Welcome to the third installment in our series on Latin jazz drumming. In this lesson we’ll focus on mambo bell variations in a 3/2 time signature. The inspiration for this month’s column comes from an audition experience I had several years ago, when I was asked to sight-read a 3/2 samba-inspired chart with a band. On occasion, jazz composers and arrangers will write music that’s inspired by Afro-Cuban or Brazilian rhythms set to varying time signatures. Mambo is a traditional Afro-Cuban pattern that’s often built upon a 2:3 clave foundation in 2/2 (cut time). Its main rhythm is typically played on a mambo cowbell, the side of a timbale shell, the cup of a ride cymbal, or closed hi-hats. A common mambo bell rhythm is demonstrated in the following example. Mix, Match, and Experiment The next examples demonstrate ten 3/2 mambo-inspired bell patterns for practice and application within a band. […]

April 2019 Issue