Guaguancó

Guaguancó is an Afro-Cuban rumba form from Havana and Matanzas, performed by a small percussion-and-voice ensemble: three conga drums (quinto, conga and tumba), cajón or catá sticks, claves, a lead singer and a responding chorus. Its rumba clave, felt in a 6/8-derived cycle, drives a sung narrative that opens with a diana of improvised vocables, while a dancing couple enacts the vacunao, a symbolic gesture of possession. Recordings by *Los Muñequitos de Matanzas* and the *Conjunto Guaguancó Matancero* made it the most widely documented of the rumbas, alongside columbia and yambú.