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.

Radiohead’s In Rainbows is pretty good, I thought their pay-what-you-want selling scheme was gimmicky at first but I downloaded it for free and now that I’ve listened to it I like it and I think I’m going to buy it. (If you give them fake info first, then you can try before you buy! It’s optionally free anyway.) 15 Step gets five stars, and props for their IDM and dance influences in this album.

Stanton Moore’s Stanton Moore III album is phenomenal, it’s really chill new orleans funk/jazz with amazing drum solos. I’m trying to learn the solos from Big ‘Uns get the Ball Rolling. The whole album makes a great party mix.

Arturo Sandoval’s Stella by Starlight gets five stars by me, it’s not new but I found it recently and its solos are amazing.

I’ve been obsessed with Chucho Valdes’s track Ponle La Clave from Live at the Village Vanguard ever since I first heard an MP3 of it in college (mislabeled as ‘ponte la clave’). I later bought the album Live at the Village Vanguard, which is great, and so is Valdes’s similar album Bele Bele en la Habana, which I purchased off of itunes.

Ponle La Clave is one of the most enjoyable and complex pieces of music I’ve ever heard. It’s energetic, it’s amazingly fast, it’s syncopated, most of it is in 7/4 but it changes meter constantly, and the piano, conga and drum solos are brilliant. My goal is to someday transcribe this piece and play the piano or drum solos because I believe it would make me a better musician to understand what they’re doing.

Raul’s masterful drum solo in 7/4 is mind-blowing. So is his use of double bass drum pedals and rolls. I was intrigued by him and sought out other music of his, finding this page:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=13929

That page mentions he recorded an album, Bembe En Mi Casa, with Nachito Herrera. I made a Pandora Station with “Nachito Herrera” and was wildly pleased with the results. I found a new favorite song of mine, Song in F, and made a pandora station with it as the seed (Song in F) which is even better. I’m finding great music by Tito Puente, Francisco Aquabella, Bebo Valdes (Chucho’s father, sweet), Willie Colon, and Orchestra Harlow on it.

Song in F is remarkably similar to Ponle La Clave, featuring virtusosic solos, a killer chorus, and an amazing sync between the congas and drums. Pineda has to be the link between these phenomenal songs. Raul Pineda / Nachito Herrera / Song in F gets a five star rating from me, shared in iTunes only with artists Chucho Valdes, Freakpower, Stanton Moore, Mos Def, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tommy Flanagan, and Zero 7.

I’ll post more here as I find it.