It's Sunday night and I'm already looking forward to performing Cuban music at Martini Beach on Wednesday! Every week as I practice and try to gain more knowledge and understanding of the many styles of music that developed in Cuba, I find myself reading and learning more and more about the island's history and people. Just as Jazz developed as a result of the merging of Western European and African elements, Afro-Cuban music owes it's existence to the harmonic and rhythmic contributions of these two continents. I find however, that the scale tips a little more toward complex rhythm in Afro-Cuban music. Even today the use of many authentic African instruments and and musical traditions remain fairly intact in Cuba. This is really visible in the style of music known as Rumba and it's three main sub-styles. My Percussionist, Dave, has been studying these styles for decades now and is quite knowledgeable about many of the rhythmic patterns and their significance in the music and social culture of Cuba. Some of the music that we perform already features more African based rhythms, as in the "Conga/Carnival parade" type of numbers that we feature every week. We are hoping to add, in the near future, a few more numbers which demonstrate other examples of these styles in familiar Cuban songs. Well, It's time for me to wrap this up, but I hope that you'll join us at Martini Beach in Cape May on Wednesday(7:00-10:00 pm) for another evening of great Cuban Music.
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