Examples of songs with a tresillo rhythm include “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley, “Blue Monday” by Fats Domino, “St. Louis Blues” by W.C. Handy, “La Paloma,” the “Charleston” rhythm of James P. Johnson and Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.” Tresillo is a three-note rhythmic cell in duple time, generated as an additive rhythm of 3+3+2 pulses: two longer notes and a shorter one. It is the most fundamental duple-pulse rhythmic cell in Latin American music, and it came to the New World through the Atlantic slave trade.
The word is Spanish for “triplet.” Through the Cuban habanera and later Cuban styles, tresillo spread into jazz, R&B and rock and roll. Here are 11 examples.
1. “La Paloma” (Sebastián Iradier)
Written by Sebastián Iradier after he visited Cuba in 1861, “La Paloma” (1863) is one of the most popular habaneras ever written. The left hand plays the tresillo rhythm, and the song’s worldwide success helped spread the pattern.
2. “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Georges Bizet)
The famous habanera from the opera Carmen is based on a habanera pattern, which contains the tresillo figure. It is one of the best-known classical examples.
3. “St. Louis Blues” (W.C. Handy)
W.C. Handy’s 1914 song has a tresillo bass line. It shows how the habanera rhythm entered the blues and early jazz.
4. “New Orleans Blues” (Jelly Roll Morton)
Jelly Roll Morton called the tresillo/habanera the “Spanish tinge” and considered it essential to jazz. In “New Orleans Blues,” the left hand plays the tresillo rhythm while the right hand plays variations on cinquillo.
5. “Charleston” (James P. Johnson)
The famous “Charleston” rhythm is based on the first two strokes of tresillo. Johnson said he learned it from dockworkers in Charleston, South Carolina.
6. “Country Boy” (Dave Bartholomew)
New Orleans producer and bandleader Dave Bartholomew first used tresillo as a saxophone-section riff on his 1949 disc “Country Boy.” He went on to make it one of the most common rhythms in 1950s rock and roll.
7. “Oh Cubanas” (Dave Bartholomew)
Bartholomew’s tresillo-based “Oh Cubanas,” also from 1949, is an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music.
8. “Blue Monday” (Fats Domino)
Produced by Bartholomew, “Blue Monday” is a classic example of tresillo in R&B. On records like this, Bartholomew gave the three-note pattern to the string bass, electric guitars and baritone sax together for a heavy bottom end.
9. “Misery” (Professor Longhair)
In his 1957 composition “Misery,” New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair plays a habanera-like figure in his left hand.
10. “Hound Dog” (Elvis Presley)
The bass line on Elvis Presley’s 1956 “Hound Dog” is perhaps the best-known rock and roll example of the tresillo rhythm.
11. “Footprints” (Wayne Shorter)
Wayne Shorter’s 1967 jazz standard plays off the link between tresillo and hemiola. On the version recorded on Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, the bass switches to tresillo at 2:20.
How to Hear Tresillo
- Count to eight and accent beats one, four and seven: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
- Listen to the bass. In R&B and rock and roll, the bass usually carries it.
- Compare with clave. Tresillo is the “three-side” of the son clave pattern.
Final Thoughts
Tresillo is one of the most widespread rhythms in popular music, linking Cuban habaneras, New Orleans jazz and 1950s rock and roll. Start with “Hound Dog” and “Blue Monday,” then go back to “La Paloma” to hear where it came from.
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