In search of a good Afro-Cuban book

Start with "The True Cuban Bass" by Carlos Del Puerto and Silvio Vergara.

I have many books, and found this one to be by far the best introduction to Latin/Cuban bass, especially as it gives a lot of background to the styles and the acompanying CD contains recordings of original performances, not just excercises. Despite it's thin size and the low quality audio on the CD it contains invaluable nuggets of information and lays them out in an accessible manner.

Next up: "The Latin Bass Book" by Oscar Stagnaro. It is a little intense for a beginner, but is an ideal continuation once the previous book has been digested. It's a big book with lots of great material and 3 CDs which will keep you busy for ages - get back to me when you've completed all 262 pages of (allmost all) music.

My other favourite is "The Salso Guide Book for Piano and Ensemble" by Rebeca Mauleon. This is not just a book about bass, but a whole history of Afro-Cuban music, with details of arrangements for the whole rhythm section for all styles. A great read, and a great resource to appreciate how the complex polyrhythms work together.

I play regularly in a Latin-Jazz ensemble (see sig. below), and it's a beautiful thing when our six peice (dr, bs, pno, gtr, cong, perc) rhythm section locks in and grooves

 

Didn't Lincoln Goines and Joel Rosenblatt ( former Paquito D'Rivera rhythm section) do a book/CD for the Afro Cuban rhythym section?

 

ya the lincoln goines book is called funkifying the clave

 

+1 on "The True Cuban Bass" by Carlos Del Puerto and Silvio Vergara. The charts in the back of the book are a hoot to play on the upright.

The Goines book is great for slab but not as good for DB as the other, IMO.

Yeah, I'm a freakin book junkie too, y'all!

 

I don't own that one, but that was my impression when I looked at my brother-in-law's copy (he's a latin-jazz drummer). I keep meaning to borrow it - I really like Lincoln Goines' work (on upright) with Michel Camilo.

 

Yeah, there's a lot of examples/charts using BG slap technique. The finger-style stuff would be cool though. Lincoln Goines sure is a MF'er!

Man, I sure wish I still had the audio that came with the True Cuban Bass book.

 

The Lincoln Goines book and video (Funkifying the Clave) are with Robby Ameen, not Joel Rosenblatt. IIRC, the live performances in the video have Wayne Krantz on guitar.

I didn't realize Lincoln played upright with Michel Camilo. Is that on "Through My Eyes"?

 

I’ll second that, book is a MF’er, seems more oriented to BG than a real bass. But it’s got some very cool lesser-played styles in addition to the Cuban type stuff.
I just booked a wedding today and they request at least ½ the tunes be Salsa so they can Salsa dance… I better hit the books too.
I’ll definitely give “The true cuban bass” a look. Thanks for the tip.

 

The books are good, though actually playing with a Latin band is much better because you need to be able to hear/feel how your bass line and all of the other rhythmic parts fit together.