Kenneth Schweitzer’s The Artistry of Afro-Cuban Batá Drumming: Aesthetics, Transmission, Bonding, and Creativity is, to date, the most in-depth musicological analysis of Cuban Lucumí (the author’s preferred term for religious traditions associated with Santería or Yorùbá orisha) drumming, written from a well-experienced participant-observer’s perspective. Basing much of his fieldwork on apprenticeships with prominent culture-bearers in the Washington-Baltimore area and Cuba, the author also touches on batá activity in other North American urban areas and Mexico City. Although the opening chapters do a good, succinct job of situating the Lucumí culture in terms of its aesthetic intentions, sacred and secular contexts, global reach, pedagogical approaches, organology, and ritual structuring, the primary focus of the book is bataleros (batá drummers): who they are, how they conceptualize and make music, and what motivates their music-making. As such, the book complements earlier studies by Fernando Ortiz and others, and extends the trajectory of detailed musicological transcription and analysis begun by Robert Friedman (1982) and John Amira and Steven Cornelius (1992). It would serve well as a supplemental text for batá performance ensembles and is especially valuable for its comparison of various performing styles and detailed descriptions of musical improvisation.
In addition to the background information described above, chapter 1 delineates the structure of toques de santo (public batá rituals), with special attention to the instrumentalists—as opposed to akpwons (singers) or other creyentes (believers)—and considers the role of money. Following Friedman’s model of “thematic acts,” Schweitzer frames discussion of the fiesta-like atmosphere at toques, competition between singers, orisha possession, and formalized greetings of respect in terms of drummers’ agendas, adding two “acts” of his own: drumming competitions and teacher/student exchanges. The chapter also introduces three important Havanan informants (Ángel Bolaños, Armando “El Surdo,” and René Poderoso) through extended interview excerpts tempered by the author’s candid evaluation of his consultant’s statements, shedding valuable insight into their aesthetic orientations and religious beliefs.
Chapter 2 treats the Omo Añá, initiates of an originally all-male, all-Afro-Cuban gyno- and homophobic religious fraternity (women and homosexual men are traditionally forbidden to touch the Batá de Fundamento, or sacred drums, during toques de santo) that has begun to induct non-African Cubans and, most recently, non-Cuban ahijados (godchildren). Interestingly, Schweitzer, a white North American, notes in the introduction that he has been formally initiated as a full member of the Añá (orisha) community, alluding to his own religious beliefs by directly thanking the orishas Eleguá, Changó, and Añá in the final sentence of the acknowledgments section. The chapter also does a commendable job of detailing the layout and structure of a representative toque de santo, with commentary on how santeros employ various strategies to effect social cohesion and religiosity.
Chapter 3 examines the batá repertoire, describing pitch, timbre, rhythm, form, and structure, and offering a useful comparison of Friedman’s and Amira and Cornelius’s terms for structural variations, setting up later analyses of these improvisatory elements. Schweitzer challenges Fernando Ortiz’s binary categorization of toques (those performed during oro igbodú and all others) with his own view that focuses on the link between individual toques and orishas, allowing for a continuum of kinship between the two—from one-to-one, to one-to-a-few, one-to-many, and one-to-all. Thus, while some batá toques are directly linked to chants and songs, others draw on metaphorical associations with patakines (mythological stories), dances and movements, and/or an orisha’s gender; still other toques may be associated with several orisha, while some are relatively free of such associations. The author’s intent in utilizing this more flexible framework is to account for the complex decision-making process involved when drummers transition among appropriate toques during performances.
There is an interesting tension that arises when Schweitzer discusses the metaphysical aspects of Lucumí ceremonies, alluded to above. For example, in describing one ritual, he writes: “Moved perhaps by the collective spiritual power of the drumming…the heavens soon burst open and sheets of rain fell from the sky” (84), a remark he quickly qualifies as an interpretation by the attendant creyentes. Elsewhere, however, he notes that “[O]risha [i.e., the deities themselves] can request/demand unfamiliar and arcane toques” (97), a remark left to be interpreted at face value, and he later claims that the orisha Eleguá “owned [Pancho Quinto’s] head” (141), statements that not so subtly reify Lucumí beliefs, reflecting thereby the gray areas posed by scholarly studies of religion, and the emic/etic fine-line trodden by participant-observers.
Chapter 4, on experiential learning, contains some very interesting discussion of the spatial proximity of the various drumheads and how this facilitates teacher/student interactions during performances. Initially focusing on the role of the okónkolo, the smallest, most repetitive drum, the chapter then moves to the itótele, which inhabits a more complicated role, shifting between time-keeping functions and interactivity with the lead iyá drum, even assuming, in some performance practices, co-leadership roles with the iyá.
Chapter 5 provides an in-depth personal and musical portrait of the late Pancho Quinto, critiquing and refining earlier scholarship by Bertico López, outlining Quinto’s development of the Guarapachangueo rumba and his considerable impact as performer and educator, with valuable discussion of Quinto’s ambiguous style, characterized as both traditional and progressive. While at times the language and accompanying photos seem unnecessarily reflexive, the sections on Schweitzer’s use of written notes during lessons, and Quinto’s reaction to these, and on the latter’s pedagogical “tricks” and penchant for creative exploration are invaluable. For example, several musical examples show correct and incorrect metrical interpretations of the toque Eleguá, a common stumbling block for neophyte itótele players trying to answer the call of the iyá drum.
Chapter 6, one of the book’s strongest, presents excellent transcription and analysis of the traditional toque Ñongo, comparing two recorded performances for stylistic differences and improvisational variations. The detailed notations with complementary audio tracks show the various interactions between the iyá and itótele drums (the relatively stable okónkolo patterns are omitted for clarity), noting where the accents fall in relationship to the 2- and 3-sides of the underlying clave rhythm. Schweitzer identifies basic patterns, calls, and responses, and differentiates between “simple conversations” and more complex “continuing conversations” (his own terminology), concluding the chapter with an excellent summation highlighting subtle differences between Havana- and Matanzas-based performance practices.
The final chapter addresses a third, modern variant of Ñongo, showing newer developments in improvisational interactions popularized by the Havana-based group Los Chinitos via a widely disseminated series of CD recordings by Abbilona inaugurated in 1995. Schweitzer introduces three new categories of conversation: rapid call and response, free simultaneous improvisation, and multi-measure linear call and response. As in the previous chapter, detailed notation and analysis of the iyá and itótele parts supplemented by audio examples clearly delineate the variety of complex, often overlapping exchanges taking place in contemporary batá drumming styles. A word of caution, however: in spite of Schweitzer’s exemplary and unambiguous notation and analysis, the highly complex polyrhythms created by three interlocking bataleros makes it easy for even a musically sophisticated listener to get off on the wrong metric “foot” (i.e., incorrectly interpret the underlying pulse) when attempting to follow along with the musically notated audio excerpts. An extended transcription of the modern Ñongo style appears in the appendix, along with online links to the listening examples.
Works Cited
Amira, John, and Steven Cornelius. 1992. The Music of Santería: Traditional Rhythms of the Batá Drums. Crown Point, IN: White Cliffs.
Friedman, Robert. 1982. Making an Abstract World Concrete: Knowledge, Competence and Structural Dimensions of Performance among Batá Drummers in Santería. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University.
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[Review length: 1243 words • Review posted on September 3, 2014]