Latest
Beyond Salsa: The Bass and Piano in Contemporary Cuban Dance Music
The Latin Pulse with Michael Lazarus: Beyond Salsa: Interaction Between The Bass and Piano in Contemporary Cuban Dance Music
Meet Michael Lazarus
One of the great things about playing timba is that you get the chance to play in a band with multiple drummers. A typical configuration for the rhythm section is bass and piano, congas, timbales and drumset. As a bassist this liberates you because all the subdivisions within the beat are already being articulated by the percussion -so you get to decide which ones to highlight or feature for each particular song. This means you can play off the kick drum part, the whole kit, the timbale part or the congas. Unlike many types of North American music (rock n’ roll, pop, soul, etc.), where the bass and kick drum are expected to lock with each other as a fundamental part of the groove, in Cuban music the kick drum is an independent voice. One of the funkiest aspects of a timba groove is hearing the kick drum punching through the holes of the bass movement.
While salsa bassists have a standardized, repetitive bombo-ponche (and of 2 and 4) bass movement, which the dancers use as a metronome to count their dance steps, timba bass movement plays off the clave in all kinds of ingenious and different ways (read my first three articles here on BMM). To go off on a tangent for a second, in my opinion this is part of the reason salsa dancers have such a hard time making a transition to Cuban style social dancing, as they are not following the clave per se and use the bass as a crutch. As Yorgis confirmed in the last article, timba bass can be thought of the art creating of clave based, melodic loops over a specific harmonic progression.
…..which brings us to the piano. If you are playing timba in band you’ll quickly realize that the old school, traditional piano montunos only go so far, and a whole different concept is needed to play up to par with your bass and percussion matrix. Your bass groove is integrated harmonically with the piano and h or she is the one filling the spaces you selectively leave. Hip your piano chair to this with a new series of instructional piano books called Beyond Salsa Piano. It covers the history of Cuban piano movement from the 1910’s all the way to the 80’s (Volumes 1-4) and then beyond salsa into the Cuban timba revolution (Volume 5). In this article we’ll work off excerpts from Volumes 6 & 7, which cover the individual style of Iván “Melón” Lewis. A legend in Cuba, Mr. Lewis is still relatively unknown but in my opinion perhaps the greatest keyboard genius in the history of Latin dance music.
Before taking a listen to the following audio samples, please note that they are stereo separated. The Alaín Pérez bass part is on the right and the Melón piano part is on the left. Use your balance control on your stereo to isolate each channel.
Here we go….
Volume 6 – La Vida Sin Esperanza
Download the audio sample here – la-vida-sin-esperanza-bass
Download the piano transcription here (BSP-Vol6-LaVida)
The bass movement of La Vida Sin Esperanza contains all the trends we previously discussed -heavy downbeats on the 20-side, emphasis on the second stroke of the 3-side, omission of the 1 on the 3-side- and the piano shadows the 1-2-3 movement of the first three quarter notes. Here is the first clue to why the old school salsa approach won’t work. To lock in with the bass (and percussion) the pianist has to essentially memorize the piano part like a classical piece, play it note for note, and understand that it’s a riff that belongs with this specific song. There are more sophisticated approaches to the piano parts like “theme and variations” and “controlled improvisation” but that lies outside the scope of this article (read the Beyond Salsa Piano books).
Volume 7 – Luz Viajera
Download the audio sample here (luz-viajera-bass)
Download the piano transcription here (BSP-Vol7-Luz)
Here in Luz Viajera the bass emphasizes the first stroke of the 2-side of clave (measures 1 and 3). Its cool that the piano leaves a hole for the first quarter note of the phrase. In general the piano ride provides counterpoint to the bass movement. The and-of-three of the third measure (G minor) is another very interesting place where the piano and bass lock, or the piano goes off into variations.
For both these tunes and for the style in general, the bass movement has a stock theme over the chord changes and then spins off into variations. I hope I’ve spiked your interest enough to play these examples through with your fellow pianist. Cheers.
Credits:
– Audio tracks and transcriptions used by permission from Kevin Moore, editor-in-chief of http://www.TIMBA.com and author of the Beyond Salsa Piano series of instructional books.
– All content ©2010 Michael P. Lazarus
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @kilianduartebass @meridian_guitars @adamovicbasses @marleaux_bassguitars @jcrluthier @sandbergguitars @ibanezuk_official @dingwallguitars @torzalguitars @ariaguitars
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @bacchusguitars @franz.bassguitars @mendesluthieria @ramabass.ok @meridian_guitars @adamovicbasses @shukerbassguitars @fantabass.it @andys_vintage_guitars @valdesbasses
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @murraykuun_guitars @ja.guitars @combe_luthier @overloadguitars @kevinhidebass @franz.bassguitars @indra_guitars @petercrowdesign @baboomin_bass @jcrluthier
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @sandbergguitars @benevolent_basses @rayriendeau @olintobass @wonkorbasses @bite.guitars @adamovicbasses @maruszczyk_instruments @skervesenguitars @ramabass.ok
Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
Visit online:
Official Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Spotify