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Latin musicians and styles help

bassguppy

bassguppy

Jan 8, 2003
2,448
461
Queens
#1
First, let me say that I have been playing for over 20 years and consider myself semi-adept and proficient at several different styles. But, in my never ending search for skill and knowledge I now want to learn a bit about latin music.

Mainly Cuban, Brazilian, or any other latin style music that anyone may think may give be a healthy dose and introduction to these styles. Can anyone provide direction to bands I should listen to and specific bass players I should gain knowledge from. Probably what I'm looking for is Samba, Bossa Nova, Latin Fusion, Jazz styles. But feel free to suggest other styles as well.

Thanks to all very much.
 
#2
bassguppy said:
First, let me say that I have been playing for over 20 years and consider myself semi-adept and proficient at several different styles. But, in my never ending search for skill and knowledge I now want to learn a bit about latin music.

Mainly Cuban, Brazilian, or any other latin style music that anyone may think may give be a healthy dose and introduction to these styles. Can anyone provide direction to bands I should listen to and specific bass players I should gain knowledge from. Probably what I'm looking for is Samba, Bossa Nova, Latin Fusion, Jazz styles. But feel free to suggest other styles as well.

Thanks to all very much.
Click to expand...

If you're into books, you could check out these:

http://www.shermusic.com/cubabass.htm

http://www.shermusic.com/brazrhythm.htm

I've only skimmed through these on a couple of occasions, but if they're done to anywhere near the level of Sher's excellent New Real Book series, they should be very well done and very helpful.
 
#5
Couple of other books that helped me out-
Funkifying The Clave For Drums & Bass-Robbie Ammeen & Lincoln Goines
The True Cuban Bassist-Carlos del Puerto

...Stagnaro's book is fairly recent addition for me; it is also very good.

I suggest getting very, very, very comfortable with the clave.
Learn them, know them, live them.
Be able to tap out the clave with one hand while tapping out the 'pulse' with the other...& then be able to reverse hands. You can practice this sorta stuff while stuck in traffic or whenever you're put on-hold. ;)

Here's one example of what I'm talking about-
Code: 
LH = /1---3---/1---3---/
RH = /1--&--4-/--2-3---/

...and one more-
Code: 
LH = /1---3---/1---3---/ 
RH = /--2-3---/1--&--4-/

Latin-Jazz Bands?
Check out Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band.
 
#6
Having lived in Brazil at the height of the Bossa Nova movement, I can suggest that you listen to the music of the great creators and players of that style--Antonio Carlos Jobim, Laurindo Almeida, Joao Gilberto and his wife Astrud Gilberto, American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, even Sergio Mendes.

An important CD to have which will introduce to the ORIGINAL Bossa Nova is the soundtrack from the movie "Black Orfeus." Even better, get a DVD of the movie. It will be in Portuguese with English subtitles and gives you an idea of Brazilain life in the "favelas", hillside slums of Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s.

Other very important names in Brazilian music other than Bossa Nova (musica carnivalesca, musica popular Brasileiro, etc) include Gal Costa, Maria Bethania, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Luis Gonzaga, Ivan Lins, Elis Regina, and Milton Nascimento.
 
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#7
Two very important styles of musica Latina are salsa and merengue. In fact, I feel you would be remiss not to be able to identify these styles when you hear them, because they permeate Caribbean and Latin American countries.

For myself, I much prefer salsa, but merengue has an enormous following.

Just a few names in salsa to check out are:
Arsenio Rodriquez
Tito Puente (and Tito Puente Jr.)
Tito Rodriquez
Machito
Celia Cruz
Ruben Blades
Eddie Palmieri
Oscar de Leon
Marc Anthony
Gloria Estefan

In merengue, just a few names include:
Juan Luis Guerra
Olga Tanon
Elvis Crespo
 
#8
Tito Puente, the late master latin percussionist.
Irakere, an eclectic band from Cuba.
Chucho Valdes' (from Irakere) solo stuff. :ninja:
Eddie Palmieri
of course, there's a lot more...what you can do is check these people (and the others that have been suggested) on amazon and check out the "similar " artists that are recommended on the site.
have fun
 
#9
i recommend to listen to this cd RUBEN BLADES LIVE
(WITH HIS BAND SON DEL SOLAR)
there's a book from a guy from PUERTO RICO(RAY RAMIREZ)
you can find his info in a couple of bass mags(classifieds)
MARK ANTHONY(CD) OTRA NOTA
any recording from a famous guy(bass player of course) from
PUERTO RICO....BOBBY VALENTIN



I HOPE THIS HELPS A LITTLE BIT.
I CAN KEEP MENTIONING BUT IT TAKES TIME AND THINKING TO REMEMBER SO MANY GOOD LATIN ARTIST. (bass players):bassist:
 
#11
'Cat-
That is a great little book, too.
I've stole many a-bongo/ago go bell, etc rhythm outta that book in order to come up with various bass figures.
Mauleon's 100 Montunos For Piano is also cool...more good bass practice(copping what the pianist plays & incorporating it on the bass).
 
#12
MARK ANTHONY(CD) OTRA NOTA
any recording from a famous guy(bass player of course) from
PUERTO RICO....BOBBY VALENTIN

Hey, I did that MA CD!!! That was fun .... 13 years ago! As for Bobby Valentin (one of my heroes) check him out on the "Fania All Stars' Rhythm Machine" on the tunes "En Orbita & Juan Pachanga" also, check out Sal Cuevas on anything he's on.

Easy,
R

P.S. DG, Saw your profile ...... where is Sammy Morales?
 
#13
Boplicity said:
Having lived in Brazil at the height of the Bossa Nova movement... ...in Brazilian music other than Bossa Nova (musica carnivalesca, musica popular Brasileiro, etc) include Gal Costa...
Click to expand...

Hey Boplicity, where have you lived here in Brasil? in Rio de Janeiro? São Paulo?

by the way it's música carnavalesca, música popular brasileira and you should also check out some Baião, Xote, Forró, Samba-Canção and one of my favorite type of music, the Choro.

if anybody wants to know more about the favelas and the way poor pleople are treated down here you should watch "Cidade de Deus". It's the best movie about that IMHO.

:hyper: cool to see people getting interested in the music from my country :hyper:

Gabriel
 
#14
gbf said:
Hey Boplicity, where have you lived here in Brasil? in Rio de Janeiro? São Paulo?

Gabriel
Click to expand...

I lived in Sao Paulo between the Avenida Nove de Julho and, dang, I forget, but we were near Shopping Center Iguatemi. We were very near Jardim Europa, but I recall we were in Jardim Paulista.

I loved the music of Brazil (Brasil.) Still do. The movement of musica popular brasileiro was just getting momentum when we lived there. As I recall it was quite controversial and was linked with a political movement. I found the music innovative and exciting.
 
#17
I can only speak to Cuban music aka "Salsa" from experience

+1 to Cacaho. Israel "Cachao" Lopez is Widely considered the Father of Cuban bass, a composer and arranger in his own right, possibly invented the Mambo. Check out his old school Descarga Cubana, (" Cuban Jam") or his fully orchestrated Cachao Master Sessions I & II, or Cuba Linda.

+ 1 to Oscar Stangoro's book.
+ 1 to the Salsa guide book. The Salsa Band I spent 5 years in used this as the starting point.

If your coming at this Cuban stuff as a gringo, like I did, the best piece of advice I have is this:
Learn all of the rhythm section's parts, starting with the clave. Not just he bass tumbao, but the Conga tumbao (they have the same name for a reason), the cowbell pattern, the timbales' cascara, and the basic piano montuno. Learn the meaning of the specific beats bombo (the 2& ) and ponche (4) . Understanding how these rhythms all interlocked propelled my playing to another level.

A great exercise you can do anywhere is to simultaneously clap and sing the clave and the tumbao. I used to do this waiting at the bus stop. Clap a clave pattern, and sing the bombo/ponche beats over it. When that felt good, I'd switch to clapping ponche/bombo and singing the clave
 
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#18
Wow, love it!

mambo4 said:
I can only speak to Cuban music aka "Salsa" from experience

+1 to Cacaho. Israel "Cachao" Lopez is Widely considered the Father of Cuban bass, a composer and arranger in his own right, possibly invented the Mambo. Check out his old school Descarga Cubana, (" Cuban Jam") or his fully orchestrated Cachao Master Sessions I & II, or Cuba Linda.

+ 1 to Oscar Stangoro's book.
+ 1 to the Salsa guide book. The Salsa Band I spent 5 years in used this as the starting point.

If your coming at this Cuban stuff as a gringo, like I did, the best piece of advice I have is this:
Learn all of the rhythm section's parts, starting with the clave. Not just he bass tumbao, but the Conga tumbao (they have the same name for a reason), the cowbell pattern, the timbales' cascara, and the basic piano montuno. Learn the meaning of the specific beats bombo (the 2& ) and ponche (4) . Understanding how these rhythms all interlocked propelled my playing to another level.

A great exercise you can do anywhere is to simultaneously clap and sing the clave and the tumbao. I used to do this waiting at the bus stop. Clap a clave pattern, and sing the bombo/ponche beats over it. When that felt good, I'd switch to clapping ponche/bombo and singing the clave
Click to expand...
 
#19
baba said:
The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro is awesome. Complete with CDs with bass track panned to one side so you can remove bass when you want to jam with the CD. Oscar is an incredible bassist. The CDs alone are good enough to simply listen when you aren't practicing.


Get it.

BIG +1. Outstanding book. Not only does the book start simple to build up your knowledge from piece to piece, the lines that Oscar has in each piece build as they progress through the song. So many outstanding examples here. This'll keep you occupied for quite a while.
Click to expand...
 

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