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FORWARD Robert Fernández, Instructor
of percussion and Latin percussion at California State University, Los
Angeles,
and an excellent percussionist, has been traveling regularly to Cuba to
research and study Cuban music for around fifteen years. During these
trips he
has made contact with events, places and persons that are important
parts in
the evolution process of today's Afrocuban and Cuban music. This fact,
together
with his knowledge in the world of rhythm and percussion instruments
has
created in Fernández the necessary conditions to turn him into
the ideal person
to write a book on Cuban rhythms and musical instruments, that goes as
far as
to propose new transcriptions of this music made by himself. Fernández
offers in this
book an exhaustive and detailed description of Afrocuban drums and
their
rhythms. Historical facts are used to present the drums while
transcriptions
offer us important information on the aesthetical behavior of the
original
African ethnic groups and the evolution of their descendents in Cuba.
The idea
of showing us different transcriptions to each rhythm leads to the
understanding of different evolution lines, from African to Afrocuban
music, as
it happened in different territories in Cuba. This
book gives us
information on the contributions done by the Yoruba, Bantu/Congolese,
Arará
and Calabar peoples to the musical culture of Cuba. Its structure shows
us how
the legacy of these peoples have survived in Cuba and in this way have
given
birth to an Afrocuban musical culture that in time began to influence
strongly
the rest of Cuban music. In
a second stage Fernandez
approaches Rumba as a "non religious music and dance in
Cuba"…"rooted today in the legacy of the African slaves". He
describes the different musical genres belonging to Rumba
-Yambú, Guaguancó and
Columbia- and shows through his transcriptions essential differences
between
the Havana and the Matanzas style. Fernández grants the quinto
in Rumba
a most important role. Towards the end of this chapter he makes very
good and
detailed remarks on how to approach quinto performances by
percussionists. The
knowledge provided by
Fernández in this book is, without any doubts, a way to the
know-how of using
Cuban music and rhythms to enrich performance capacities of
percussionists in
many updated popular music of the world, like Pop, Funk and Jazz among
others.
The scores in the book open a possible way towards the schooling of
Afrocuban
music and Cuban rhythms and their use by professional musicians all
over the
world. If
you are a musician and
show interest in Afrocuban music, I strongly recommend this book, read
it
thoroughly, I assure your knowledge and performance abilities will
greatly
improve. Olavo Alén
Rodríguez, Director Center for Research
and Development of Cuban Music (CIDMUC) Havana Sep. 15, 2004 |