Pineapple, Claves

The first encounter between the Spanish and a pineapple occurred in November, 1493, when Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the Caribbean region, lowered anchor in a cove off the lush, volcanic island of Guadaloupe and went ashore to inspect a deserted Carib village. There, amidst parrot-flecked jungle foliage and wooden pillars spiraled with serpent carvings, his crew came upon a fruit the Indians called Nana, which means "Excellent fruit. There was also another fruit that they encountered earlier which was called Banana.

"Social dancers know that with Love songs – they may get the best of both,
poetry set to music. And they also know that they can't dance to poetry.”

The illegal aliens ate, enjoyed and recorded the curious new fruit which had an abrasive, segmented exterior like a pine cone and a firm interior pulp like an apple. As the years rolled by, the Spanish began to like the music and the dancing by the Indians. Eventually, the lower class illegal aliens joined the Indians in their dancing. They did develop their likes and dislikes. They preferred the two, three and four beat. The Indians had the five, six and even seven beat measures. The seven count disappeared in the first fifty years. then the five because of the Pallitos (sticks) were applied to the four count measure.

"What A Wonderful World" by Bruddah Iz

Halemano Plantation

Easy to play in a five count, just skip a beat, 1-3-5 and then 2-4 in the next measure for a five beat Pallitos. But they favored the four count and of course it was very difficult. They are still trying to define the way of playing these sticks in a four count measure, which is now called the "Clave" beat. Clave means solution or the key to the problem and it was applied as the new name for the Pallitos. The difficulties arose from the beginning and no one even now is absolutely correct in their way. You can play it your way and if it sounds alright, good.

"Maui Waltz" by Loyal Garner