tresillo
Noun
Meaning
(music) A type of Latin American musical rhythm consisting of three-beat units.
An obsolete letter (Ꜫ, ꜫ) used in colonial Mayan orthographies to indicate a uvular ejective.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgExamples
In 1940 Bob Zurke released "Rhumboogie," a boogie woogie with a tresillo bass line, and lyrics proudly declaring the adoption of Cuban rhythm: Harlem's got a new rhythm, man it's burning up the dance floors because it's so hot!
The habanera rhythm shown as tresillo (lower notes) with the backbeat (upper note).
Wynton Marsalis considers tresillo to be the New Orleans "clave" (although technically, the pattern is only half a clave ).
Habanera rhythm written as a combination of tresillo (bottom notes) with the backbeat (top note).
On the version recorded on Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, the bass switches to a 4/4 tresillo figure at 2:20.
The left hand plays the tresillo rhythm.