gain a deeper understanding of the observations we make while analyzing music and put these observations into a broader framework. The history of both cities is linked to the cruel era of colonization and slavery. The three European colonial powers - Spain, France, and Britain - played a decisive role in the writing of this story.

Havana has been the center for Spanish colonial undertakings for several centuries. The Spanish crown designated Havana as the “Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies“ (website Wikipedia: History of Havana). After a guerilla war from 1868 to 1898 Cuba was about to gain independence from Spain. At this moment, the United States occupied Cuba and provoked the Spanish-American war. In 1902 a formal republic was declared, but Cuba remained under the influence of the United States until 1959, when a communistic state was founded after a revolution led by Fidel Castro (website Wikipedia: Geschichte Kubas).

New Orleans is considered by many theorists the most northern outreach of the Caribbean (website Wikipedia: Culture of New Orleans). The city was founded by the French in 1718, ruled by the Spanish for 34 years, and then formally returned to the French as a part of Louisiana through the Third Treaty of San Ildefoso in 1800. Nevertheless, the Spanish went on governing (Sublette, 2008: 97, Ostendorf, 2013: 17). In 1803 Napoleon sold the Louisiana colony in the Louisiana Purchase to the United States. The territory “then included portions of more than a dozen present-day states” (website Wikipedia: Louisiana New France). On November 30, France took over the power officially from Spain and handed over the territory to the United States on December 20 (Sublette, 2008: 201).

In this chapter I am going to focus on the period from colonial times to the 1920s when jazz was emerging. From the 1920s on a lot of developments diffused the international exchange of music. Son, rumba, samba and tango spread in popularity throughout the whole world. The development of new technologies, like the upcoming of the radio, its wide dissemination and the forming of a record industry made a lot of different music widely available (Acosta, 2008: 8). In the same period in New York a Latino community emerged, whose music scene would soon become influential and innovative in the field Afro-Cuban music (website nyc.com, 2013).

The first colonizersTo begin this story with the colonization of the New World is just one of several

options to choose from. I am aware of the fact that Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World has all too often been illustrated as the beginning of the history of the American continent, which is a distorted perspective on history. In our case this point has its merits, because we can not find many traces of the indigenous population's music in the music styles we are having a look on. Furthermore the towns I am focusing on

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were both founded as colonial settlements. There could be whole books written on the development of music and drumming in Africa with all its rich differentiations. And also the European colonial powers and especially Spain have a complex history with influences from a lot of different cultures. We have to consider that Spain in 1492 had been hugely influenced by different cultures, including Muslim, Roman, Visigoth and many more (Sublette, 2004: 11). The musical development of the Caribbean - which New Orleans is considered to be the most northern outreach of, by many theorists, seen from a cultural point of view - dates back to the creation of language and drumming in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sublette believes that drums were a device of communication ten thousands of years ago (Sublette, 2004: 42). Drumming supposedly developed together with spoken language and has always been a part of communication. A lot of African languages do not have a specific word for the term „music“ even. Music is not separated from other activities of life (Stone, 1998).

Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba during his first expedition in 1492 and claimed the island, which he named Isla Juana for the Kingdom of Spain. Until the Spanish-American war in 1898 the island remained a Spanish colony. The city of Havana was occupied by French (1537) and British (1762 - 1763) forces for short periods of time. In 1511 Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, at Baracoa and San Cristobal de la Habana – which later became Havana. The indigenous population of Cuba included the Taíno, Guanajatabey and Ciboney people (website Wikipedia: Cuba). Within one century these people were almost exterminated and a lot of the knowledge about them is lost. Reasons included slavery, malnutrition, introduced diseases and wars against the Spanish intruders. Some of the natives went on living in so called maroon villages. These were settlements, that escaped African slaves founded in remote areas (website Wikipedia: Maroon (people)). Some native women had children with the Spanish invaders. The children where considered white and very likely learned at least something of the culture of their mothers.

From 1512 to 1865 more than 500,000 slaves were brought from Africa to Cuba. Most of them from Western Africa. They would change the history of music forever (Henken, 2008: 53).

The first settlement in the region of New Orleans was a campsite at the east bank of the Mississippi river that French explorers founded in the last decade of the 17 th

century. It was extended to a small fortification called „St. John“ in 1701. The first colonialists lost all contact with France and many of them went to live with the native Americans which lived in the region in order to survive. Supply ships arrived only in 1704, 1706, 1708 and 1711 (Sublette, 2008: 37ff.). In 1718 New Orleans was founded by the French as Nouvelle-Orléans under command of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In order to satisfy the needs of labour force people from France were brought to Louisiana. 1719 and 1720 Louisiana was a penal colony which was populated with poor people, prisoners and prostitutes from France. 7000 embarked in Europe and only 1300 arrived (Sublette, 2008: 52). Already in 1709 Bienvielle sent a ship to Saint Domingue at the expenses of the French King that stopped secretly in Havana and embarked the first black slaves to be brought to New Orleans (Sublette, 2008: 42).

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Slavery – Western African roots are establishedFrom 1670 on Britain gained more and more power in the Caribbean and France lost influence. In 1762 Britain took over Havana from the Spanish for 11 months. During this period the sugar production was boosted and a lot of slaves were imported. In 1719 official slave import started to New Orleans and 5,951 slaves arrived to the city. 2 ships came from Oudiah, which was part of the Dahomeyan empire, located in the present Benin (Sublette, 2008: 57).

Several historical factors played a role in the development of music in Cuba and New Orleans. Both cities developed sometimes similar, sometimes very different, but in a constant interchange in the course of the centuries. Even the tensions between the systems of capitalism and socialism could not stop this constant exchange of culture.

Regarding the preservation of Western African roots, including the use of clave, some historical facts were heavily influential for similar and later different developments in Havana and New Orleans. In the British colonies (and later on in the United States) slaves were not allowed to dance, play drums or speak their native languages. One major reason for that was the fear of revolts. Especially after the bloody revolution in the French Colony of Saint Domingue which is nowadays known as Haiti. Instead instruments like fiddle and banjo were commonly used (Sublette, 2008: 74). In New Orleans, being under French and Spanish rule until 1803, African roots could be preserved, like in Cuba. Only later, when the United States took over New Orleans, these roots were more and more getting lost, but were already too established in order to totally vanish. Also in Cuba the use of drums was not always tolerated by the authorities, which was one of the reasons for the use of the cajones (wooden boxes used as a drum), spoons and wooden sticks, which temporarily replaced African drums and are still in use nowadays.

There is an other interesting distinction between Afro-Cuban and Afro-American culture. In Cuba the Yorùbá religion of the Western African Yorùbá people has been conserved in a syncretised form, the so called Santería religion. Santería mixes Yorùbá elements with Roman Catholicism. The liturgical language is Lucumí, which is a dialect of Yorùbá. In Anglo-American colonies there is much less of the African roots left. Christianity dominated and the biblical saints took place in the black church.

The Spanish period in New OrleansThe 5th of March 1766 marked an important day for the common history of Havana and New Orleans. Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre Guiral became the first Spanish governor of New Orleans. Sublette believes that „The Spanish / Cuban period in New Orleans is one of the most important moments in African-American history. For the intensity of its African culture and the relative freedom with which it was practiced, Spanish New Orleans was unique in North America“ (Sublette, 2008: 104).

When the Spanish took over New Orleans they enacted regulations that included, that trading was only allowed with Spanish colonies and the stop of wine-imports. The French population was outraged (Sublette, 2008: 90). In 1768 the French-creole population revolted and Ulloa was expelled. He sailed to Havana in order to get

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reinforcements but never returned. Nevertheless, the Spanish arrived back (led by Irish commander O'Reilly) later with a lot of soldiers, which also included blacks and creoles from the Cuban army. The leaders of the revolt were either executed or sent to a prison in Havana (Sublette, 2008: 93). O'Reilly set up the so called cabildo, a council that first met on December 1, 1769. At that point New Orleans was a french-speaking city with Spanish governors. During that period there were regularly around 100 drummers in the town, most likely from the Cuban army. The defense of New Orleans was secured through the urban center of Havana (Sublette, 2008: 95).

Each slave power had their own laws regarding their slave policies. The British colonies, which included at that time most of the territory of what should become the north of the United States had the harshest laws. During his time in New Orleans O'reilly announced Spanish slave laws that replaced the harsher french ones known as „Code noir“ (Sublette, 2008: 96).

Important paragraphs of the law stated that it was forbidden to enslave Indians, slave owners did not need an official permission for freeing slaves and slaves could from then on own money, receive inheritances and enter into contracts. The most important change was probably the introduction of the right of coartación (literally: restriction, limitation (website Yahoo: Education)), which gave slaves the right to purchase their own freedom for an adjudicated sum, while the owner was not allowed to refuse the request. Until then Cuba was the only place in the New World with that kind of law. During the Spanish rule that lasted 34 years, more than thousand slaves were freed like this (in 1791 the total population counted only 4897 citizens, including soldiers). The law also included an active judicial check on slave owners (Sublette, 2008: 97).

Although the Spanish rule in New Orleans lasted just for a short time, it was a very important period for the development of the „Afro-American cultural expression“ (Sublette, 2008: 97). „Even the iron hand of southern slave owners and restrictions of jim crow [segregation laws in the United States] could not completely efface the legacy of that era.” Slaves of African descent “could speak in their ancestral languages and play their drums: they had a past. With the right of self-purchase, they had a future. Enslaved people in English-speaking America were not permitted to have either one“ (Sublette, 2008: 97). O'Reilly refused the request of local slave owners to permit branding, hamstringing and execution again (Sublette, 2008: 98). He (who was the second of nine Spanish governors) left soon and took a large military force back to Havana, which assumably brought back some influences from New Orleans with it. A permanent garrison remained in New Orleans. O'Reilly placed New Orleans under the administration of Havana. New Orleans also received a cash subsidy that came from Mexico through Havana. Often, the subsidy did not arrive. O'Reilly was followed by Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga, who managed to establish good relations with the French slave-holder community (Sublette, 2008: 98).

On january 1, 1777 Bernardo de Gálvez superseded Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga and implemented a decree authorizing slave imports from the French Antilles. Furthermore he brought in isleños from the Canarian Islands, who had already set up farming in Cuba. Nevertheless, there were still a lot of French citizens, that were still not loyal to Spain (Sublette, 2008: 99).

In june 1778 the last silver fleet left from Havana to Spain and Cuba turned from a hub to a sugar producer (Sublette, 2008: 100). This should mark the beginning of

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extensive slave imports to the island. In the same year Gálvez built up a free black militia that fought during the American Revolution or American War of Independence on the side of 13 British North American colonies against the British Empire to become the United States of America (website Wikipedia: American Revolution). Sublette assumes that these soldiers were playing drums within the military (Sublette, 2008: 100). Maybe at that point the foundation was laid for the early New Orleans brass bands that formed almost one century later.

While Gálvez was off to battle, Cuban reinforcements were sent to guard the Louisiana colony. The Cuban reinforcements included creole soldiers, who also had musicians among them (Sublette, 2008: 101). In 1783 (Estevan) Miró (from 1782 governor of Louisiana) complained to Captain General José de Ezpleta in Cuba that a lot of musicians had returned to Cuba with troops, and requested trumpeters, clarinetists, and a director (Sublette, 2008: 103). It is obvious that there must have been a lot of musical exchange between Cuba and New Orleans during the Spanish governing in New Orleans. Furthermore through the Spanish slave trade first generation slaves from the same Western African regions ended up in New Orleans and Cuba: “'In the Spanish period [in Louisiana],' Gwendolyn Midlo Hall told me, 'there's a continuous migration from the Bight of Benin … and there's a continuous migration from Senegambia, but there's an increased migration from the Kongo. . . . Shortly after the Spanish took over, it became heavily Kongo in New Orleans'“ (Sublette, 2008: 107).

Slave revolutions are changing policiesIn 1791 Belgian born Francois-Louis Hector y Noyelles became governor of Spanish New Orleans during a time of instability. The French Revolution had challenged autocratic power systems and in Saint Domingue (present day Haiti) a slave rebellion was raging that should change the history of the Caribbean.

Slave owners in all colonies were terrified that the system of slavery could be in danger. From July 25, 1792 the penalties on the import of slaves from the French and British Antilles, which was forbidden anyway, were increased. This kept the arrival of refugees from Saint Domingue on a low level, because slave owners could not bring their slaves with them. In 1794 French circles in Philadelphia made plans for a revolution against the Spanish government in New Orleans (Sublette, 2008: 164). In the same year the first newspaper in French language was published. Hurricanes and a big fire destroyed big parts of the city, which was rebuild in Spanish style including the use of imported bricks (Sublette, 2008: 167).

In 1798 a new French constitution was declared, which separated the legal system of France from the colonies laws. Napoleon's plan was to reestablish slavery (Sublette, 2008: 190). In 1802 an army was sent to Saint Domingue to re-enslave the blacks. The black population was resisting hard and a lot of soldiers died from yellow fever (Sublette, 2008: 195). At the neighboring island Guadeloupe the French troops slaughtered the population to deter possible insurgents and in order to realize the plan to bring new slaves with less subversive potential. After a sea blockade of the British, the French Army capitulated on November 18, 1803. Only 8000 of 43,000 soldiers had survived. Most of them remained imprisoned and were brought to Britain (Sublette, 2008: 201).

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On January 1, 1804 Saint-Domingue become independent and was from then on named Haiti (Sublette, 2008: 202). Jean-Jaques Dessalines “General in chief of the indigenous army” took over power and a lot of French people were slaughtered. This was answered by a United States trade embargo against Haiti, which was only recognized by the United States as a state in 1862, when Abraham Lincoln was president. In the same moment Liberia was also recognized. Lincoln had hopes to find places for a possible deportation of the black population of the United States. The Haitian revolution marked a turning point in the history of slavery, although slavery went on for more than 70 years in the United States, Cuba and Brazil (Sublette, 2008: 203).

New Orleans becomes part of the United StatesIn 1800, after 34 years of Spanish rule in New Orleans, Louisiana was formally returned to the French through the Third Treaty of San Ildefoso. The Spanish governing continued till 1803 (Sublette, 2008: 97, Ostendorf, 2013: 17). On May 2, 1803 the US-diplomats Robert Livingston and James Monroe signed the Louisiana Purchase, which made Louisiana part of the United States and almost doubled its size. Louisiana by then “included portions of more than a dozen present-day states” (website Wikipedia: Louisiana (New France)). On November 30 France took over the power officially from Spain. There were several festivities held, including balls that lasted 12 hours. The dances included “Waltzes, Gallopades and Minuets. Boat Dances, Character Dances and two types of Quadrilles. There were Gavottes, Reels and Mazurkas. Cotillions, Gallops and Contra Dances. And for the Spanish there were Boleros and Fandangos” (Collins, 1996: 62). Obviously there was a huge variety of music around in New Orleans at that time and musicians had to be able to play all sorts of styles, including French, Spanish, English and American. France handed over the Louisiana territory to the United States on December 20 (website Wikipedia: History of New Orleans). During this time New Orleans was a flourishing port city. The census for 1803 counted 1355 free people of color (Sublette, 2008: 201).

A lot of new land became part of The United States through the Louisiana Purchase. In order to make this new land profitable a lot of workforce was needed, which led to the rise of prices for slaves (Sublette, 2008: 221). The sugar production was boosted. The slave population was negative because of the very bad working and living circumstances. In 1803 slave trade was reopened in Virginia. In addition a lot of new slaves were kidnapped in western Africa, most of them from the Kongo area (Sublette, 2008: 225). At these times Louisiana was booming and New Orleans started to become a destination for new immigrants to the New World. This enriched the anyway diverse demographics even more. Some Anglo-Americans brought slaves with them, but an import stop from Cuba and Africa was declared. From January 1, 1808 the import of slaves was prohibited by the 1807 Slave Trade Act. In the 1820s a lot of slaves came to New Orleans from the east coast of the United States. Like this more english-speaking slaves came to the city then ever came directly from Africa (Sublette, 2008: 226). Almost all of the slaves that came to New Orleans were born in the United States and had less connection to their Western African roots than Cuban slaves. Only 5 or 6 percent which are around 500,000 of all slaves that arrived to the American continent ended up in the

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Anglo-American north, but by the times of the civil war there were 4,000,000. This was the result of industrial and systematic “slave-breeding” (Sublette, 2008: 227). The Anglo-Americans usually tried to split families and extinct traditions, music and culture. One of the reasons was to prevent slave rebellions (Sublette, 2008: 227). New Orleans was the “capital of slave sales” (Sublette, 2008: 233). At these times being brought to the south was considered a punishment, because it was known for the high mortality rate among slaves (Sublette, 2008: 235). From 1802 on a lot of different dances were in town, among others the English and French contradanse (Sublette, 2008: 240). In 1803 and 1804 a lot of refugees from Saint-Domingue arrived to New Orleans (Sublette, 2008: 242). During this period there were French and some Spanish speaking catholics, and English speaking protestants in New Orleans. Blacks often practiced creolized African religions or were protestants that praised Jesus (Sublette, 2008: 245).

A census from the early 1800s counted 3551 whites, 1566 free people of color and 3105 slaves (Sublette, 2008: 246). The white planters were displeased with the number of free people of color in Louisiana and in 1806 the law of coartación, that had given the slaves the right to buy their own freedom, was repealed. Furthermore the entry of free people of color from Haiti became forbidden. From 1808 on free people of color had to have a “HLC” (for homme libre de coleur) mark in official documents (Sublette, 2008: 247).

On March 23, 1808 Napoleon placed his brother Joseph on the throne of the occupied Spain. The British entered the French counter-revolution (website famousdaily.com). In 1810 there were independent movements in Argentina, Venezuela, Nueva Granada (present-day Colombia), and Mexico. By 1825 only Cuba and Puerto Rico were dependent Spanish colonies (Sublette, 2008: 248). Cuba stayed loyal to the old Spanish king and an expulsion order was issued on March 12, 1809 against „French“ nationals. Most of them were refugees from Saint-Domingue and went on to New Orleans. Eventually New Orleans became the destination for Saint Dominguian refugees (Sublette, 2008: 250). In 1809 the first ships from Cuba arrived to New Orleans and a lot of the Dominguians brought slaves with them, which were by then not allowed to enter the United States anymore. After a petition to Washington New Orleans received the last slaves to be legally imported to the United States. They had a more recent descent from Africa. One more reason why in New Orleans there are more African roots conserved then in the rest of the United States. A census from that year counted 2731 whites, 3102 free people of color and 3226 slaves (Sublette, 2008: 251). The arriving people had lived in Cuba for six years and doubled New Orleans population! One can imagine the huge impact. We have to keep in mind that they came from eastern Cuba (Sublette, 2008: 252). According to Ned Sublette the immigration from Cuba delayed the Americanization of New Orleans by around 2 generations (Sublette, 2008: 259). I think it had a permanent impact on the music of New Orleans.

In the beginning of the 19th century Louisiana and Cuba boosted the sugar production. Cuba imported a lot of slaves from Western Africa. Louisiana, now part of the United States, received thousands of slaves that were sneaked in. Some were resold from Cuba, others came from hijacked slave transports that came directly from Western Africa and were intended for Cuba (Sublette, 2008: 250, 265).

In 1811, in Louisiana the largest slave insurgency in the history of the United States happened. Hundreds of slaves were involved and it was quelled within two weeks.

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Many of the insurgents were killed during combat or executed afterwards (website Wikipedia: History of New Orleans).

In 1814 and 1815, during the battle of New Orleans that was part of the Civil War, creole soldiers were fighting against the British together with the Americans and defeated the British troops (Collins, 1996: 69).

When in the 1830s a lot of new settlers, including many Germans and Irish, arrived to New Orleans, the city's population doubled. From 1866, as part of Reconstruction, New Orleans had a racially integrated public school system. In 1853 the New Orleans born composer Moreau Gottschalk visited eastern Cuba (Sublette, 2008: 253). He was the first classical musician who extensively studied Afro-Cuban music and incorporated elements into his compositions. In 1872, lieutnant P.B.S. Pinchback became the first non-white governor of an American state, when he took over power in Louisiana. After that, it would take 117 years for an African American to become a governor of an American state again. In the 1890s there was a large educated “colored” population and racial issues were handled comparatively liberal, compared to other States in the Deep South. When Louisiana wanted to implement strict racial segregation, opponents hoped to stop this with a test case in 1892. Eventually, in 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in continuing segregation, that was handled more and more strictly. In 1900 the Robert Charles Riots happened, when African-American Robert Charles, killed several policemen that tried to arrest him. Whites started to terrorize and kill random African-Americans (website Wikipedia: History of New Orleans).

Cuba's way towards independenceAfter independence wars in South- and Middle-America, Cuba became Spain's

most important colony, but also in Cuba the black and creole population became more and more unsatisfied. Between 1812 and 1844 there were eight big slave revolts, that were repressed by military force. In 1868 negotiations between a Cuban creole delegation and Spain on more independence failed. There were several supporters that wanted Cuba to become a part of the United States. On the one hand slave owners in Cuba, who were economically limited by the Spanish colonial influence and afraid of a slave revolt and on the other hand slave-owners from the south of the United States that hoped to strengthen their position in favor of slavery. After the Civil War the United States got more and more interested in Cuba because of economical interests and its strategic position in the Gulf of Mexico.

As a result of the failed negotiations in 1868, three independence wars were fought that lasted around 30 years and ended with an occupation by US-troops in 1898, which provoked the Spanish-American War. Only in 1902 Cuba became a nominally independent republic, but the United States had the right to intervene with military. In the next two decades the United States used their right and stayed influential in politics and economy. Cuba stayed a pseudo-republic and was from 1925 governed by dictator Machado. From 1933 Sargent Batista dominated the Cuban politics. After a military-putsch in 1933 he used several puppet presidents to guarantee his power. In 1944 Batista became president himself but was superseded by civil Grau. Batista left the country but

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returned and after an other putsch ruled from 1952 as a dictator. The young lawyer Fidel Castro put Batista on trial for his putsch, but the indictment was rejected. In 1959 Fidel Castro carried out a revolution and Cuba became a communistic state in 1959 (website Wikipedia: Geschichte Kubas).

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3. THE CONCEPT OF CLAVE In this chapter I am going to introduce terms, rhythms and concepts, which I will use to analyze and compare the rhythmical languages of Cuba and New Orleans. I am adapting some terms that David Peñalosa introduced in his books „Unlocking Clave“ and „The Clave Matrix“.

The clave – terminology – key-pattern or rhythmThe Spanish term clave [ˈklaβe] means 'key', 'code' or 'keystone'. A clave is a rhythmical pattern that is used for structuring time in music.

I want to distinguish between a more common meaning of the word clave („a clave“) and a more specific term referring to concrete key-patterns of African origin that are used in Afro-Cuban and other Caribbean music traditions („the clave“). There is also a musical instrument called claves, that consists out of two wooden dowels that are around 20 – 30 cm long. The claves are used in numerous Afro-Cuban music genres to play the different clave rhythms.

In the widest sense a clave might be any rhythmical pattern that organizes time in music. I play in a jazz-trio with a bulgarian pianist whose musical tradition incorporates a lot of odd-meters and a bass-player from Curaçao who comes from a musical tradition that includes a lot of African rooted clave music. We play a lot of music in odd meters and work with different what we call „claves“. Basically patterns that serve as a rhythmical skeleton and help us to follow the rhythmical structure of a song. We might play these rhythmical patterns explicitly (for example as a ride-cymbal figure) or just imply them and/or sing them „inside“ as an inner reference that helps us to follow the rhythmical structure of a song. In this case we would still refer to the key-pattern and create contrapuntal and/or complementary rhythms around them.

A possible “clave” in 9/8

One could consider this pattern, being used as an explicitly played or non-played but implied key-pattern a clave. On the other hand a son-clave pattern that is simply superimposed on a song, without having a function as a key-pattern is not necessarily considered a clave. It just serves as a rhythm but not as a structure shaping pattern.

I have also met several other musicians who incorporate elements of many different musical traditions and use the term clave in its more general sense. Renominated drummers from the New Orleans music scene have their own ideas about what “a clave” is. For drum set player Johnny Vidacovich the following pattern serves as a clave when he plays New Orleans “Street beats”.

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This pattern is played on the bass drum in brass band music and deriving styles, either with a felt-beater with one hand on a bass drum that is carried around or within the drum-kit with a foot-pedal. Notice that I notated this rhythm in 4/4, which is the common way to do it. Nevertheless, the pulse is felt in cut-time.Wynton Marsalis refers to the tresillo/bamboula pattern as the “New Orleans 'clave'” (CBS News, 2011). The same goes for drum set player Shannon Powell “The King of Treme”.

The term “Bossa clave” is frequently used among jazz musicians all around the world. It is a pattern with Brazilian origin that differs from the Cuban son-clave only by one note. The inventor Antonio Carlos Jobim does not consider this rhythmic motif a clave (Peñalosa, 2009: 243).

In his book „The Clave Matrix“ Peñalosa describes the concepts of the African rooted Afro-Cuban clave patterns and explains the requirements that need to be fulfilled in order for music to be considered clave-based.

African and Afro-Cuban clave patternsBelow I want to outline the underlying concepts of Afro-Cuban clave patterns which all have their origin in sub-Saharan music. Some concepts and patterns are to be found in traditional jazz music from New Orleans.

There are two main forms of the clave: The rumba clave and the son clave (also seldom referred to as the Havana clave). Both can be expressed in duple (4/4 or cut-time) and triple contexts (6/8 or 12/8). Both patterns are derived from Western African music traditions and consist of 5 notes. Clave patterns are often notated as a 2-bar pattern, having 3 notes in one bar and 2 notes in the other bar. The claves can be felt in 2-3 or 3-2, which means that either the bar containing two strokes or the bar containing three strokes is played and/or felt first within the repeated 2-bar cycle. Only the third note of the 3-part of the clave is varying between rumba and son-clave (website Wikipedia: Clave (rhythm)). The triple pulse son-clave is rarely used in Afro-Cuban music (it can be heard for example in tumba music from Curacao). Often the triple-pulse rumba clave is called 12/8-clave.

Rumba clave 3-2 in triple feel (notated in 6/8) and in duple feel (notated in 4/4)

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Rumba clave 2-3 in triple feel (notated in 6/8) and in duple feel (notated in 4/4)

Son clave 3-2 in triple feel (notated in 6/8) and in duple feel (notated in 4/4)

Son clave 2-3 in triple feel (notated in 6/8) and in duple feel (notated in 4/4)

When translating a clave (or any other rhythm) from a triple to a duple context, the translation is made in the following way:

That means that the first of three eight-notes is played on the first out of four sixteenth (both played at the same time / on the beat), the second eight-note is played on the third sixteenth note and the third eight-note is played on the fourth sixteenth-note.

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In the described manner any triple feel rhythm can be translated into a duple feel. For example:

In a lot of Cuban musical styles both, triple and duple feels, are often played within one song. There are several applications:

1. The ensemble / band switches from one feel to another for different song sections

2. The ensemble switches to another feel as a short variating contrast (e.g. for 1 bar)

3. A repeating rhythm combines both feels, e.g. suggesting a triple feel for 2 counts of a 2 bar rhythm

4. In rumba guaguancó it is common that the quinto (highest tuned of usually three congas - also called tumbadoras - that is playing improvised lead voices) plays a triple feel while the rest of the ensemble plays in a duple feel

I want to mention that most of the Western African rhythms were played in triple pulse feels. When they were mixed with European music, which mostly incorporated duple feel rhythms, the African rhythms and the concept of clave were adapted to a duple pulse feel. In other words: “Duple-pulse clave music simulates triple-pulse cross-rhythm” (Peñalosa, 2009: 47).

Basic Ingredients of clave

Beats and pulsesWhen taking a look at the clave and its structure we have to consider its relation to the beats, which are usually aligning with the steps of a dancer and serve as a main time reference. The clave can only be understood in its relation to the beat. Beats occur in cycles. In clave related music four beats divide the musical period into quarters (in modern notation clave music is generally notated in cut-time, which means that the period of one clave spans over two bars, while the half-notes are marking the beat). Each beat can be subdivided into three or four pulses. David Peñalosa calls this triple-pulse structure (notated in 12/8 or 6/8) and duple-pulse structure (notated in 4/4 or 2/2) (Peñalosa, 2009: 1-4).

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Cross-RhythmA Cross-Rhythm is a polyrhythm that is not only temporarily occurring but shaping a piece of music. A polyrhythm combines two or more rhythms that do not sound as if they would derive from each other or manifest the same meter. In clave music cross-rhythm is essential. According to David Peñalosa “all clave based music is generated through cross-rhythm“. We call the fundamental beats „primary beats“, the second layer of beats that generates the feeling of an other meter “secondary beats“ (Peñalosa, 2009: 19-22).“The primary/secondary dynamic in clave music is analogous to the foreground/background dynamic found in the visual arts. The ears and eyes naturally separate sensory input into primary and secondary categories. It's how we make order of the world. The structure of clave music is such that primary and secondary elements can flip in one's mind like the Vase-Face Illusion [...]” (Peñalosa, 2009: 33).

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Three Over TwoIn most of Sub-Saharan music we can discover three over two cross-rhythms. These rhythms travelled with the slaves to America and found their way into Afro-Cuban music and traditional New Orleans Jazz. I will give several examples in chapter 4.

Basic 3 over 2 movement in triple pulse structure:

As we see there are two 3 over 2 cells within a four beat cycle.

1Vace-Face graphic taken from http://www.hopeonhope.com/

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In Afro-Cuban music the second secondary beat is called bombo, the third one ponche:

Three Over Two in a duple-pulse structure – Tresillo, bamboulaIf we translate the triple-pulse three over two structure to a duple-pulse setting, a cross-rhythm is created that forms the basis for a lot of Afro-Cuban rhythms and a lot of music genres from New Orleans that emerged out of the music that the early brass bands played from the end of the 19th century on. I will give examples later on in chapter 4.

This cross-rhythm is called tresillo („little three“ in Spanish) or bamboula.

“Comparing the music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans “clave”, a Spanish word meaning 'code,' or 'key'-as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery” (CBS News, 2011).

In New Orleans I attended a masterclass with legendary New Orleans drummer Shannon Powell “The King of Treme“. He also refers to the tresillo pattern as a key-pattern of New Orleans music “The New Orleans clave”.

The tresillo (or bamboula) rhythm was also known in the islamic north of Africa and possibly also in Spain. It probably made its way into Cuban music and the music of New Orleans through the music of slaves that came from Sub-Saharan regions.

Tresillo/bamboula plus backbeat creates habanera/tango If the backbeat (second and fourth beat) is added to the tresillo/bamboula rhythm, the so called habanera rhythm is created:

The habanera rhythm is also sometimes referred to as the tango rhythm. This term is not to be confused with the world-famous Argentinian dance tango. The first written record of the word tango can be found in the Bando de Buen Gobierno

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(Edict of Good Government) of June 2, 1786 that New Orleans' governor Estevan Miró authored. In this edict he is requesting the delay of “los tangos, o bailes de negros (the tangos, that is, the blacks' dances) until after vespers” (Sublette, 2008: 122).„As the 19th century progressed the word tango implied a specific rhythmic cell, [...] the Kongolezian mbila a makin, ʹthe call to danceʹ”. Only later this rhythm became identified with Cuba and was called habanera. This rhythm is also very familiar in Arabic music and is very dominant in the tumba francesa of eastern Cuba (Sublette, 2008: 123).The habanera, which expresses a simple 3 over 2 cross-rhythm, forms the basis for many Caribbean rhythms.

CinquilloAn other pattern that derives from the tresillo pattern is the so called cinquillo.

The cinquillo is used as a bell pattern in Sub-Saharan music and several Caribbean rhythms (website Wikipedia: Cinquillo).

The Archetypal Key Pattern, 12/8 bellThere is an other pattern that is essential for understanding clave-music. The “Archetypal Key Pattern” (Peñalosa, 2009: 54), also know as 12/8 bell sets the framework for many Sub-Saharan rhythms and Afro-Cuban rhythms. “Given its prototypical structure and its extensive use throughout Africa and the African Diaspora, the standard pattern must be included in any survey of clave. In fact, some musicians call this pattern clave” (Peñalosa, 2009: 56).

“Archetypal Key Pattern” or 12/8 Standard Bell Pattern in relation to the beat

If we compare the 12/8 Bell to the 12/8 rumba clave we notice that both patterns vary only by two strokes. The 12/8 Bell is the 12/8 rumba clave plus two strokes on the fifth eight note in bar 1 and on the sixth eight note in bar 2:

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Lets have a closer look at both patterns. The 12/8 (rumba) clave is creating tension and release. It is aligning with the first two secondary beats (grounded/release) and then flips into the secondary off-beats (tension).

The two added strokes of the 12/8 Bell Pattern serve as turning points between the on- and off-beat motions.

Other patterns that align with the claveThere are several patterns that are closely related to the clave and align with it. These patterns include the cascara, bongo bell, mambo bell and the tumbao and many more in the percussion section. Also piano patterns like the montuno align with the clave. In fact every musical event in clave music is related to the clave. Either through playing along with the clave or creating a counterpoint that refers to the clave.

ConclusionWe have learned what “a clave” and “the clave” is and know the underlying concepts. It is obviously not enough just to use the rhythm of the clave in order to call music clave based. All the music has to shape around the clave and use it as a reference. The clave does not have to be explicitly expressed in order to consider music clave based.

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4. THE MUSIC DISCUSSED

Let's summarize what we have learned so far. We have talked about the common history of Havana and New Orleans. The basis for both places' music cultures was shaped during the colonization era. The influence of European music tradition combined with African roots, that sometimes could be better and sometimes worse preserved, formed the basis for two very influential musical traditions. We have also discussed the term clave and its underlying concepts.

Now let's have have a close look at the music from Cuba and New Orleans, see what structures and patterns we can recognize and if there are maybe similarities. The knowledge of the history can help us understanding our observations.

Cuba

The rootsEarly music in Cuba included European (mostly Spanish) influences like zapateo, fandango, paso doble or retambico. Later northern European forms like minuet, gavotte, mazurka, contradanza and the waltz occurred. African Slaves brought numerous percussion instruments and preserved their rhythms. The Spanish introduced the guitar, musical notation and European composition techniques. Later on also French influences found their way into Cuban music. One of the earliest known songs is Ma Teodora, which has some similarity to Spanish popular songs and dances from 16 th to 18th century (website Wikipedia: Music of Cuba).

ContradanzaThe contradanza is a creolized form of the French contradanse which came to Cuba with French refugees from Haiti after the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s. The first known example is San Pascual Bailón, which dates back to 1803 (Roberts, 1979: 5). San Pascual Bailón has no African influence. Obviously contradanza, which was an urban music style, and other European music styles coexisted next to rural music and the music of African slaves.

HabaneraThe contradanza developed into the habanera in the beginning of the 19th century. Most important change was that the habanera was not only played and danced but also sung. The habanera was the first Cuban music style to incorporate the cinquillo pattern (website Wikipedia: Music of Cuba).By 1840 habaneras were popular in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Spain (Diaz Ayala, 1998: 19 et seq.). By 1900 the habanera lost its popularity and danzón and son

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became more and more popular. The habanera had an influence on compositions of Ravel, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Fauré and Albeniz (website Wikipedia: Music of Cuba). One of the most famous habaneras Tu incorporates the habanera rhythm throughout the whole composition. The habanera was the first popular creolized music form. African influences started to bleed through. Nevertheless, there was still no use of clave.

DanzónAround 1880 the contradanza developed into danzón. There was a time, when danzón was more popular then son. Danzón initiated the change from “communal sequence style” dances to later couple dances, partly influenced by the success of the walz. In the course of time danzón incorporated more and more African influences and syncopation (website Wikipedia: Music of Cuba). In its early days danzón was played by orquestas típicas, which included a brass section (cornet, valve trombone, ophicleide), one or two clarinets, violins and a tympani (kettle drums). Around 1900 charanga orchestras became more and more popular. They initially incorporated two violins, a cello, flute, timbales, güiro, and doublebass. By 1930 there were almost no típicas left (website Wikipedia: Danzón). In 1898 piano was included into the charanga for the first time. In Antonio María Romeu's band it became standard and in 1926 he included the first piano solo in the song Tres lindas cubanas.In the beginning danzón was seen critically by the white establishment, because it included African elements and different races were mixing on the dance floor. In the beginning the dancing was considered obscene. Nevertheless danzón became the most popular genre until the son gained popularity in the 1920s and 30s (website Wikipedia: Danzón).Danzón was the first creole style of music that included clave. The so called baqueteo is the basic danzón rhythm and is strictly clave aligned. The following example shows the baqueteo rhythm that is played by the timbales. The high notes are muted.

The same rhytmical pattern is also played by the güiro.

In the course of time danzón incorporated more and more syncopation and danzón developed into danzón-chá, nuevo ritmo, cha-cha-chá, pachanga and mambo.

Son (cubano)The Cuban son combines structure and elements of Spanish canción, Spanish guitar and African rhythms and percussion instruments.In the early 20th century son developed out of the changüí, nengón, and kiribá. These styles have a similar instrumentation and song structure to the son. The typical son ensemble consisted of guitar, tres, claves(!), bongos, marímbula or botija, and maracas.

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According to David Peñalosa, son probably adapted the clave-rhythm from the local rumba, after it moved from eastern Cuba to the Havana region around 1910 (Peñalosa 2009: 83).Later on the marímbula was replaced by the double bass and the trumpet was added, the guitar was replaced by the piano, the single trumpet was expanded into a horn section and the bongo bell and conga were added. In son the claves play the son clave pattern, which functions as a key pattern. The tres plays the typical guajeo pattern, that is mainly based on off-beats and clave aligned. Peter Manuel believes that son developed out of the contradanza around 1910-1920 in Havana and also got more syncopated there. He states that both styles have a lot of similarities, like melodies in duet form, the presence of clave, short vocal refrains, syncopation and the use of a montuno section (Manuel, 2009: 184-212).In the 1910s any African culture was considered „barbaric“and vulgar in Cuba and there was a fear that it could threaten European music. The popularity of son increased the interaction of genres with African and Spanish roots and gave black musicians working possibilities. In the 1920s son gained more and more popularity, also with the help of the newly introduced radio broadcasting. Son should become very influential on salsa, timba and other descending musical styles. By the end of the 1930s the popularity of son was slowly declining. Jazz and the sound of amplified bands became more and more popular (website Wikipedia: Son (music)).

Rumba – Columbia, Yambú and GuaguancóThe term rumba describes not only a genre of music and the corresponding dances, but also the gatherings at which these are performed. A rumba is usually a spontaneous gathering, that forms e.g. at a party or after work. Rumba music combines different African influences. Nevertheless, a major influence is the baile yuka that originated from Congo. Singers used to sing in Bantu, but when Africans of other origin joined, Spanish was used more and more (Sublette, 2004: 256 - 259).

The rumba we know most likely developed at the end of the nineteenth century, but gatherings that combined music and dances of different African influence were happening decades earlier. “There are three basic dances of the rumba complex, but really they are two: the solo dance and the couple dance. The solo dance is the rural columbia; and the urban couple dance began as the yambú and evolved into the guaguancó” (Sublette, 2004: 268).In all three different styles three conga drums are used. The salidor and tres golpes play the rhythmical fundament, while the high pitched quinto is improvising lead-phrases, that communicate with the dancer's steps.

ColumbiaThe dance of Columbia is virtuous. One man after an other tries to dance in a more sophisticated and attractive way then the other dancers. Gestures of different styles are included. Columbia is played in triple pulse and includes the rumba clave, played with clave sticks.

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Columbia – basic cata and clave pattern

YambúIt is not exactly clear, when Yambú appeared, but it was around the time, when slavery ended, in the second half of the 19th century. Yambú is the slowest of the three types of rumba. It is traditionally played on cajones. The dance is not as aggressive and less sexual then guaguancó. The rhythm includes the rumba clave in duple pulse. The kata pattern is played on a piece of bamboo or recently on a jam-block (made from plastic).

Yambú - basic cata and clave pattern

GuaguancóThe guaguancó is the most popular form of the rumba. The dancer-couple dances a pursuit-and-capture like movement named vacunao. The man is dancing close to the women and unexpectedly makes a move that symbolizes the possession of the women's genitals. Guaguancó is faster and more aggressive then Yambú and also played in duple pulse.

Guaguancó - basic cata and clave pattern

Recent developmentsFrom the American occupation of Cuba in 1898 on, the forerunners of jazz and from the 1920s on, jazz came to Cuba. Acosta states that „in the long run, music as well as cinema and many other elements of American popular music took root in Cuba as they have in no other Latin country“ (Acosta, 2003: 9). That is remarkable and I agree that there are a lot of American influences in the Cuban culture till today. The change of system after the revolution 1959 could not reverse this influence. And also after the revolution the enormous amount of Cubans (including numerous top musicians) that left the country and settled in the United States (mainly Florida) with no doubt had an impact on the American culture but also on the Americanization of Cuban culture.Modern styles like salsa and timba continue to be clave rooted.

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New Orleans

The roots We can only speculate on how the music sounded that black slaves and free people of color played in New Orleans before the 19th century. We have some written sources from spectators, but unlike the surviving sheet music from earlier centuries, there are almost no traces for the music and culture of blacks before the creolization with European elements.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century dance music in New Orleans, like in other places, was played by string ensembles. The instruments usually included violins, violas, mandolins and guitars (Collins, 1996: 93).

The town of dancing (19th century)After the revolution of St. Domingue in 1803 and 1804 a lot of French-speaking refugees arrived to New Orleans. In 1807 two big theaters presented works in French. Between 1836 and 1841 at least thirty new dance locations were opened (Sublette, 2008: 240 – 245). A lot of different dances were around in New Orleans, including the French contradanse and English contradance. There were also “Waltzes, Gallopades and Minuets. Boat Dances, Character Dances and two types of Quadrilles. There were Gavottes, Reels and Mazurkas. Cotillions, Gallops and Contra Dances. And for the Spanish there were Boleros and Fandangos” (Collins, 1996: 62).

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 - 1869)The composer and piano virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk was born in New Orleans in 1829. Gottschalk studied in Paris, where in 1848 he wrote two of his first famous pieces “Bamboula” and “La Savanne, Ballade Creole” (Roberts, 1979: 27, 28).

The name of “Bamboula” suggests the use of the bamboula rhythm, but in the piano piece actually the habanera (bamboula plus backbeat) is used as the basic rhythmic accompaniment in the left hand:

In 1854, one year after Gottschalk returned to the United States, he went to Cuba. Within one month he had produced “El Cocoye” a piece including the bamboula, habanera and a lot syncopation. Later pieces include “Maria La O”, “Marche des Gibaros”, “Ojos Criollos” (“Dans Cubaine”) and the symphony “Nuit des Tropiques”. All of these pieces have one element in common: they include the tresillo and/or habanera rhythm (Roberts, 1979: 27, 28). Gottschalk's music is incorporating the habanera decades before it is used

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in the early rag time music. In “A Night in the Tropics” the cinquillo is used extensively (Sublette, 2008: 125).

The brass bandsFor the first time, hundred years after dance music became popular, drums appeared in the dance halls of New Orleans. The instruments which are used in a brass band are industrial products and are not from African origin. Brass bands duties included dances, parades and music funerals. The first brass band performances for funerals occurred before the civil war, in the middle of the 19th century.

Let's have a look at what the early brass bands must have sounded like. Collins describes how a funeral ceremony was taking place. First the brass bands would gather and then march to the place of employment, typically a headquarter, lodge or hall of a society: „A bright marching pace is set by the snare drum at about ninety to one-hundred beats, or steps, per minute“ (Collins, 1996: 123).

In case of a funeral procession, after arriving, the snares were released from the snare drum or muffled with a towel. The band played hymns at a marching tempo and proceeded to the funeral establishment, e.g. the home of the deceased or a church. On the way to the cemetery very slow marches were played. In tempos that could be as slow as twenty beats per minute. The steps of the dancers were double as fast as the tempo and made them sway from one side to the other. If the distance to the cemetery allowed it, the hearse was escorted all the way to the burial site (Collins, 1996: 123 – 124). Nevertheless, usually the band returned to the lodge or a similar place together with society members, while the cortege proceeded to the cemetery. This event marked the end of the funeral, but the band still marched the procession of lodge members home. The snares were unmuffled again and the bands started to play. “It is playing normal New Orleans parade music. Marching music in the New Orleans Style. Admittedly the parade music of a New Orleans brass band is unlike any other. It is nonetheless parade music, exactly the same music played at any other New Orleans parade” (Collins, 1996: 125).

“The routine of brass band funerals is very ancient. Probably it has not changed appreciably since the mid-19th century. A downtown resident's brief description of a brass band funeral in the 1880s would have been entirely suitable for a similar funeral of the 1950s” (Collins, 1996: 126). “Brass bands of New Orleans were able to retain the ancient music traditions of the city considerably longer than the dance bands because they continued to receive support from the neighborhood societies and were not subjected to exploitive commercial pressures” (Collins, 1996: 130).

Brass bands always included popular songs into their repertoire. They were often hired to play on public events and to make sure that the audience would be familiar with the repertoire brass bands would add popular songs to their repertoire. This included marches, and dance music like foxtrott, cakewalk, two step and also ragtime and later jazz. This tradition of including popular songs is still nowadays alive I have seen brass bands playing modern jazz tunes and recent pop music. Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Buddy Bolden and Jell Roll Morton used to play in brass bands.

In the course of time brass bands started to incorporate more and more syncopation. Out of marching rhythms the “Big Four” was developed.

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In the twentieth century rhythms like funk or hip-hop were included. Only in the 1990s the extensive use of the bamboula pattern was introduced into the brass band music. Also the use of bells and Afro-Cuban patterns is a relatively recent development and not necessarily influenced through Cuban music.

Buddy BoldenCharles Joseph "Buddy" Bolden was born on September 6, 1877 in New Orleans and was an African-American cornetist. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of New Orleans based rag-time, the prototype of jazz. Bolden developed a looser, more improvised version of ragtime and added some blues to it.

Furthermore Bolden is credited with the discovery of the “Big Four”, a rhythmic cycle, that is one of the most important rhythms in traditional jazz from New Orleans, as well as in brass band music.

Notice that the second bar is identical to the habanera rhythm.

Jelly Roll MortonJelly Roll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe) was born on October 20, 1890 in New Orleans. He was a ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer. His composition “Jelly Roll Blues” is considered to be the first jazz composition. Morton coined the term “Spanish tinge” which refers to the habanera and tresillo rhythm. He used these rhythmical cells in compositions like “Mamanita”. The song also incorporates a piano passage that sounds very Cuban. When listening to Morton's tango “The Crave”, one could think that it was written by a Cuban composer.

Jazz is createdThe “invention” of jazz in the 1920s is a complex history by its own and marks a turning point in music history. Musicians like Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton and W.C. Handy were influential in the creation of jazz and New Orleans is considered to be the birthplace of jazz. Early jazz uses Western African rhythmical concepts, that were already used in rag time and brass band music. Very soon jazz developed more and more into something new. Swing rhythms replaced the bamboula pattern and a style was born that had enough individuality for being able to influence Cuban music.

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Recent developmentsThe “Latin Tinge” continued to be a part of music in New Orleans in the course of the twentieth century. Professor Longhair was from the 1940s on influenced by Caribbean musicians. The style he developed was called rhumba-boogie. In addition to continuing with the tradition of using the tresillo and habanera pattern, he introduced clave-based patterns (website Wikipedia: Professor Longhair). Professor Longhairs composition “Blues Rhumba” layers a son clave pattern played by the claves on top of a regular blues feel. The song "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" combines the son clave played by the claves on top of a tresillo bass pattern. Also in this song the piano plays in a blues feel.In my opinion Professor Longhair's music is not clave based. He uses the son clave simply as an ornamental element. In “Blues Rhumba” the clave randomly flips around in the middle of a blues form without any connection to other musical events. I assume that this was not even intended. Remarkably it does not sound awkward and shows that the 3- and the 2-side are interchangeable and that the music does not use the clave as a key-pattern to refer to.In “Hey Little Girl” Professor Longhair incorporates a pattern, that is usually played by the Maracas or on the shell of timbales in Afro-Cubam bolero music. The piano plays with an R&B feel, while the bass (and the left hand in the piano) plays a tresillo pattern.In the song “When I Meet My Girl", Charles “Hungry” Williams incorporated a tumbao pattern, that is heard in several Cuban music styles and usually played by the congas. The ride cymbal plays a cascara pattern.Drummer Smokey Johnson, who was born in New Orleans in 1936, was strongly influenced by Afro-Cuban patterns and also The Meters are influenced by the clave, e.g. in their song “Fire On The Bayou”. This song is not clave music, but bell-patterns and a two bar structure with rhythmical accentuations close to a 3-2 son clave create some “Latin Tinge”.

Still nowadays New Orleans' musicians have to be able to play a lot of different styles. The city offers everything. From brass bands to modern jazz, from traditional jazz to even heavy metal. Professor Brent Rose told me that for him the fascination of New Orleans is that he can sometimes play 6 gigs in 6 different genres in a single week, including traditional jazz, modern jazz, latin jazz, afro-cuban, rock and funk. The New Orleans tradition of mixing up a lot of different things, not only in the music, is alive up to this date.

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5. CONCLUSION

Cross-influences – A one way street?During my research I could find out much more about the influence of Cuban music on music from New Orleans than the other way around. Why is that? In Cuban music Western African roots are much better preserved than in the music of New Orleans. As I explained earlier, that has to do with the different slave policies in both places. „If we want to have an idea of what Kongo culture in New Orleans might have been like, all we have to do today is visit Cuba“ (Sublette, 2008: 119).In the twentieth century, with the emergence of jazz music and since the US occupation in Cuba from 1898 on, there was also a lot of influence in the other direction. The influence of American jazz can be part of a separate research. Leonardo Acosta has published an interesting book on this topic, called Cubano Be Cubano Bop.

There are several ways how specific African rhythmical concepts arrived to New Orleans

– Through slaves who directly arrived from Western Africa or indirectly through Cuba (or other colonies, including St. Domingue / Haiti).

– Through Cuban soldiers or musicians – Through musicians who travelled from New Orleans to Cuba

The classical composer Gottschalk brought rhythms from Eastern Cuba to Havana and of course back to New Orleans. There is no evidence that he also brought music from New Orleans to Cuba. There is also little known about creole music from New Orleans during these days.Which other possibilities were there for an influence in the other direction? There were almost no slaves arriving from New Orleans to Cuba. Only after the American occupation on 1898 American musicians (including blacks and creoles) arrived to Cuba in larger numbers. By then rag time was existent and jazz was about to come into existence.Acosta states that „in the long run, music as well as cinema and many other elements of American popular music took root in Cuba as they have in no other Latin country” (Acosta, 2003: 9).

InstrumentationThere is one big difference between music from Cuba and music from New Orleans. The absence of African hand-drums in New Orleans music tradition. For me the main reason for that is that the British forbid slaves to practice their religion, language and culture. Drums were forbidden, because they could have been used for communication over long distances, e.g. between two plantations.It is often hard to distinguish if an influence came directly through slaves or indirectly through Havana. But in one case there is an obvious influence. In the first drum-kits in New Orleans cuban style cow-bells were used. African bells had other shapes. Nowadays

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you see cuban-style cow bells as a standard instrument in a lot of brass band in New Orleans. The used patterns are often syncopated improvised phrases or sometimes cinquillo based patterns. Nevertheless, this is a recent development and can not be identified as a direct influence from Cuba. Cuban-style cowbells are nowadays a standard instrument all over the world.

Clave – Yes or No? And Why?In Cuba creole clave music was existent from the birth of danzón on. The mixture between European music and (not too suppressed) Western African music led to the „conservation“ and even cultivation of the clave in Cuban music. The “3-2/2-3 concept and terminology is limited to certain types of Cuban-based popular musics and is not used in the music of Africa, Haiti, Brazil or in Afro-Cuban folkloric music” (website Wikipedia: Clave (rhythm)). The clave occurs as an explicitly played pattern and as a underlying “felt” pattern. A lot of deriving patterns like the cascara, mambo bell, tumbao and others align with the 2- and 3-side of the clave.

Music from New Orleans is not clave based. There can be found a lot of Western African rhythmical concepts, and sometimes clave patterns are superimposed on top of the music. Used patterns include the bamboula and the “Big Four”, which could be considered as a key patterns or “a clave”. “The clave” with African roots is not occurring. “Although the New Orleans two-beat and the Cuban clave vary in character, they share the same basic two-bar structure, guiding function and preference of cut time meter” (website neworleansdrumming.com).

African roots or a result of creolization?According to Collins in New Orleans music forms of rhythmical variations were developed and used, that are the same ones than in classical music (Collins, 1996: 189). “It is this innovation that has so mystified students of jazz and caused mistaken ideas of African rhythms. It was not recognized this effect was a new method of beat variation; instead attempts were made to analyze cross-rhythms and polyrhythms. […] The result was a false line of reasoning which led to a wrong conclusion. It was conjectured that since such rhythmic effects did not exist in conventional European music they must be derived from Africa. Those effects did not exist in African music either, despite diligent searching no one has yet been able to discover them but this fast was then unknown and has since been disregarded” (Collins, 1996: 190). Collins insults jazz theorists, who think that there are African roots in music from New Orleans and jazz in general as handicapped. He urges that the importation of slaves was prohibited from 1807 on as an argument which - according to him - proves that there are no African roots in the music of New Orleans (Collins, 1996: 197). As we know illegal slave import went on after this date, slaves did not loose all their musical heritage from one day to the other and a vivid Western African community in Cuba had a direct influence on music in New Orleans.I agree that jazz more and more moved away from African roots (and at times actively searched for them) and was something totally new. But to totally deny these roots is simply ignoring the facts.

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I would like to mention one more fact that I found out during my research of this paper. A widely forgotten or disregarded fact is that some freed slaves returned to their home regions in Africa. It is easy to imagine that they brought influences with them back home . . .

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6. BIBLIOGRAPHYAcosta, Leonardo. 2003. Cubano Be Cubano Bop. One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba.

Washington and London: Smithsonian Books.

Blesh, Rudi. 1981. “Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist”. In Lawrence, Vera Brodsky. Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works. New York Public Library.

Collins, R. 2003. New Orleans Jazz: A Revised History. The Development of American Music from the to the Big Bands. New York: Vintage Press.

Diaz Ayala, Cristobal. 1998. Cuando sali de La Habana: cien anos de musica cubana por el mundo. San Juan: Cubanacan.

Driscoll, Matthew Thomas. 2012. New Orleans brass band traditions and popular music: elements of style in the music of mama digdown's brass band and young blood brass band.PhD diss.University of Iowa. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3287.

Gushee, Lawrence. 2005. Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hartigan, Royal. 1995. West African Rhythms for Drumset. USA: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Henken, Ted. 2008. Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.

Manuel, Peter. Fall 2009. "From contradanza to son: New perspectives on the prehistory of cuban popular music". Latin American Music Review 30 (2). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Ortiz, Fernando. 1952. Los instrumentos de la musica Afrocubana. 5 volumes. Havana: Música Mundana, Editorial.

Ostendorf, Berndt. 2013. New Orleans. Creolization and all that Jazz. Innsbruck: Studienverlag.

Peñalosa, David. 2009. The Clave Matrix. Redway: Bembe Inc.

Roberts, John Storm. 1979. The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Stone, Ruth. 1998. Africa, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. New York: Garland Publishing, INC.

Sublette, Ned. 2004. Cuba and its Music: from the first drums to the mambo. Chicago Review Press Incorporated.

Sublette, Ned. 2008. The World that made New Orleans. From Spanish Silver to Congo Square. Chicago Review Press Incorporated.

Uribe, Ed. 2006. The Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion & Drum Set. USA: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

Website Allmusic, November 28, 2013.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jelly-roll-morton-mn0000317290/biography

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Website Famousdaily, October 5, 2013.

http://famousdaily.com/history/joseph-bonaparte-ascends-to-spanish-throne.html

Website hopeonhope.com, December 10, 2013.

http://www.hopeonhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/glass-faces.jpg

Website neworleansdrumming.com, December 15, 2013.

http://www.neworleansdrumming.com/?id=8

Website NYC.com: “El barrio Spanish Harlem”, September 15, 2013.

http://www.nyc.com/visitor_guide/el_barrio_spanish_harlem.75851/editorial_review.aspx

Website Wikipedia: “American Revolution”, October 5, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

Website Wikipedia: “Cinquillo”, December 5, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinquillo

Website Wikipedia: “Music of Cuba”, December 5, 2013.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Cuba

Website Wikipedia: “History of Havana”, September 20, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Havana

Website Wikipedia: “Geschichte Kubas”, September 20, 2013.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_Kubas

Website Wikipedia: “Culture of New Orleans”, September 25, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Orleans

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_%28people%29

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_%28New_France%29

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Orleans

Website Wikipedia: “Clave (rhythm)”, November 2, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_%28rhythm%29

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Website Wikipedia: “Polyrhythm”, November 2, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrhythm

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Longhair

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-rhythm

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http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dict_en_es/spanish/coartaci%C3%83%C2%B3n

DISCOGRAPHYLewin, Michael. 2001. Bamboula. Piano Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Centaur Records

Inc. CD CRC 2549.

Mandel, Alan. 1990. Gottschalk: 40 Pieces for Piano. KEM Enterprises. CD3X 3035.

Various Artists. 2010. Rumba Jazz 1919-1945, The History Of Latin Jazz & Dance Music From The Swing Era.Rhythm & Blues Records. CD B004FA0NVM.

Various Artists. 1982. The Cuban Danzón. Its ancestors and descendents. Ethnic Folkways Records. FE 4066.

Various Artists. 2004. New Orleans Piano - Blues Originals, Vol 2. Rhino Atlantic. B001228B1K.

Vento, Rosa. 2002. Perlos Cubanas: Songs by Ernesto Lecuona & Sindo Garay. Roméo Records. CD 7213.

VIDEOGRAPHYBallet Folklorico de Camaguey. San Pascual Bailón, November 30, 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVa-zqDTmNk

Berroa, Ignacio. 1995. Mastering the Art of Afro-Cuban Drumming. Warner Brother. VHS.

Morton, Jelly Roll. Mamanita, December 2, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIYrOrEBbP4

Morton, Jelly Roll. The Crave, December 2, 2013.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkGjDbKauVo

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BROADCASTINGSWynton Marsalis part 2. 60 Minutes. CBS News. June 26, 2011.

INTERVIEWS AND CONVERSATIONSAs part of my research I conducted interviews and had informal conversations with or attended lectures by following persons:

Herman Le Beaux

Johnny Vidacovich

Shannon Powell “The King of Treme”

Ruy Lopez-Nussa

Ramses Rodriguez

Jan Hartong

Ricky Sebastian

Brent Rose

Kyle Sharamitaro

Paul Thibodeaux

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AcknowledgmentA big thank you to all the people who helped me realizing this project and especially to the musicians from Havana and New Orleans that welcomed me so warmly and were willing to share their knowledge about the most wonderful thing in this world: music.

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