Afro-Cuban jazz is the first type of Latin jazz. It combines Afro-Cuban rhythms based on a pattern called clave with jazz harmonies and the use of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music originates from African traditions and rhythms. The genre began in the early 1940s with Cuban musicians Mario Bauzá and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. In 1947, bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and percussionist Chano Pozo introduced Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments like the tumbadora and bongo to the East Coast jazz scene. Early combinations of jazz and Cuban music, such as "Manteca" and "Mangó Mangüé," were called "Cubop," a term for Cuban bebop.
For the first few decades, Afro-Cuban jazz was more popular in the United States than in Cuba. In the early 1970s, Kenny Dorham and his group Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, followed by Irakere, helped introduce Afro-Cuban jazz to Cuba. This influenced styles like songo.
History
Although clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-20th century, Cuban music influenced the birth of jazz. In the 19th century, African-American musicians began using musical ideas from Afro-Cuban traditions when the habanera became popular worldwide. The habanera was the first written music that used a rhythm from African traditions. The habanera rhythm (also called "congo" or "tango") combines two patterns called tresillo and the backbeat.
Musicians from Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans, Louisiana, traveled between the two cities by ferry to perform. The habanera rhythm became popular in the United States. John Storm Roberts said the habanera reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published. For more than 25 years, while cakewalk, ragtime, and jazz were developing, the habanera was a common part of African-American music. Early New Orleans jazz bands included habaneras in their music, and the tresillo/habanera rhythm was a key part of jazz at the start of the 20th century. Wynton Marsalis compared the music of New Orleans and Cuba, saying the tresillo is the New Orleans clave. The song "St. Louis Blues" (1914) by W. C. Handy includes a habanera/tresillo bass line.
Will H. Tyler’s song "Maori" included a habanera rhythm. Handy wrote that White dancers reacted to the rhythm with pride and grace, and he suspected the rhythm had African roots. Handy later included the same rhythm in his songs "St. Louis Blues," "Memphis Blues," and "Beale Street Blues."
Jelly Roll Morton said the tresillo/habanera (which he called the "Spanish tinge") was essential to jazz. Morton said, "In my early tune 'New Orleans Blues,' you can hear the Spanish tinge. If you don’t use Spanish influences in your music, you won’t get the right flavor for jazz." In "New Orleans Blues," the left hand plays the tresillo rhythm, and the right hand plays variations of a pattern called cinquillo.
There is evidence that the habanera/tresillo rhythm was part of jazz from the beginning. Buddy Bolden, the first known jazz musician, created the "big four," a pattern based on the habanera. The big four was the first syncopated bass drum pattern that changed from the standard march rhythm. The second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm.
In Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, Gunther Schuller wrote that Cuban influence appears in many pre-1940s jazz songs, but these songs use simple rhythmic patterns like tresillo, not the two-part clave structure. "Caravan," written in 1936, is an example of early jazz that is not clave-based. However, jazz versions of "The Peanut Vendor" by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Stan Kenton are clave-based because they use the 2-3 guajeo rhythm throughout the song.
The first jazz piece based on clave was "Tanga" (1943), composed by Mario Bauza and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans. "Tanga" began as a spontaneous jam session with jazz solos added.
In "Tanga," the right hand of the piano guajeo uses a style called ponchando, which uses block chords instead of arpeggios. The rhythm is emphasized through repeated patterns. An example from a 1949 recording by Machito and René Hernández shows this style.
Machito and his Afro-Cubans were the first band to make congas, bongos, and timbales standard in Afro-Cuban dance music. They used rhythmic patterns from bongos in mambo sections, expanded the use of congas in bands, and made timbales more important for setting up horn parts like a jazz drummer would. Their song "Nagüe" was the first recording to feature all three percussion instruments playing together.
Machito and his Afro-Cubans were the first to consistently use Afro-Cuban rhythms in jazz arrangements, creating a unique sound. Cuban arranger Chico O'Farill said this was a new way to blend Cuban music with rich harmonies. He added that this influenced all later bands.
They were also the first to use modal harmony in jazz arrangements, as heard in "Tanga." The song uses a "sheet of sound" effect with layered music. They were the first big band to create large, complex compositions using Afro-Cuban rhythms, such as Chico O'Farill’s "The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite."
They were the first band to combine big band techniques with Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz soloists, as seen in "Tanga" by Gene Johnson and Brew Moore. They were the first multi-racial band in the U.S. and the first to use the term "Afro-Cuban" in their name, highlighting the West African roots of their music. This helped the Latin and African-American communities in New York connect with their shared heritage.
They were the first Afro-Cuban dance band to use clave counterpoint in arrangements, weaving rhythms from both sides of the clave without breaking its structure. Mario Bauzá and Machito set a high standard for later bandleaders like Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez.
Machito and his Afro-Cubans promoted new musical ideas, blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz arrangements and soloists in a multiracial group. Bauzá developed the 3-2/2-3 clave concept, meaning a song can start on either side of the clave. In North America, salsa and Latin jazz charts often write clave in two measures of cut-time (2/2), likely influenced by jazz traditions.
Clave license
More than fifty years ago, Mario Bauzá made arranging in-clave a special skill. Clave is also called a guide-pattern, and Bauzá used that term to describe it. He taught Tito Puente, and Puente’s arrangers learned from him.
These techniques were shared from one generation to the next. Many well-educated Cuban musicians do not accept the idea of the 3-2/2-3 clave. Dafnis Prieto and Alain Pérez also do not agree with this concept. Many younger musicians do not follow the idea of "clave rules." Pérez explains, "I do not treat the clave as something to study or analyze in detail, especially where it overlaps or begins. I did not learn it that way."
Bobby Sanabria notes that this attitude is becoming more common in Cuba. He says, "The lack of understanding about clave in Cuba is becoming more noticeable. The balance in rhythm created by the direction of the clave is being lost because young arrangers, especially in the timba movement, do not know how to use it properly when arranging music." Juan Formell, the founder of Los Van Van, best described this modern Cuban view of clave. He said, "We Cubans like to think we have 'clave license,' and we do not feel the need to be as focused on the clave as others do."