The art of improvisation within an Afro-Cuban drumming context highlights how each musician utilizes the clave while they improvise, and how they negotiate the distribution of the clave pattern itself as an anchor or pulse. Even when the clave pattern is not literally stated, its “essence” remains, creating opportunities for alignment as well as contrast. In this episode, Horacio and Roberto share clave distribution duties and trade off in bursts of rhythmical virtuosity.

Personnel:
Horacio “El Negro” Hernández, drums
Roberto “Tato” Vizcaíno Jr., percussion
José Armando Gola, bass
Rebeca Mauleón, piano and moderator