Identify this Latin rhythm

Question

Several styles of Latin music, such as son, rumba, and bossa nova, have particular rhythm or "clave" patterns associated with them. Is there a style that uses this rhythm?

(or)

Most of the patterns I've seen have five notes per cycle, not six. So if there's one that's like this but without the first hit, that could be considered a match too. It seems this would match the bossa nova clave if you start in the middle instead of the beginning, but I don't know if that's...allowed.

Note: It doesn't necessary have to be Latin. It's just that the examples I've found have been Latin styles.

Answer 1

Note: It doesn't necessary have to be Latin.

Good, because I can't speak to that at all :-) But there is something interesting about this rhythm that may be helpful.

If I re-notate the rhythm and remove the rests, we're left with:

and

What's interesting is that these rhythms are actually symmetrical around their midpoints. In other words, they are rhythmic palindromes and sound exactly the same played both forwards and backwards.

The first and last rhythm of the first example is an eighth note; moving towards the center, the next rhythm is equivalent to three sixteenth notes; the final rhythms in the middle are also worth three sixteenth notes. The same holds true for the second example, it's just that the rhythm durations are doubled.

Olivier Messiaen, a famous twentieth-century composer, called these non-retrogradable rhythms because, if you played them in retrograde (=backwards), you'd be left with the very same rhythm. (And hence there's no use retrograding them in the first place, thus they are "non-retrogradable.")

I wish I could help with your Latin and clave question, but I can't; hopefully you'll still find this interesting, and maybe it will spark something that will eventually help you find your answer!