Listen Along
Here you will find MP3 audio tracks of the Bongos from Cuba. Click on the link to play the track to share with your class now, or right click on the link and choose “save as” to save the track to your own computer and share with your class later.
- Rumba guaguanco ensemble with clave rhythm from Cuba “Las Leyendas de Grecia (The Legend of Greece)” is a familiar type of rumba that is danced by a flirtatious couple that includes interaction and competition. The lead singer punctuates the quinto drum’s rhythms. A translation of the lyrics begins, “Come wise ones, and poets. Come here everyone. I’m going to talk to you seriously about history and concrete things. Everyone talks of history and of the Gods, without really knowing the origin of how they were formed. The legend of Greece and of her devine gods…” (from a CD titled Cuba in Washington on Smithsonian Folkways LC 9628, track #2)
- Bongos playing martillo rhythm in the son rhythm of a Cuban ensemble “Yo Canto en el Llano (I Sing on the Plains)” shows the close relationship between the son and rumba rhythms through the interlocking bongo and bell rhythms. The son is a rhythm that connects other rhythms together like the martillo and rumba. A translation of the lyrics begins, “Over the hill I met a pretty woman from Guantánamo. Because of her bewitching look I got involved right there…” (from Smithsonian Folkways LC 9628, track #9)
Play Along
Here you will find MP3 audio tracks of the Bongos from Cuba to download and share with your class. Your students can play along, following instructions found in the relevant curriculum chapter. Download TUBS notation paper. Click on the link below to listen to the track or right click on the link and choose “save as” to save the track to your own computer.
Resources
View a PDF of the Audio Content Notes to Roots of Rhythms lessons 1 through 10.
View more resources—CDs, DVDs, and websites—for each instrument.