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Songo is a genre of popular Cuban music, created by the group Los Van Van in the early 1970s. Songo incorporated rhythmic elements from folkloric rumba into popular dance music, and was a significant departure from the son montuno/mambo-based structure which had dominated popular music in Cuba since the 1940s. Songo is the most famous of the post-Revolution Cuban rhythms, beginning with the mozambique, which drew from the deep well of Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms (mainly rumba). In this version all drums are played by Kim.

This is a traditional AfroCuban rhythm, and is considered one of the precursors to Rumba. AbaCua has its own drums, dance, language and songs. The rhythm is often played on conga drums, since the traditional drums are rare.
Clave, bell, shakers and four conga drums including “bonko”, solo drum played by Kim

This is my composition for the Brazilian Bateria, based on Nigerian patterns. The instruments you hear are two surdos, caxia (snare), two agogo bells, shekere, and tamborim. This is the last track on my Grooves to Live In album. The basic tracks were played by members of Carnaval Spirit.

This is my Bateria arrangement of a very common and popular rhythm from Brazil, also known as Ijexa. Three surdos, repinique, caxia (snare), two agogo, (bells), tamborim, ganza (tube shaker). I have adapted some of the traditional hand drum parts to the Bateria. Basic tracks played by members of Carnaval Spirit.

Mozambique is typically played at medium to fast tempo, This slow tempo is good for learning the intricate contra-clave patterns. I played all the instruments – two bells, two bass drums, and three congas

I played all the parts to this version of Rumba Guaguanco Habanera with tumba, clave, cascara, conga, and quinto. Improvise your own song over this groove!

This is an original composition by Tony D’Anna, Kendrick Freeman, and me when we played as Tokenki.  The rhythmic feel and meter is slow 3 in 16th notes, what many people would call “three four”.   Tony played a low drum, Kendrick played two congas and a bell and I played shekere.  There are no overdubs. We worked many of the rhythmic implications, and return to basic three four. You can see us playing other of our compositions here.