The True Cuban Bass - El Verdadero Bajo Cubano

English, Spanish | June 1, 2005 | ISBN: 1883217016 | 63 pages | PDF&MP3 128 kbps | 82 MB
This book is written by one of the masters of Afro-Cuban bass playing. It is bilingual and comes with two CDs that have Carlos playing the exercises in the book, as well as some historic Cuban recordings re-issued. It is a complete overview of the evolution of the bass' role in Cuban music, as well as a method book on all the different styles of Afro-Cuban bass playing. Endorsed by Jimmy Haslip, Chucho Valdes, and Paquito D'Rivera.

Let there be no doubt this book is the best of it's kind and at the top of it's class. It's not long but covers the essentials of Cuban bass lines and understanding the rhythms that they come from not just for the bass but for the entire percussion section. There's a nice dose of history to give a background of how these lines were conceived and when to use them in a real live playing or recording situation. After a section on the basics and a section covering some theory and different variations from the standard lines there are some tunes with the bass lines written out note for note and half of those tunes are on the CD. So from this book you get the history, the basics of several different rhythms (danzon, son, bolero, cha-cha-cha, mambo, etc.), some variations and theory, and some real tunes to play along with.
The history is important because there's no point in learning this stuff if you don't know when to use it. For anyone studying Cuban bass especially those who did not grow up listening to this music this a must. p.s. no tab in either of these books.