Spanish tinge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
File:MortonBricktopRowCropMortonFace.jpg
Jelly Roll Morton

The Spanish tinge is an Afro-Latin rhythmic touch that spices up the more conventional Template:Time signature rhythms commonly used in jazz and pop music. The phrase is a quotation from Jelly Roll Morton. In his Library of Congress recordings, after referencing the influence of his own French Creole culture in his music, he noted the Spanish (read Cuban) presence:

Template:Quote

What Morton called "Spanish" were the tresillo and habanera rhythms of the Cuban contradanza ("habanera"). Morton demonstrated the "tinge" to Alan Lomax in the 1938 Library of Congress recordings.[1] What is known in Latin music as the habanera rhythm is also known as the congo,[2] tango-congo,[3] and tango.[4]

Morton categorized his compositions in three groups: blues, stomps, and Spanish tinge, for those with habanera rhythms. Tunes with the "tinge" include "New Orleans Blues" (a.k.a. "New Orleans Joys"), "La Paloma", "The Crave", and "The Spanish Tinge". Morton also called attention to the habanera in "Saint Louis Blues" as one of the elements in the song's success.

<score sound="1" override_midi="Tresillo divisive.mid"> \new RhythmicStaff {

  \clef percussion
  \time 2/4
  \repeat volta 2 { c8. c16 r8[ c] }

} </score> <score sound="1" override_midi="Habañera.mid"> \new RhythmicStaff {

  \clef percussion
  \time 2/4
  \repeat volta 2 { c8. c16 c8[ c] }

}

</score>
Top: tresillo rhythm.[5][6] Bottom: habanera rhythm

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. Morton, “Jelly Roll” (1938: Library of Congress Recording) The Complete Recordings By Alan Lomax.
  2. Manuel, Peter (2009: 69). Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  3. Acosta, Leonardo (2003: 5). Cubano Be Cubano Bop; One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books.
  4. Mauleón (1999: 4)Template:Incomplete short citation
  5. Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (2008). Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century, p. 54. Template:ISBN. Shown in common time and then in cut time with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.
  6. Sublette, Ned (2007). Cuba and Its Music, p. 134. Template:ISBN. Shown with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Further reading