Now that I’m realizing how easy it is to share music via embedded youtube videos, I’ll start discussing music:
Here is a great video of Chucho Valdes playing one of my all time favorite songs, Ponle La Clave. Here is the second half:
I skipped to that so you wouldn’t miss the awesome drumming. But here is the first half:
It looks like that is not my favorite drummer Raul Pineda, but this drummer is still very good. They changed the underlying ostinato though to a slow merengue which I don’t like as much. But that is Roberto Vizcaino Guillot on congas, he was on the Live from the Village Vanguard recording.
The sound quality in these videos doesn’t do the song justice. The original album (amazon link) is amazing.
Here seems to be a full version of the track: Megaupload link
Here is my analysis of the Vanguard version:
7/4 A Intro (piano only)
7/4 (repeat all instruments)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8 (repeat)
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Parallel 4ths B – down
4/4
7/4 Intro
7/4
7/4 Piano Solo
—
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 Crazy Drum Solo – Amazing multimeter patterns and double kick
—
7/4 Crazy Conga Solo with Bass & Piano unison ostinato
—
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
1/4 1 beat rest
7/4 A Intro (piano only)
7/4 (repeat all instruments)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8 (repeat)
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4 Jam with Descending quarters
—
4/4 E Salsa pattern solo over descending quarters
—
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4 Ending
If you want to follow along, the Intro starts after Valdes’s extended piano solo in the second video. In all the meter changes the eighth note remains constant.
I love Ponle La Clave because it’s so complex and has such intricate sync between the instruments. It’s a heavily percussive piece that demonstrates rhythmic mastery between all the players. It’s in one of my favorite meters, 7/4, for the majority of the piece, but Pineda and Guillot divide that a thousand different ways. Both of them use an African technique of cycling through a shorter meter pattern in 7/4 making the song sound momentarily in a different meter, and then jump back into the 7/4 meter easily. It’s a hard task to even play another instrument along with them and keep count, let alone execute. Valdes takes a delicious quarter note pause after the solos are over to bring the intro back again. The pause both gives a nice breath from the overstimulation of the solos but also gives you a sense of rhythmic displacement, as if the rest of the song were played on the off beat instead of the down beat.
The jam at the end is incredible. It has the intensity of the climax of a Phish song, a Bela Fleck solo or a Fela Kuti groove but is wildly embellished with jazz hits, drum solos and piano riffs. I have a long time goal of transcribing this song and learning to play it on every instrument in the quartet, for even being able to play it (let alone compose the improvisations on the spot) in my book would be a demonstration of mastery.