This rudimentary percussion is made of a salvaged metal piece (often from agricultural
origin), held in the left hand ; a long nail, held in the right hand, is used as striker.
The reja is especially used at the in street carnivals.
RITMO NUEVO
The distinguished danzón, with its flute and its violins,
seriously had already been shaken. But Antonio Arcaño, at
the head of its Maravillas, sit in 1939 the danzón on a powder barrel.
His orchestra, joining together an army of the best Cuban musicians, created the title Mambo (composed by the violoncellist Orestes
López), which is not yet mambo style, but which
announces its arrival and lights the wick of it. This new rhythm, precisely baptized ritmo nuevo, injects into the danzón,
on melodies of quality, symphonic elements boosted with a good dose of vitaminized jazz
full of swing, which makes fury in the USA at this time.
It is also in the powerful syncope of the old son - still it -
that the ritmo nuevo plant its roots : the accompaniment of Mambo, or some danzónes in the
same style ritmo nuevo composed by Israel
" Cachao " López and Coralia, Antonio Sánchez,
Félix Reina, Enrique Jorrín - most of them are in the Antonio
Arcaño's Maravillas - aligns rhythmic figures well-known by the tres players of son. The violins are
played pizzicato, the double bass syncopes in " tumbao ", while the
percussions, reinforced with a powerful conga - new recruit
in danzón orchestras, underline strong beats, and the piano accentuates the syncope. With
that are added the dishevelled improvisations of the flute.
The road is now opened, and the mambo will soon arrive on
stage.
