Pilón Rhythms – Music

Pilón is a Cuban dance rhythm from the early 1960s, created by composer Enrique Bonne and singer Pacho Alonso, both from Santiago de Cuba. The name comes from the pilón, the hollowed log in which peasants pounded coffee.

Origin

According to EcuRed, Bonne explored the possibilities of percussion and in 1961 founded the group Tambores de Oriente, with congas, bocú, catá, tumbadoras, requintos, bells, chekerés and the corneta china. He proposed the new rhythm, which had forerunners in the Oriente barrel organ, to his childhood friend Pacho Alonso. The first recording in the pilón rhythm was Bonne's Baila José Ramón (1964); with Rico pilón and El upa upa by Pacho Alonso and his group Los Bocucos it broke through, and it became popular at the 1965 Havana carnival.

The rhythm

According to EcuRed there is not one stroke but several rhythmic elements at play:

  • Piano: imitates the sound of the Oriente barrel organ (órgano oriental).
  • Paila: the stroke on the paila falls as if coffee were being pounded. Timbalero Esmérido Ferrer, "El Chino Pichón", of the Chepín-Chovén orchestra had been playing that stroke since the 1940s.
  • Tumbadoras and bass: do something similar.
  • Metre and line-up: in 4/4, for a conjunto sonero. Bonne wrote by section, as if composing for a symphony orchestra.

According to Wikipedia, the rhythm later influenced many Cuban and Latin jazz musicians.

The dance

The arms imitate pounding coffee. For the basic step, see the Pilón dance page. According to EcuRed, pilón was very popular for a while, but did not become a folkloric dance.

📝 Sources