“Afro Cuban music requires a lifetime of study” he explained. “Brazilian music alone has such
a vast amount of genres and grooves; it takes a lifetime to explore” “Latin drumming is a
journey in which there is no end. Your only destination is in the joy of learning something new
from it everyday” – He told of his own life changing experience getting involved with the styles.
He started off getting salsa gigs, at the age of 19, by depping for his teacher. He explained
being frustrated by the fact that in the beginning of his studies, it was very difficult to
understand the feel and vocabulary of “Latin Music”. He later learned that many western
drummers view Cuban and Latin rhythms in general as standard patterns learned in
educational books. Many drummers know these patterns and believe they can perform them
accurately and authentically.
He invited a member of the audience to perform what they thought was a rhythm called
“Songo”. Whilst everyone else was convinced that this could be played comfortably in an
ensemble, Phil explained that it was not at all authentic and this was unfortunately, a problem
of communication between the drummers in the western world, and the drummers of the
Latin world. Phil demonstrated what he would do given the situation. Firstly, for the western
player, the concept of time signatures and subdivisions has to be relearned. The original
players of these styles would more than likely not create with time signatures in mind given
the fact that they would be coming from a totally different musical standpoint. The standpoint
of rhythmic harmony. This leaves the listener with an all together different view of the music;
a more free feel and groove is created. The snare patterns he played seemed random at first
but still in kept a through line with the clave. His continuous variations were incredibly
fascinating and his fluid like playing made the room come to life. His playing meant that things
didn't quite sit on the beat and gave a pushed and pull feel which really helped this style
become distinctive.
One of his fundamental questions was 'What is rhythm?'. The answer he gave was that
“Rhythm is …Concepts of unity”. He used the planets revolving as a metaphor of his idea of
rhythm. It made us understand that rhythm more than anything is about feel. His musical
vocabulary does not rely on various subdivisions. He referred to this as being too
mathematical which can make music sound boring and predictable. He urged people to think
of rhythm as cycles that flows and have feeling. He builds his rhythms like harmonies around
the clave to stop the music from becoming one dimensional. He also mentioned his idea of
the internal clock. He doesn’t rely on a metronome as he feels it is restricting in terms of feel
and imagination.
Phil Maturano is an amazing drummer who has incredible feel, rhythm, dynamic phrasing,
imagination and timing. |
