"Con efecto"

What is it about these Ritmo Oriental examples that creates so much more rhythmic tension and makes them so much harder to learn and (trust me) to write out? It's the tempo changes. An Arsenio Rodríguez or Charanga Habanera bloque holds a steady tempo while doing its level best to throw you off the rollercoaster by convincing you that the tempo, or at least the meter, has changed -- but if you refuse to give in and tap the original beat steadily enough, you'll find yourself right back in the pocket, and grinning ear to ear, when the band surges back in. Try doing that with the Ritmo Oriental examples! Even the world's most rock-solid studio drummer will end up scratching his head in bewilderment. If a normal bloque is the musical equivalent of an Escher painting, a Ritmo Oriental bloque is like viewing that painting on a rotating canvas.

I'd been scratching my own head in bewilderment for some time when my research finally led me to two musicians without whom this section could not have been written: bassist Rob Holland and timbalero Brett Gollin, who had the great fortune to hang out and even sit in with the band in the 1980s (Gollin also studied with Daniel Díaz). Rob Holland called this tempo-bending practice con efecto, a term he picked up from Enrique Lazaga himself in late 1985, so that's what we'll be calling it throughout our survey of La Ritmo. To head off any future confusion, note that many timba musicians use the word efecto to refer to the bloque itself. For example, when Tomasito tells us about the songo con efectos gear of Paulito FG's band, the term "efectos" refers to the rhythmic punches played by the bass and percussion while the piano, voices and horns continue normally, holding the tempo steady. In the case of la Ritmo, however, efecto refers to the feeling created when the whole band drags the tempo down dramatically. No one is holding down the original tempo -- the tempo has actually changed. In this context, the musicians would say that they're playing "con efecto". For this article, we'll use the following definition:

Here's how the opening bloque of Sabroseao con la Ritmo looks written out:

legend:
0=bass tumbao note
B=bass bloque note
x=any underlined symbol designates a place where the tempo pauses and/or slows down (con efecto)

0xx0 x0x0 xxx0 x0x0
0xx0 x0xB xBxB xBxB
xBxB xBxB xBBx xxxx Sabroseao bloque 1

Now compare these four audio examples:

MIDI at a constant tempo (104 bpm)
actual recording
MIDI with a tempo map (104 - 95 - 72 - 107)
actual recording on left - MIDI with tempo map on right

The Making of the MIDI File: Holland and Gollin point out that, in general, La Ritmo's percussionists would synchronize these dramatic tempo changes by stopping right on the 2nd stroke of the 2-side of the clave, and in this the percussionists do, but because the last note of the bass tumbao hits one subdivision later, I changed the the tempo from 104 bpm to 95 bpm to coincide with the bass. When I played my MIDI file against the original recording, the bloque worked like a charm -- the punches lined up perfectly. But my MIDI version still came back in too soon, in spite of the fact that I'd compensated for the fact that the band comes back in at a slightly faster tempo of 107 bpm. I finally got it to sound right by putting yet another tempo change of 72 bpm in the silence prior to Daniel Díaz' abanico (where the tempo rises to 107 bpm at the final underlined x). I'm quite positive that no one was ever feeling a tempo of 72 bpm. They simply played the bloque, stopped, and waited for the timbalero to bring them back in with his abanico (drum roll on the timbales). But since the computer can't "listen for the abanico", I had to cheat and insert the extra tempo change.

If you want to try this at home with your band, here's the routine: