Batá Drum

Overview

The batá is a double-headed hourglass drum played in a set of three. The largest is the iyá (mother), the middle drum is the itótele, and the smallest is the okónkolo. All three are roped, both heads are played, and each drum produces two distinct pitches — one from the larger head, one from the smaller — so a three-drum ensemble has six tuned voices with which to lay down its interlocking patterns. The Hornbostel-Sachs system files the batá at 211.242: an individual double-skin hourglass-shaped drum, both heads played.

The batá is one of the central sacred instruments of the Lucumí or Santería religion in Cuba, the New World continuation of Yoruba religious culture, and is also played in secular and concert settings in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the United States, and the Yoruba homeland of southwest Nigeria.

Origin & History

The batá comes from the Yoruba people of what is now southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. In its Yoruba homeland the bàtá drum has been played for several centuries in the worship of Shango (the orisha of thunder) and other deities. The drums were brought to the Caribbean during the Atlantic slave trade, primarily through enslaved Yoruba people taken to Cuba in large numbers during the 19th century after the British naval suppression of trade elsewhere had concentrated the routes onto Cuba.

In Cuba the Yoruba religious system survived under the protective cover of Catholic confraternities and emerged as Santería or Regla de Ocha. The batá ensemble was reconstituted on Cuban soil in the 19th century, and the first set of fundamento (consecrated) drums in Cuba is traditionally said to have been built around 1830 in Havana or Matanzas by the Yoruba elder Atandá and his collaborators. Sacred batá playing in Cuba was for many decades the exclusive province of male initiates; by the late 20th century non-religious aberíkula (unconsecrated) sets were also widely built and played by women and by foreign students.

The Cuban dancer-musician Fernando Ortiz first published systematic ethnographic accounts of the batá in the 1950s. From the 1970s the master Pancho Quinto and the ensemble Los Muñequitos de Matanzas brought the drums onto the international concert circuit. The batá today is studied in conservatories, played in jazz fusions and recorded extensively, while remaining a strictly ritual instrument in its consecrated form.

Construction & Materials

A batá drum is hewn from a single solid block of hardwood — traditionally cedar, mahogany or, in Cuba, the local cuban majagua — into a roughly conical hourglass shape with a narrow waist. Both ends are covered with goatskin heads laced to each other with a network of leather thongs that allow the player to tune the heads by tightening the lacing. A black resin-and-wax compound called idá or fardela is applied to the larger head of each drum to lower its pitch and give it the characteristic dry slap of the bass voice.

The three drums of the set are graduated in size. A typical iyá is around 65 to 75 centimetres long with heads of roughly 20 and 28 centimetres; the itótele is 50 to 60 centimetres with intermediate head sizes; and the okónkolo is about 35 to 45 centimetres long. The iyá often carries a sash of small bells called chaworó around its waist, whose jingling adds an extra layer to the ensemble texture and is in itself a marker of consecrated status when present.

How It’s Played

The three batá players sit in a row, each drum laid horizontally across the lap. The player strikes both heads — a low enu head on one side, a higher chachá head on the other — with bare hands. The okónkolo lays down a steady ostinato; the itótele plays a related interlocking pattern; the iyá leads the ensemble, signalling changes by playing call patterns called llamadas or conversaciones to which the itótele answers.

The repertoire of the consecrated drums is the Oro seco and Oro cantado, a sequenced cycle of toques — rhythmic-melodic patterns — each dedicated to a specific orisha (Eleguá, Ogún, Yemayá, Oshún, Shangó and others). Players spend years learning the toques by oral tradition and must master both the ostinato parts on okónkolo and itótele and the leading patterns on iyá before being entrusted with a consecrated set.

Cultural Significance

In Santería religious practice the batá set is treated as sacred. A consecrated fundamento set carries inside it a small package called añá, the spirit of the drum, which is fed and ritually maintained by the senior drummer. Only initiated male players may play a fundamento set; only specific praise-songs may be performed during toques de santo; and a consecrated drum may not be played for non-religious purposes. Unconsecrated aberíkula drums circumvent these restrictions and have made it possible for the batá tradition to reach a much wider population, including women players and international students.

The wider cultural footprint of the batá is now considerable. The Cuban government recognises the tradition as part of national heritage. Yoruba bàtá in Nigeria has been documented as a major component of the country’s traditional music and is studied at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. The batá’s tonal interlocking patterns have influenced Latin jazz, Cuban son, and the work of conga drummers and pianists from Chano Pozo onward.

Notable Examples & Recordings

• Grupo AfroCuba de Matanzas, Raíces Africanas — definitive Matanzas-style batá in religious context.
• Pancho Quinto, En el Solar la Cueva del Humo — virtuoso secular batá and rumba.
• Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, multiple recordings since the 1950s.
• Lázaro Ros, Songs for Elegua — Yoruba praise songs with consecrated drums.
• Steve Coleman, The Sign and the Seal — batá in a contemporary jazz crossover setting.

Related Instruments

• Conga – the Cuban single-headed barrel drum that grew out of the same Afro-Cuban percussion world but in secular use.
• Djembe – the West African goblet drum from a different but neighbouring percussion tradition.
• Talking drum – the West African hourglass drum whose tension lacing also allows pitch modulation.
• Bombo – the larger Latin American bass drum used in Andean and Argentine folk music.
• Bata – the Yoruba homeland version of the same instrument family.

Where to Hear It

In Havana and Matanzas the batá is heard at toques de santo, the open ceremonial drumming events of Santería, and in concert settings at the National Folkloric Ballet’s regular shows. New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Madrid and Lagos all support active batá communities. Recordings are extensive on Cuban state labels (EGREM), Smithsonian Folkways, Soul Jazz and the Round World Music catalogue.

• Wikipedia: Batá drum
• Wikidata: Batá (Q811075)
• Smithsonian Folkways: Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santería
• Wikimedia Commons: Batá drums

Learning Resources

Outside Cuba the principal pedagogical centres are the Centro de Estudios de las Religiones at the University of Havana, the Tata Güines workshops in Havana, and the New York and California programmes of teachers such as Michael Spiro and John Amira. Spiro and Amira’s books The Conga Drummer’s Guidebook and The Music of Santería (with Steven Cornelius) are the standard English-language references. A handmade unconsecrated three-drum set runs from 1,500 to 4,000 USD; consecrated sets are not commercially traded and are made only by initiated drum-builders within the religious community.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the batá used for?
Primarily for sacred drumming in the Yoruba religious tradition and its New World continuation as Cuban Santería. Each drum pattern (toque) is associated with a specific orisha (deity) and is played to invoke and honour that deity at a ceremony.

How many drums are in a batá set?
Three: the large iyá (mother), the middle itótele, and the small okónkolo. Each drum is double-headed.

Are there sacred and non-sacred batá drums?
Yes. Consecrated fundamento drums contain the spirit añá and may only be played by initiated male drummers in religious contexts. Unconsecrated aberíkula drums look the same but have no añá and may be played by anyone in any context.

Where did the batá come from?
From the Yoruba people of what is now southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. The drums travelled to Cuba with enslaved Yoruba people in the 19th century and were rebuilt on Cuban soil in around 1830.

Has the batá influenced jazz and popular music?
Yes. Cuban percussionists who emigrated to the United States from the 1940s onward — most famously Chano Pozo with Dizzy Gillespie — brought batá rhythms into Latin jazz, and the patterns continue to feed the wider Afro-Cuban percussion vocabulary.