What is the boogaloo beat?

Liebe zeit

Silver Member
What is the actual definition of the boogaloo beat? There's not much on the web, references to some latin music craze in the 60s, but I find it hard to see that. Elsewhere Zoro in his R&B Commandments book has Lowell Fulsom's 1968 Tramp as boogaloo beat.

I ask because I think this is probably one of my default grooves, having been steeped in late 60s soul and the likes of Mitch Mitchell at an early age. It seems to me it's pretty much a 4/4 rock beat with extra snare hits on some of the +s, often with a bass pattern that can move around over a few bars, maybe some movable hats too.

Thoughts anyone?
 
Sorry for reviving this thread, but I'm very interested in boogaloo drumming since I love The New Mastersounds. I also love drum and bass and realize they are quite similar. The link for the Drum article no longer works and I can't find the article anywhere. Does anyone happen to have a copy of that issue or could anyone go into a little more detail? Basically, if you have a drum and bass groove how do you turn it into boogaloo besides playing it slower.
 
What is the actual definition of the boogaloo beat? There's not much on the web, references to some latin music craze in the 60s, but I find it hard to see that. ...
Thoughts anyone?


Bogaloo related to Jazz in the 60´s is this kind of sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06YhmkodWx0

Horace Silver, Lee Morgan and others used to make tunes in this style...
 
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Sorry for reviving this thread, but I'm very interested in boogaloo drumming since I love The New Mastersounds. I also love drum and bass and realize they are quite similar. The link for the Drum article no longer works and I can't find the article anywhere. Does anyone happen to have a copy of that issue or could anyone go into a little more detail? Basically, if you have a drum and bass groove how do you turn it into boogaloo besides playing it slower.


Just tuned into a YT video of this group and am loving their sound! Thanks for posting that.
 
Terrible tune, interesting drumming. I'd like to see him playing!
 
The link that Alex posted is textbook boogaloo.


It's that 1960s "Soul Jazz" sound. You hear it a lot in organ groups.

What really characterizes it is straight 8th notes, a backbeat on 2, and then another high sound - be in a rim click, snare, or tom - on the "&" of beat 3, 4, or both.

If each . or x represents an 8th note it would look something like this:
.. x. .x ..
.. x. .x .x

The comping instrument often plays x. x. .x .x

They tend to sit in medium-ish tempos ranges from as slow as Alex's example, to a little brighter, like this Hank Mobley tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_oJJ9cLXaM
 
This grooves

What d'yer think you're gonna do
I got a flash right from the start
Wake up, meat head
Don't pretend that you are dead
Get yourself up off the cart
Get yourself together now
And give me something tasty
Everything you try to do
You know it sure sound wasted
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, I said
Back off, Boo-ga-loo
You think you're a groove
Standing there in your wallpapers shoes
And your socks that match your eyes
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, I said
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, come on
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, Boo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXg1AxBXN5g

...great slide guitar
 
I'll $1,000.00 its Hal Blaine, who 'is' credited on Tommy Roe's 1969's 'Dizzy'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpidGq8SlA

I was about to post that same video. First record I ever bought in 1969 (yes I'm old) when I was about 10 years old, two years before I started drumming. It's still an awesome song today. And that dancer is mesmerising to watch :D I was going to ask if it's Hal Blaine and you've answered that.

By the way, not exactly the same beat, but that Sweet Pea song reminded me of this old classic british pop song from '72. Kind of similar melody structure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc
 
Great early break. I'm not sure if it's Hal Blaine though.

Stanton Moore has spoken about the importance of this drum groove a lot, but here's Clayton Fillyau with a 1962 beat that would be slowed way down and become the funk era James Brown groove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6l5_FxjlaQ

This from Tommy Roe
Hi Kent ...
No problem!

The 1962 hit version of "Sheila" was recorded in Nashville, produced by Felton Jarvis and recorded at RCA studio.
The musicians on that session were: Drums - Buddy Harman, Guitars - Wayne Moss & Jerry Reed, Bass - Bob Moore, and Piano, which you don't really hear on the record, was performed by Floyd Cramer. The Jordanaires are singing background. My follow up release to "Sheila" was "Susie Darling." and the same musicians were on that record except for guitar, and that was Jerry Kennedy.

I recorded "Everybody," and "Carol," at Fame studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and that, too, was produced by Felton Jarvis, with Rick Hall working as the engineer. The musicians on these sessions were: Drums - Jerry Carrigan, bass - Norbert Putnam, piano - David Briggs, and guitar - Bobby West, and The Muscle Shoals singers.

After Muscle Shoals I went back to Nashville and recorded "The Folk Singer" with Buddy Harmon on drums, Henry Strzelecki on bass, Joe South and Jerry Kennedy on guitar, and Ray Stevens on the keyboards, produced by Felton Jarvis and engineered by Billy Sherrill.

The musicians on "Sweet Pea," Hooray For Hazel," and "It's Now Winters Day" were: Drums - Jim Troxel and Toxie French, Bass - Jerry Scheff, Guitar - Ben Benay and Mike Deasy, Keyboards - Butch Parker and Mike Henderson. Recorded at Gary Paxtons, and CBS studio in Hollywood.

The musicians on "Dizzy," "Heather Honey," "Jam Up And Jelly Tight," and "Stagger Lee" were The Wrecking Crew: Drums - Hal Blaine, Bass - Joe Osborn, Guitar - Ben Benay and Richard Laws, Keyboards - Don Randi and Larry Knechtel, and saxophone - Plas Johnson and Jim Horne. String arrangements were done by Jimmy Haskel and Horn arrangements were courtesy of Mike Henderson. Background vocals on these records were Ginger Blake, Maxine Willard and Julia Tillman. The sessions were produced by Steve Barri and engineered Phil Kaye and Roger Nichols.

Kent this should clear it up.
Best,
Tommy
 
There is a local community college that specializes in music and arts. I go to their faculty jazz series. They often give a mini lecture before they play the songs. I roughly recall that before they played a bugaloo tune, that they said it was basically a marketing term pushed by a music label(though I think traditional music theory is just non-secular marketing) for a rhumba jazz fusion.

Sounded kind of like a loose bluesy syncopated rhumba or surf tune.
 
What is the actual definition of the boogaloo beat? There's not much on the web, references to some latin music craze in the 60s, but I find it hard to see that. Elsewhere Zoro in his R&B Commandments book has Lowell Fulsom's 1968 Tramp as boogaloo beat.

I ask because I think this is probably one of my default grooves, having been steeped in late 60s soul and the likes of Mitch Mitchell at an early age. It seems to me it's pretty much a 4/4 rock beat with extra snare hits on some of the +s, often with a bass pattern that can move around over a few bars, maybe some movable hats too.

Thoughts anyone?
I think of it as a conga beat played on many R&B tunes in the '60s and 70's. on the quinto or tumba: 1. O O (eigths) 2. S (quarter) 3. [O (eighth) OO (Sixteeths) (3 & a)] 4. S (quarter). The drum break on Archie Bell and Drells Tighten Up sounds a little like it, on toms. I couldn't quickly think of another example.

Listen to the conga player on this one:


Listen at about 00:46

O = Open, S = Slap
 
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Thx for dredging this thread up again. Had lots of good memories working on bass with Tommy Roe in the late 90's and 2000's till his back injury forced him back into retirement for a while. Definitely the Sweet Pea beat is a slightly slower boogaloo. Can't call it a recent tune anymore but Sexx Laws by Beck is a masterful boogaloo with Joey Waronker and Justin Meldal-Johnsen as the rhythm section.
 
YooToob says this is a boogaloo beat:


If so, what is the defining factor(s)? We can point to requirements in other beats (shuffle, train for example), what makes a boogaloo a boogaloo?
 
YooToob says this is a boogaloo beat:


If so, what is the defining factor(s)? We can point to requirements in other beats (shuffle, train for example), what makes a boogaloo a boogaloo?
The 4/4, the half-soul, half-Latin feel, the busyness on the off-beats, and if there were a bassist on there, there would be a funky yet rather busy pattern.
 
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