Cumbia and Latin rhythm

Cumbia is one of the most widespread dance musics on earth. It started on Colombia's Caribbean coast and mutated in every country it reached, and it now sits comfortably next to dub and electronic production.

Where it comes from

Cumbia grew from three traditions on Colombia's Caribbean coast: Indigenous music (gaita flutes and maracas), African drumming (tambora, llamador and tambor alegre), and Spanish song and dance forms. In the 1940s and 1950s, bandleaders such as Lucho Bermúdez and Pacho Galán arranged it for big orchestras, and the label Discos Fuentes spread it on record. Accordion-led groups such as Andrés Landero's and Los Corraleros de Majagual followed.

It then traveled. Mexico made it its own, with groups such as Los Ángeles Azules from Mexico City and the Monterrey accordionist Celso Piña. Cumbia sonidera grew around sonideros, sound-system DJs who echo Jamaica's sound systems. In Monterrey, DJs slowed records down into cumbia rebajada. In 1960s–70s Peru, chicha (Peruvian cumbia) added surf and psychedelic guitars, wah pedals and Farfisa organs: Los Destellos, plus Los Mirlos and Juaneco y su Combo from the Amazon, whose branch is called cumbia amazónica. Argentina produced cumbia villera around 2000. Since the late 2000s, digital cumbia (nu-cumbia) has mixed cumbia rhythm with electronic production: ZZK Records in Buenos Aires with Chancha Vía Circuito and El Remolón, Dengue Dengue Dengue in Lima, and Frente Cumbiero in Bogotá, who also made a record with dub's Mad Professor, joining two of this course's genres.

The rhythm section

• Tambora: a deep double-headed drum that marks the downbeats. In modern cumbia, the kick drum takes this role, often on beats 1 and 3.
• Llamador: the “caller”, a small drum that keeps a steady offbeat. Low conga or a rim on the “&”s does this job in a drum machine.
• Tambor alegre: the lead drum, improvising and answering the melody. High congas in modern bands.
• Guacharaca or güiro: scrapers playing long-short-short on every beat. The single most recognizable cumbia sound.
• Maracas or shakers for a steady 8th or 16th texture. Modern bands add timbales, cowbell and a drum kit with snare on 2 and 4.

Bass and chords

• Bass alternates between the chord's root and its 5th (often the 5th below), landing on the strong beats with short pickup notes leading into them. When the chord changes, the bass changes with it.
• Rhythm chords (guitar, piano or keys) chop short chords on the offbeats.
• Melodies on accordion, guitar (the requinto in sonidera and chicha), flute or brass, frequently harmonized in parallel 3rds or 6ths.

Harmony

Major-key cumbia lives on I–V7 and I–IV–V7–I. Minor-key cumbia uses harmonic minor for its major V7 (E7 in A minor), giving i–iv–V7–i. The Andalusian cadence (i–♭VII–♭VI–V7) is common in chicha and digital cumbia. Dominant 7ths, sometimes with a ♭9, carry the tension; chromatic passing notes in the bass connect chords.

Clave and cumbia

In Afro-Cuban music the clave is the reference every part locks to. Cumbia works differently: it rides a steady two-beat pulse instead of a clave.

The traditional drums each have one job. The tambora marks the downbeats. The llamador, “the caller,” plays only the offbeats, the pulse dancers lock to. The tambor alegre is the lead drum and free to improvise. A guacharaca (a scraper) or maracas drive the constant chk-chiki underneath, and in bands the bass usually alternates root and fifth on the beat.

In Monterrey, sound systems played cumbia records slowed down, and cumbia rebajada was born: heavier and hazier, a natural cousin of dub. The Rebajada slider does the same thing, dropping tempo and pitch together like a slowed record.

Latin percussion also runs through minimal. Chilean-rooted DJs like Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano brought conga and bongo patterns into the Berlin sound. The Latin minimal preset puts a son clave over a 4/4 kick at 124 BPM. At that tempo the whole clave fits in one bar of 16ths.

The clave and cumbia machine loads here.

Related Latin rhythms

Tresillo (3+3+2) and clave from lesson 9, rhythm and groove, underlie much Latin music. Salsa bass plays a tumbao that anticipates the chord change on the “&” of 2 and on beat 4. Reggaeton's dembow grew out of Jamaican dancehall, which grew out of the same sound-system culture as dub. Digital cumbia producers borrow freely from all of these.

Sound design recipes

Play each sound here, then open it in the synth lab to take it apart.

Build a cumbia, step by step

1. Set about 96 BPM, light swing (10–20%, where 0% is straight).
2. Program the güiro: long-short-short on every beat.
3. Kick on beats 1 and 3, low conga or rim on every offbeat, soft snare on 2 and 4.
4. Bass: root on beat 1, 5th below on beat 3, with pickup notes on the “&” before each.
5. Offbeat keys following I–V7 (G–D7) or, in minor, i–iv–V7.
6. A melody in 3rds on accordion or guitar, call and response with the high conga.
7. For digital cumbia: slow it a little, swap the kick for an 808, add a sub, and put dub delay on the congas and snare.

Hear each groove here, or open it in the groove machine to change it.

Listening list

• Lucho Bermúdez and Pacho Galán for big-band cumbia
• Andrés Landero and Los Corraleros de Majagual for accordion cumbia
• The Roots of Chicha compilation (2007), then Los Destellos, Los Mirlos and Juaneco y su Combo
• Los Ángeles Azules and Celso Piña for Mexican cumbia
• Chancha Vía Circuito, Río Arriba (2010), and the ZZK Records catalog
• Dengue Dengue Dengue, Frente Cumbiero, and Meridian Brothers