The Peruvian Cajón

The Peruvian cajón, or wooden box, became synonymous with Afro-Peruvian music during this century, although its use dates back to the 1800’s. With the arrival of the recording industry in Peru, the cajón was added to the instrumentation of the vals criollo, or "creole waltz", and in the 1970’s it was adopted in Spain for flamenco music as well as for popular music such as rock and fusion. The latter development is traced to one man -- the guitar player Paco de Lucía, who took it to Spain and with it replaced the percussive hand clapping which accompanied his flamenco performances. The Peruvian cajón has a cousin of the same name in Cuba, where it is made in three sizes, reflecting the arrangement of sets of drums such as congas and batá. The Cuban cajón is primarily featured in the rumba de cajón. In Peru, however, where only a single cajón producing a variety of sounds is played, it fulfills a more universal musical function.

Just as its name indicates, a cajón is a box made of wooden sheets --preferably cedar or mahogany -- on which the player sits to strike the front and sides. A sound hole is cut into the back, and the front is loosely attached to permit a rattling sound to be made.

As with many folk instruments, the origins of the cajón cannot be established with assurance, but the most likely theories involve antecedents that were not drums nor necessarily made of wood. While it is possible that the cajón indeed represents a variant of the drums that it eventually replaced, Nicomedes Santa Cruz, among others, looks instead to the two botijas, or conical clay jugs, that were used by earlier generations of black Peruvians to accompany the zamacueca, the precursor of today’s marinera. Once the jugs' bottoms were removed, the mouths of the jugs were covered with patches of donkey skin, which were struck by the musicians. The larger, or bass, jug was the llamador, and the smaller instrument, used for improvising, was the repicador. Another candidate for predecessor of the cajón is the tamborete, no longer in use. The tamborete, which was also known as mesa de ruidos (table of noises) outside of Lima and tormento in Chile, was a sheet of wood set on four legs like a small table. Bottle caps and wood chips, which the player could strike to achieve different sounds, might have been attached to the top of the tamborete.

The cajón is now a national emblem for Peruvians, and an indispensable part of any ensemble that performs the traditional and folk music of Peru.