Here’s something challenging for you. I’ve been working with left hand variations within the Afro-Cuban 6/8 (or Bembe, Naningo, whatever term you use) in a variety of formats for about the last year– mostly applying my jazz comping books to the bell pattern. Needless to say, it’s very difficult to get to a point where you can operate with normal jazz-levels of independence between the left hand and the ostinato. Here we’ve taken the bell pattern plus standard BD/HH parts, and run the left through a variety of basic rhythms.
As with many of our recent things, apply our basic tom moves to the left hand– it’s a real value-amplifier. When doing the moves, try playing the snare hits as rim clicks.