Master of Arranging In-clave
The 3-2/2-3 clave concept and terminology was developed in New York City during the 1940s by Bauza while he was the music director of Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Bauzá was a master at moving the song from one side of clave to the other. The following melodic excerpt is taken from the opening verses of “Que vengan los rumberos” by Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Notice how the melody goes from one side of clave to the other and then back again. A measure of 2/4 moves the chord progression from the two-side (2-3), to the three-side (3-2). Later, another measure of 2/4 moves the start of the chord progression back to two-side (2-3).
The first 4 1⁄2 claves of the verses are in 2-3. Following the measure of 2/4 (half clave) the song flips to the three-side. It continues in 3-2 on the V7 chord for 4 1⁄2 claves. The second measure of 2/4 flips the song back to the two-side and the I chord. In songs like “Que vengan los rumberos,” the phrases continually alternate between a 3-2 framework and a 2-3 framework. It takes a certain amount of flexibility to repeatedly reorder your orientation in this way. The most challenging moments are the truncations and other transitional phrases where you “pivot” in order to move your point of reference from one side of clave to the other. Working in conjunction with the chord and clave changes, vocalist Frank “Machito” Grillo creates an arc of tension/release spanning more than a dozen measures. Initially Machito sings the melody straight (first line), but soon expresses the lyrics in the freer and more syncopated inspiración of a folkloric rumba (second line). By the time the song changes to 3-2 on the V7 chord, Machito has developed a considerable amount of rhythmic tension by contradicting the underlying meter. That tension is then resolved when he sings on three consecutive main beats (quarter-notes), followed by tresillo. In the measure immediately following tresillo the song returns to 2-3 and the I chord (fifth line)—Peñalosa (2010).
Bobby Sanabria, who was Bauzá's drummer during his later years, points out that Bauzá was the first to explore jazz arranging techniques with authentic Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis giving, it a unique identifiable sound that no other band in the genre of Afro-Cuban based dance music had at the time. Cuban big band arranger Chico O'Farill stated: "This was a new concept in interpretating Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers."
Read more about this topic: Mario Bauzá
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