Mozambique
In 1963, a conga drummer from the Havanese neighbourhood Jesús María gave the world a rhythm called Mozambique. Drawing from such Afro-Cuban rhythmic sources as the Conga and Guaguancó, Pedro Izquierdo (known internationally as Pello El Afrokán), cooked up a horn-driven sound that integrated the call and response of the rumba with the high-energy carnival spirit of the conga-driven comparsas. Mozambique rapidly grew in popularity as a new sound and was massively successful in the Cuban carnivals of 1960s.
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The infectious rhythm spilled over to the U.S. and into New York particularly, and inspired Eddie Palmieri, Carlos Santana, Pete & Coke Escovedo and Batacumbele amongst others. The interpretation of the music by these artists helped the Mozambique further in popularity, but with the result that the 'true' original form of music is difficult to accurately identify. The majority of rhythmic expressions known as Mozambique in the UK are in fact derived from the style of music that was adopted by artists in the U.S.
The Mozambique pattern is characterised, however, by the 2-3 clave, and should be played with congas, bells, snares and bass drums, accompanied by a brass and horn section.
The Mozambique arrangement for a samba batería has altered dramatically from the original music written by Pello El Afrokán, due to the changes in the arrangements over time and the need to compose for different instruments that the music was originally written for. Nevertheless, there are several key notations which remain true(ish) to the original Cuban form. This specific arrangement was developed by Ravin Jayasuriya of One Voice Music in 2000 and adapted slightly for the LSS by Rob Mair in 2003.
Rob May 2005
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