Clave, in its broadest sense, is sometimes understood as any type of rhythmical pattern which organises time in music. In this sense it can be seen as any temporal structuring devise in music that acts as a reference for the musicians to keep the rhythmical structure of the song. It is a rhythmic ostinato, also referred to as timeline that repeats throughout a song and can be felt rather than sounded. In fact, it is common practice for modern salsa bands to remove the clave from a musical piece while maintaining the same underlying structure, that is, all the instruments respect the clave event though it is no longer an audible component of the song, an effect known as implied clave. Since a higher level of musicality is required for all musicians (as well as dancers) to maintain the clave rhythm in a song which no longer has a clavero playing it out, it is often seen as a higher achievement to produce or dance to songs which have their clave implied. Latin music communities which have a high degree of musical experience sometimes regard songs containing a sounded clave rhythm as beginner songs and many bands will practice without the use of clave. If the pattern is subsequently lost during a particular music section, the band leader will sound the clave out aloud to get everyone back into rhythm. This is often felt as a form of punishment for losing the rhythm in the first place and many bands will aim to incorporate solos, improvisations etc. into a musical piece without the band leader having to sound the clave once.
When all the musician in a band synchronise with the clave then the musical piece is said to be in clave. On the other hand, a certain rhythmical pattern that is simply superimposed on a song, without acting as a guide to the other instruments is usually not considered a clave even if it bears similarities with the structure of say a Rumba clave when viewed in isolation. I.e. it is the usage of a structure shaping pattern rather than just a rhythm that turns a repeating sound into a clave.
Some people consider the standard bell pattern a clave which is simultaneously rejected by a number of musicologists and further distortions of the name clave such as Wynton Marsalis calling the tresillo rhythmic figure the “New Orleans clave”, even though the pattern is actually only half a clave, have contributed to this concept being widely misunderstood.
In this series we will be looking at the structure and history of the Afro-Cuban clave patterns which were introduced in the last post: Son clave and rumba clave. These are often seen as the archetypal forms of clave and we will analyse why they have become so popular and what their significance are with respect to Casino and other forms of Cuban dances.
