Songo music

The left hand portion of the pattern is expressed in a wide variety of melodic motifs, and timbres.

The feeling of the high drum part is like the quinto in rumba, constantly punctuating, coloring, and accenting, but not soloing until the appropriate moment (Santos 1985).

[10] As used in North America, the term songo refers generally to the rumba-influenced music of Cuban bands during the 1970s, and the conga and timbales parts shown above.

The main exception was the horn-based supergroup Irakere, which blended jazz elements into the rhythmic mix.

The horn-based Puerto Rican bands Batacumbele and Zaperoko also refer to their style of music as songo.

Songo represented a major breakthrough in Latin music by introducing the drumset into the standard percussion triumvirate of congas, timbales and bongos ... the songo rhythm finally put the drumset on equal footing with the other instruments” (Goines and Ameen 1990).

In the early 1980s, these patterns caught the attention of North American drummers who, as a result, were now able to appreciate the clave-based structure underlying funk.

North American drummers in turn adopted songo ideas into various jazz and funk inventions of their own.