"El Bolero"

Perhaps the most universally accepted genre of romantic music is the bolero - literally meaning "ballad" - with origins in the trova genre from Santiago de cuba. Love songs with simple guitar accompaniment are certainly the most "portable" of musical styles, and in the Spanish-speaking world, the bolero has maintained immense popularity throughout the centuries. Throughout its evolution, the bolero has also given birth to several hybrids, including the bolero-moruno, bolero-mambo and the bolero-beguine. The most common format for boleros is the trio, often comprising three guitarist-vocalists, or two guitars and one percussionist (all singing), or some similar combination. In a three-guitar situation, two of the guitars might take on a more background role, while the third acts as a lead instrument, frequently improvising around the lead vocal line and featured as a solo instrument. In Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and many other countries, the bolero has always featured the wit and lyricism of its greatest exponents - often singer-songwriters with extremely prolific careers. Among the most celebrated "boleristas" (balladeers) are Jose Pepe Sanchez, Jose Antonio Mendez, Trio Matamoros, Tito Nieves, Benny Moré, Sindo Garay, Maria Teresa Vera and Cesar Portillo de la Luz, as well as the prolific composer team of Giraldo Piloto and Alberto Vera (Cuba), Agustin Lara and Trio Los Panchos (Mexico), and Rafael Hernandez, Bobby Capó and Daniel Santos (Puerto Rico)
In the adaptation of the bolero by the conjunto (as well as other instrumentation), the piano part is often entirely ad-libbed, with very loose fills and mostly choral accompaniment. However, there is one signature pattern for the piano, which is a sort of hybrid of the rhythmic figures played by the rhythm guitar(s) in the trio. Here, the left hand acts as a baseline, with the right hand playing a counter line on the upbeats