Jazz/Latin Grooves

Diegorod

Member
Last night I was at a clinic watching Mike johnston, JP Bouvet, & Matt Halpern. During Mike's solo he played a really cool Latin/Jazz Groove. Someone asked about it, but I completely forgot what he called it, I only remember him saying it was a popular one. can someone give me a list of popular or common latin/jazz grooves/beats?
 
Last night I was at a clinic watching Mike johnston, JP Bouvet, & Matt Halpern. During Mike's solo he played a really cool Latin/Jazz Groove. Someone asked about it, but I completely forgot what he called it, I only remember him saying it was a popular one. can someone give me a list of popular or common latin/jazz grooves/beats?

Too many to mention all of them. Here's a few off the top of my head.

A Night in Tunisia is a really popular one. On Green Dolphin Street switches between a Latin and swing feel. Not really a "Latin" groove but Poinciana is a cool groove. And of course, Girl from Ipanema is the bossa nova tune that everyone knows.
 
Last night I was at a clinic watching Mike johnston, JP Bouvet, & Matt Halpern. During Mike's solo he played a really cool Latin/Jazz Groove. Someone asked about it, but I completely forgot what he called it, I only remember him saying it was a popular one. can someone give me a list of popular or common latin/jazz grooves/beats?

Some things you can look up; there's a few great books out there to get you started as well. The best way to transition this stuff to drum set is to actually learn the traditional approach to the rhythms on whatever drums they're designed for, then move them over to drum set and apply them as you see fit.

cascara (basic pattern that came from timbales that can be applied to drum set)
montuno (a specific pattern on a bell)
bongo bell

Some styles from Cuba:
- Cha cha
- Danzon (the older ballroom-style dance from Cuba)
- Guaguancó (a specific style of music that originated in rumba, but shows up in jazz arrangements)
- Pilon
- Bolero (the Cuban ballad)
- Son
- Mambo
- Guaracha
- Songo

Puerto Rican:
- Bomba
- Plena

Brazilian
- Bossa - the 'white' Brazilian rhythm
- Samba
- Pagode - Brazilian street drumming
- baião - another style of Brazilian music

Others:
- Cumbia
- Norteño
- Ranchera
- Merengue

There's a many more, and who knows if what you heard was accurate to anything specifically or just "Latin".
 
Mike Johnston playes the songo LOADS in most of his solos he plays that or a variation on it.

Weckl also goes to it all the time. Seems to be his go to groove

Check out MJ's videos on the songo and songo variations.

D
 
Songo is a style, not just a single beat....

Songo is a comparatively new style of Cuban music, having only been developed in the 70s. It's like a modern day variation on the rumba. It's generally associated with Los Van Van. There's a killer video about it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0BMLzFDnF8

- Pagode - Brazilian street drumming

Not to get off topic or split hairs, but pagode is not really "street drumming". Pagode is the style of music, it's a spin off of samba. A lot of pagode material is the music that the large escola de sambas are playing but in a smaller setting. You usually see guitar, bandolim, cavaquinho, and smaller percussion like pandeiro, repique de mao, tantan, tamborim, and surdo. Often times it's called a "Pagode de Mesa", which means "Pagode around the table". They're like big parties where the band sits at a table to play so they can have charts, food, beer, etc. close at hand. The audience then crowds around the table. It usually looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh1KZn_fj1g Arlindo Cruz is pretty much the godfather of pagode.

For those of you that live in London, we do one every other Monday at The Arc, near Angel tube. Great hang. https://www.google.com/maps/place/T...ata=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xba704d521df1eace
 
Songo is a comparatively new style of Cuban music, having only been developed in the 70s. It's like a modern day variation on the rumba. It's generally associated with Los Van Van. There's a killer video about it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0BMLzFDnF8
There's great stuff in that video; I'd also encourage watching "History of the Tumbadoras" with Changuito and Giovanni...they cover a great deal of the history of conga technique, but there's other useful information in the video, too. I'm headed down to Havana in June and will try and talk to Enrique Plá about more of the history of songo.


Not to get off topic or split hairs, but pagode is not really "street drumming". Pagode is the style of music, it's a spin off of samba.

True, I apologize for the misinformation.
 
Back
Top