My music
My contributions to Cuban Music and how I did it
Music is a spiritual and living language
I could say that my passion for jazz was the first real reason that allowed a certain development and flexibility when it came to preserving the music, from there comes my personal interpretation and the desire to recreate aspects in Cuban music that invariably remained as mandatory fixed schemes.
– One of my contributions to current Cuban music was the contratumbao, which was later adopted by many popular dance music orchestras until today, which was born by fusing funk guitar riffs and the Cuban tres with piano tumbaos, creating a cell that enriches the rhythmic fabric of the timba (musical style of current Cuban music).
– I was the first to fuse Cuban music with rap and hip hop.
– Change the traditional cell of the bongos player’s ringing.
-I introduced the design of the bass drum with two quarter notes on the third and fourth beat, which is still used in Cuban urban music.
-In my work as a pianist, I began to revolutionize the traditional tumbao based on the changes made by Rodolfo Argudín (Peruchín), pianist of the Cuban music orchestra “NG la banda”, which introduced tensions and moved the syncopations, enriching them harmonically. For my part, I was in charge of creating a different language where the tumbaos have a life of their own, sometimes based on a small motif that is repeated, or perhaps a phrase that responds to the bass, which I also write so that the tumbao has congruence, which It is true that I introduced new life and endless possibilities so that pianists could create their own tumbaos design, which is still used today.
-I gave the treatment of the winds a life that it didn’t have before, using riffs reminiscent of funk music, but totally in Cuban rhythmic language.
-I made the violins actively participate in the harmonic fabric, also using incisive phrases that can recall funk music.
-Harmonically, I also introduced sequences never used before, giving my arrangements a fresh and modern color.
