I’ve been obsessed with My Affair and the bass break in it since it came out in 1991. This was my real introduction to Latin Jazz. I’d played Bossa tunes from the Real Book before, but didn’t know anymore than that. It sent me on years of listening and later really trying to learn how to play it.

I’ve been working on the transcription on and off over the years and in the last couple years finally figured out what was going on and how he must’ve been playing it. I only found one video to confirm this style on Sal’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/sal.cuevas.92

I was terribly sad to hear of his passing last year and also sad I wasn’t able to ask him more about this bass part and style, of which I can’t find any real documentation*.

This is dedicated to Sal Cuevas and Kirsty MacColl (both gone before their time) for being such an inspiration to me and countless other musicians.

After completing the transcription, I realized I was a long way from being able to play it – I’ve never really spent much time tapping.

I began by watching some Victor Wooten videos and modified his basic starter lesson to fit Sal’s style. I created a second exercise to incorporate a longer form and a right-hand slide. It’s taken me an embarrassingly long time to be able to get the full Sal Cuevas line and up to speed, but I have it finally. He still managed cleaner, shorter notes than I have, so I’ll consider this a work in progress.

My transcription and performance including some exercises I created to help learn how to play this:

More Info:

https://music.avclub.com/the-single-file-kirsty-maccoll-my-affair-1798229887
The embedded video of My Affair stops, annoyingly, right before the bass break, but there’s other good info on the page.

I posted the last part of the song because it’s really hard to find the original version anywhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7P7AEjue6Q
(recently found it posted here: https://edcyphers.com/2013/07/27/songs-you-may-have-missed-452/#comment-23226 )

Buy the track here:
https://www.amazon.com/My-Affair/dp/B077K6KSW9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526180859&sr=8-1&keywords=kirsty+maccoll+my+affair

I can’t find much info on latin tapping in general, but I found these great books:
The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro
Afro-Cuban Bass Grooves by Manny Patiño & Jorge Moreno
Funkifying the Clave by Lincoln Goines & Robby Ameen (this isn’t tapping, but it builds on Sal Cuevas’s use of slap in Latin Jazz.

* The examples I’ve found of Latin tapping have the right hand in doublestops, whereas in My Affair, Sal Cuevas separates the notes in his right hand, giving the line a greater sense of propulsion and sounding more like a Montuno on a piano.

I just saw this recently:
Sal Cuevas’s Legacy, Presented by Ruben Rodríguez
It’s great to hear more about Sal Cuevas’s incredible influence on music.

Kirsty MacColl’s final album, Tropical Brainstorm in 2000, is predominantly Latin-based and is a really amazing example of a fusion that leaves the best, real parts intact while making something new and fresh.