ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Afro-Cuban bata drumming, currulao from Colombia, the cajon tradition from Peru, and bloco afro-style samba from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. There are a wide variety of Afro-Latin music styles. Some of them seem transplanted almost entirely from Africa, such as Afro-Cuban bata, Brazilian Candomble, or Haitian Vodun drumming. They do involve New World innovations including an evolution of the instruments used, shifts in the language of singing, but they maintain a clear relationship to specific, earlier drum traditions in West and Central Africa. Africans were first brought to Peru starting in 1529. In the beginning, they were intended to work the mines of the Andes region; however, soon they were rerouted to the coast. They came from a variety of regions and ethnic groups in West and Central Africa.
