Changüí

Changüí is the rural party music of Guantánamo in eastern Cuba, which took shape in the nineteenth century from older Baracoa song-dance forms such as...

Changüí is the rural party music of Guantánamo in eastern Cuba, which took shape in the nineteenth century from older Baracoa song-dance forms such as nengón and kiribá. It is built on an interlocking tres, a large low-tuned bongó, a marímbula (plucked box bass), a guayo scraper and maracas, carrying improvised décima verses against a chorus estribillo. It keeps its timeline without a separate clave instrument or the standard son-clave pattern. Changüí and son are related eastern-Cuban traditions whose exact genealogy is debated; Elio Revé later modernised and hybridised changüí, carrying it toward Cuban dance music.

Era

Spanish Tinge & Foundations

Traits

Interlocking tres, a large low-tuned bongó, marímbula bass, guayo scraper and maracas, with call-and-response décima verses; it keeps time without a separate clave instrument or the standard son-clave pattern.