Latin America: Cuban Musical Legacies

# Latin Dance Music: Cuban Musical Legacies

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts

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# Outline

* Colonial history in Cuba
* Santariá and batá drumming
* Rumba
* Mambo
* Salsa

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# Cuba

.image-float-right.image-50[![Cuba map](/assets/cuba.png)]

* “Latin Dance Music”
	* Cuba-centered definition
* Genres
	* Santaria, batá, rumba
	* Son
	* Cha cha chá, danzón, mambo
	* Salsa, latin jazz

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# Colonization

* 1492: Columbus sailed the...
* 1511: Spanish settlers, plantations
	* “Eradication” of Taino (Native American population)
* 1790-1860: Height of the slave trade
	* Primarily from Yoruba and Congolese areas
	* Leads to more “African” sounds
	* Different treatment in Catholic and Protestant areas
	* Easier to buy freedom, communities of slave/free populations

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# Santaría

* Syncretic religion: Yoruba/Catholic

.image-float-right.image-50[![Santaria](/assets/santaria.png)]

* Batá drumming
	* Sacred
	* 3 drums, bells attached to lowest (“mother”) drum
	* Polyrhythmic
* Orishas
	* Shango: God of Thunder
	* Yemaya: Seas and Lakes
	* Obatalá: King of Kings

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### Batá drumming clip

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# Rumba

* Secular counterpart
* African and European characteristics
	* African influences include: call and response, improvisation, rhythmic complexity
	* European: Scale structures, Andalusian poetic forms
* Instruments
	* Clave (rhythm and instrument), pg. 224
	* Catá: sticks
	* 3 drums (can be congas, used to be wooden boxes)
	* Cajon (box of salted codfish), dresser drawers, etc.

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# Rumba

* Three-part form: *diana*, verse, *montuno*
	* Diana: Andalusian style, sung on “la”, introduces scale
	* Verse: song lyrics, often in Spanish
	* Montuno: call and response, introduction of dancers, growing intensity, includes “breaks”
* “Consuelate Como Yo”
	* Listen to *diana* section
	* Listen for *clave* pattern

.image-float-right.image-100[![Clave patterns](/assets/rumba-clave.png)]

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# Rumba

* Types
	* Yambú: couples, slowest, elegant, calm, elderly
	* Guaguanco: couples, more aggressive, most popular
	* Columbia: solo male dance
* Yambú and Guaguanco from *yuka*
	* Congolese dance, miming rooster and hen
	* Guaguanco includes *vacynao*

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### Rumba from a 1967 film, *Y Tenemos Sabor* (0:30)

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### Rumba guaguanco example (note rooster/hen)

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# Let's try it

* Guaguancó pattern
	* L/R shows hand, you can ignore them

.image-float-right.image-100[![Clave patterns](/assets/rumba-pattern.png)]

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# Let's try it

* Guaguancó pattern
	* L/R shows hand, you can ignore them

.image-float-right.image-100[![Clave patterns](/assets/rumba-pattern2.png)]

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# Pre-Revolutionary Havana

.image-float-right.image-40[![Havana](/assets/havana.png)]

* Gambling, port city
	* Run by mafia, mob
	* Think Godfather 2
	* Sex tourism
	* Celebrity hotspot (Sinatra, JFK)
* Rampant capitalism leads directly to Castro’s revolution

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# Danzón and Son

* Late 1800s, pop music included waltzes, mazurkas, minuets
	* Cuban whites’ disenchantment (corruption, inefficiency from Spain), led to creation of hybrid forms
	* *Contradanza*, *danzón*: new, racially inclusive conception of Cuban identity, wide international popularity
	* By 1920s danzón is “national dance”
* During the 20s, however, son rivals the danzón
	* Increased use of conga, afro-cuban drumming
	* Sexteto Habanero “La Loma De Belén”
	* Formed in 1918, working class, “put son in a tuxedo”

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###  Septeto Nacional: “Suavecito”

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# Danzón-Mambo

* *Charanga* groups (danzón) adopt *son* style
	* Add congas, cowbell, timbales – modern “kit”
	* Formal “mambo” sections: extended, arranged layers, ostinatos, heavily syncopated violin, flute lines
* Fed into development of *cha cha chá* and big band mambo

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# Danzón-Mambo

.image-float-right.image-40[![Jorrin](/assets/jorrin.png)]

* Enrique Jorrin (“La Engañadora”)
	* Violinist, formed Orquesta América
	* “Invented” *cha cha chá* to be accessible, easy to dance, marketed to international audiences
	* Square, 4-beat (1-2-cha cha chá)
* Popularity through mid 50s, fizzled due to simplicity

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# Mambo (Big Band)

* Characteristics
	* Big band instrumentations/layered ostinatos
	* Afro-Cuban rhythms, fast tempos, energetic playing
	* Limited singing (accessible to international audience)
* Big band version takes off in NYC
	* Combined with big band jazz
	* Big in the late 40s, through the 50s
	* Machito and the Afro-Cubans
	* Pérez Prado: “Mambo #5”
	* Dizzy Gillespie: “Manteca”

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class: middle, center

### Machito and his Afrocubans: “Nague”

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### Parez Prado: “Patricia”

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### Dizzy Gillespie: “Manteca”

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# NY in the 1960s

.image-float-right.image-30[![Mongo Santamaria](/assets/mongo.png)]

* Bugalú
	* Started as a fusion of rumba, mambo, African American popular music in NYC
* “Mongo” Santamaria: “Watermelon Man”
	* Cover of a Herbie Hancock song
	* Listen to how late the horns are!
	* Precursor to salsa

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# Tito Puente

* Grew up in NYC, not Cuba or PR
	* Born in Spanish Harlem, 1923, in a “multicultural environment” with jazz, latin, classical music
	* Spanish and English language, Puerto Rican parents

.image-70.center[![Tito Puente](/assets/puente.png)]

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### Tito Puente timbale solo

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# Tito Puente

* Played with Machito
	* Identified with Cuban music
	* Forms his own band in 1950, year after “Mambo #5”
	* Centers on “Cuban” rhythms, his timbales
	* Many albums, success during the “mambo craze”
* “Oye Como Va”
	* Simple, like cha cha chá
	* Big band horns, groovy bass
	* Lyrical machismo (like guaguancó “game”)
	* Layers, increasing complexity
	* Dance music!

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### Santana at Woodstock: "Soul Sacrifice" (1969)

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### Santana: “Black Magic Woman” and "Oye Como Va"

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# Salsa

* Popularity in NYC in the 1970s
	* Based in and around dance clubs
	* Rise of independent Latin-oriented record companies
	* Blend of Latin ballroom, Afro-Cuban drumming
	* According to some, this was nothing new!
* Fania Records
	* Co-owned by Dominican-born bandleader Johnny Pacheco and Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci
	* Fania All-Stars (Blades, Colón, Barretto, Pacheco, Celia Cruz...)

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# Stars of Salsa

* Eddie Palmieri
	* Brought jazz voicings, harmonies to the piano
	* Pushed compositional, harmonic limits of Latin dance
* Willie Colón
	* Trombonist, introduced heavy brass arrangements
	* Included touches of W. African, Brazilian, etc.
	* Street-wise image, energetic, gritty sound
* Rubén Blades
	* Panamanian singer-songwriter, actor, activist
	* Story-oriented songs, highlighted life in the barrio

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class: middle, center

### Willie Colón and Rubén Blades: “Buscando"

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# "Pedro Navaja"

.image-float-right.image-40[![Latin America](/assets/navaja.png)]

* Rough lyrics
	* Homage to “Mack the Knife”
	* Story: death of a tough guy who attacks a prostitute
* Arrangement
	* Stars with congas, sirens
	* Introducing new instruments/ harmony, after you’ve hear the melody a few times
	* Montuno: parables, TV quotes

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Round the corner of the old neighborhood I saw him go, <br />
with the familiar gait that street toughs have. <br />
His hands always deep inside the pockets of his coat, <br />
so that nobody knows which one holds the dagger. <br />
 <br />
He sports a wide-brimmed hat, tilted to one side, <br />
and sneakers, to fly when in danger. <br />
Dark shades so nobody knows what he's staring at, <br />
and a golden tooth that shines when he laughs. <br />
 <br />
Three blocks away from that corner, a woman <br />
strides the entire sidewalk for the fifth time, <br />
and goes into a tenement hallway to take a swig and forget <br />
that it's a slow day, and there are no clients to service. <br />
 <br />
A car passes very slowly down the avenue. <br />
It has no markings but everyone knows it's the police. <br />
Pedro Navaja, his hands always inside his coat, <br />
looks and smiles, and his gold tooth shines again. <br />

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While walking he looks from corner to corner, <br />
Not a soul is seen, all the avenue is deserted, <br />
when this woman suddenly leaves the hallway, <br />
and Pedro Navaja clenches his fist inside his overcoat. <br />
 <br />
He looks at both sides and doesn't see anyone, <br />
and running, silently, he crosses the street, <br />
and meanwhile that woman is on the other side, <br />
grumbling because she didn't make money for food. <br />
 <br />
As she walks, she draws a revolver from her old coat, that woman, <br />
to put it inside her purse, so it won't hinder her. <br />
A .38 Smith and Wesson Special <br />
that she keeps always, to rid her from all evil. <br />
 <br />
And Pedro Navaja, knife in hand, jumped on her, <br />
the gold tooth lighting up the entire avenue, how easy! <br />
Laughing, he stabbed her without compassion, <br />
when suddenly a shot sounded, like a cannon. <br />
 <br />
And Pedro Navaja fell on the sidewalk, as he saw that woman, with <br />
the revolver in her hand, mortally wounded, telling him: <br />
"I thought, 'today is not my day, I'm on a bad streak,' <br />
but Pedro Navaja, you are worse, you are nothing." <br />
 <br />

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And believe me, guys, even though noise was made, nobody came out, <br />
nobody was curious, no questions were asked, nobody cried. <br />
Just a drunk who found the two bodies, <br />
Took the revolver, the knife, the money, and left, <br />
 <br />
And stumbling, he went along singing, out of tune, <br />
the chorus I've brought you, which carries the message of my song: <br />
"Life brings you surprises, surprises are brought by life, oh God." <br />
Life brings you surprises, surprises are brought by life, oh God <br />
 <br />
Pedro Navaja, killer on the corner, "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" <br />
Life brings you surprises, surprises are brought by life, oh God <br />
Bad-ass fisherman, you cast a bad [fishing] line, <br />
Instead of a sardine, you caught a shark <br />
 <br />
**Montuno Section (Repeated phrases including:)** <br />
There are eight million stories in New York City <br />
As my grandma said, "he who laughs last, laughs best." <br />
When destiny is written, not even iron will can change it <br />
If you were born to be a hammer, nails rain down from heaven. <br />
In the neighborhood of tough guys, be careful on the sidewalk <br />
Take care, my buddy, he who does not run, flies. <br />
As in a Kafka novel, the drunkard turned at the corner. <br />

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# Latin Dance Music: Cuban Musical Legacies

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts