Ritmo Oriental's First Album of the 70s

Areíto LD-3461 (1974) (collection of Rob Holland)

1974 Ritmo Oriental - Adiós no estoy loco (Perera-Lazaga)
xx0x 0xxx 0xx0 xxx0 2-3 rumba clave
0xx0 0x0x xxx0 0000 bass - MIDI example
bass: Humberto Perera
source: La historia de la Ritmo, Vol. 1

notes: Humberto Perera was one of La Ritmo's principal arrangers but this is the first song he co-wrote. The cuerpo has abundance of creative hooks in succession, alternating between sections of dark rock and blues motivo figures and contrasting explosions of beautiful, original chord progressions, each featuring its own interesting bass figure. The fourth section of the cuerpo was borrowed almost verbatim by future la Ritmo violinist David Calzado for Charanga Habanera's Otra mujer from the 2003 Soy cubano soy popular album. It's even in the same key! CH's Sombrilla also probably borrowed his trademark interjection "Eh??" from Mi socio manolo, although I've heard it claimed (but not proven) that they both stole it from Beny Moré.

This is also one of the few Ritmo Oriental songs that has an unusual piano tumbao (or one that's prominent in the mix for that matter). After the usual breakdown to bass and percussion, the piano enters with a tumbao that mimics the rhythm of the "walking bass" we heard in Se perdio el amor. Piano tumbaos are primarily composed of offbeats, but this one has none at all (0x0x 0x0x 0x0x 0x0x).

1974 Ritmo Oriental- Tema R.D.A. (Ramiro Reyes)
xx0x 0xxx 0xx0 xxx0 2-3 rumba clave
xxx0 00x0 x0x0 xx0x bass - MIDI example
bass: Humberto Perera
source: La historia de la Ritmo, Vol. 1

notes: The opening tumbao is related melodically to the coro and also has the unusual quality (for this genre) of not hitting the downbeat. At the end of this excerpt is the transitional to a strange but beautiful section at a much slower tempo. The transition back to speed at the beginning of our second excerpt leads to the first section we've encountered from any our three bands that's based on the bombo-ponche bass tumbao (xxx0 xx0x). The chord progression, I - IV - V - IV, is the most common in Latin music -- La bamba, Guantanamera, Pare cochero ... on and on. One could say that I - IV - V - IV is to Latin music what the 12-bar blues is to North American music. Humberto improvises all around it, showing a mastery of a style he almost never used with la Ritmo (at least at this early point). The 70s were almost completely dominated by melodic guajeo-based bass tumbaos, and almost every track was in 2-3 clave. This changed drastically in the 80s, but remember - we're still in 1974.

Tema R.D.A. was left off of the original LP, and released, possibly for the first time, on La historia de la Ritmo, Vol. 1. Perhaps its creation -- and omission --had something to do with politics. R.D.A. stands for República Democrática Alemania - at that time, communist East Germany. Machetero, meaning literally "one who wields a machete" could have the political connotation of the hammer and sickle while also referring to Lazaga's wicked güiro playing. If you figure it out, contact us!

1974 Ritmo Oriental- María baila el son (Rolando Vergara)
xx0x 0xxx 0xx0 xxx0 2-3 rumba clave
xxx0 xx0x xxx0 xx0x bombo-ponche bass tumbao
bass: Humberto Perera
source: La historia de la Ritmo, Vol. 1

notes: The main tumbao is the second most common chord progression in Latin music -- a one chord jam with a bombo-ponche bass. Humberto stretches out, playing various combinations of the standard device of doubling the bombo (xxx0 0x0x) and doubling the ponche (xxx0 xx00), and adding all sorts of funky virtuosic fills.