Clave & Cowbell Rhythms

Clave is a rhythmic pattern which originated in Cuba. Essentially all Afro-Cuban music is based around the clave rhythm. The name comes from the claves percussion instrument.

The most common type of clave is called "son clave", named by the Cuban musical style:

The above is the 3-2 clave, the 2-3 clave is the same but with the measures reversed.

Another type is rumba clave. It also can be in the 3-2 direction, as may be shown below, and in the 2-3 direction.

The origins of the rhythms are in polyrhythms of African music, which give more examples of clave rhythm.

Although this term is mostly used in the context of Afro-Cuban music, in fact it permeates the whole Rock and Roll music as the Bo Diddly beat or Bo Diddley beat, which was the signature rhythm of Bo Diddley and is rooted in African rhythms. This rhythm used to be memorized by the catch phrase "Shave and a haircut, two dimes" (inflation turned it into "Shave and a haircut, two bits"), pronounced with this rhythm. -http://www.informationblast.com/Clave_(rhythm).html