Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santeria

This fascinating Smithsonian Folkways release from 1995 comprises recordings made in Cuba in 1983 and 1984 of four orus, or series of songs and rhythms designed to communicate with saints within the santería religion.  The sessions were made in temple-homes but were arranged separately from ceremonies to provide the best quality of sound.

Santería came to Cuba from the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria taken by slave traders to the Caribbean island colony of Spain where they were known as lukumís or eyó, among other names.  It appears as if the development of the religion and the sacred music associated with it represented the reconstruction by dislocated peoples of their ancient African traditions.

In the mid-1880s slavery was abolished in Cuba and former slaves headed in large numbers to cities like Havana, while other remained in the country farms or hamlets.  The concept of the cabildo, a sort of mutual aid group, brought in images of Roman Catholic saints used as "masks" for the African deities (orishas) worshipped by the former slaves and their descendants.  The name santería directly refers to these Catholic saints.  The temple-homes, overseen by a god-father or a god-mother, became the central place for worship and the production of music associated with santería.

This music is based on percussion and vocals, with a variety of instruments in the former, including the batá, a trio of hourglas-shaped drums in the African tradition with different pitches, the abwes or chequerés, which are gourds filled with netting and seeds are which are shaken so the seeds hit the outside of the gourd.  Metal instruments are also used, though the Cuban version is usually a hoe blade hit by a piece of iron.  For non-religious performance, the bembé, a cylindrical drum that can be in many different sizes, are common. 

Vocalising is usually with a soloist joined by a chorus in a call-and-response style with participants invited to join in with the chorus answering the soloist. Themes of lyrics concern Yoruba gods, events and other aspects of the inherited African tradition mixed with Roman Catholic concepts from the Spaniards in Cuba.  There are also secular lyrics about current events or people at the ceremonies with a satirical and critical bent.

This is a remarkable recording for historical as well as musical reasons and Smithsonian Folkways deserves great credit for capturing these performances and making them available.  The liner notes are particularly useful for understanding the basics of the music.