Brazilian Clave and Cuban Collaboration

Wayne Wallace forwarded me this interesting post from a latin jazz discussion group, which I thought I'd share. Mark Levine asked for thoughts why there aren't more Brazil-Cuba collaborations. Jovino Santos Neto, an impressive Brazilian composer/pianist who played with Hermeto Pascoal for many years and now resides in the Seattle area, had this to say:

Cuba and Brazil have been musically very close for generations. The development of samba-cancao after the 1930s is closely tied to the bolero. In the 50s mambo was a big craze in Brazil, many artists recorded mambos and every dance band needed to have them in their repertoire. In the 70s a few Brazilian artists were involved in recording with Cuban artists in the US, most notably Joao Donato, who composed and played piano and trombone with Mongo, and I think with Cal Tjader as well. Airto produced a record for Cal, "Amazonas".

Hermeto has composed a few mambos, the most recent being "Irmaos Latinos" from the Festa dos Deuses CD. I just returned from Switzerland, where I produced a recording of a CD by the Kurmann Strings of Hermeto's music, with the great Julio Barreto from Cuba on drums. I arranged this tune for them, and it will be a burner when it comes out...

Now, about the clave: I cannot speak for all Brazilian musicians, of course, but in my opinion, the concept of clave as a structural component that organizes rhythm exists in most of the music from Brazil, but in a much different way than it does in Afro-Caribbean music. I keep hearing people talking about "bossa nova clave" and other things, but this is not something that most Brazilian drummers will even think of. The side-stick pattern one hears on a lot of samba drumming is not a structural element, but a ornament that can be applied in myriad ways without compromising the groove. If there is a "clave" in samba, it is definitely related to the bigger accent on "2" that the surdo represents (if one thinks in 2/4). I remember having a conversation with Nen�, arguably one of our greatest drummers, about clave a few years ago, and he was completely unaware of anything like it. However, during our gigs together, if I would play a bit of a montuno-based pattern on the piano, it would take him no more than 3 milliseconds to respond to it and adjust the groove accordingly.

There is a lot of tumbadora-based music in Brazil (candombla, samba de roda, caxambu, etc), but to the best of my knowledge their patterns are quite different from the tumbao one hears in Afro-Cuban music. Some patterns are 2 beats long, others are 4 beats long, but different nonetheless. The closest I have heard are the 6/8 patterns from candomble, which are deeply steeped in the Yoruba traditions from where so much of Cuban music derives.

As far as the collaboration between Cuban and Brazilian musicians, the best results are achieved when minds are open and willing to explore. I worked with Giovanni Hidalgo and Airto and that was a beautiful combination. Gio played some of my baiao and maracatu tunes and added so much to them. Also, Gonzalo Rubalcaba is currently touring with Joao Bosco. Chico Buarque has had a long history of collaboration with Cuban songwriters like Pablo Milanes and Silvio Rodriguez. NG La Banda has visited Brazil many times.