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The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional music in the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century.
José Luis Niemann, better known as Chucho, is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years. An original member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, in 1973 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands.
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"Bruca maniguá" is an afro-son composed by Arsenio Rodríguez in 1937. It was first recorded by Orquesta Casino de la Playa featuring Miguelito Valdés on vocals in June 1937. Ever since it has become a Cuban son standard, with famous versions by Abelardo Barroso, Sierra Maestra, Buena Vista Social Club and Ibrahim Ferrer. The song, which has been called "a landmark in the development of Cuban popular music" by Ned Sublette, was Arsenio Rodríguez's first hit and an example of his Afro-Cuban style of son within the afrocubanismo movement.
Mercedes Valdés Granit, better known as Merceditas Valdés, was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her debut album was released at the start of the 1960s, when the Cuban government nationalized the record industry. She then went on hiatus before making a comeback in the 1980s with a series of albums entitled Aché, in collaboration with artists such as Frank Emilio Flynn and rumba ensemble Yoruba Andabo. She also appeared in Jane Bunnett's Spirits of Havana and continued performing until her death in 1996.
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Afro is a genre of Cuban popular music with African themes which gained prominence during the afrocubanismo movement in the early 20th century. It originated in the late 19th century Cuban blackface theatre, where some elements from Afro-Cuban music traditions such as Santería and Palo were incorporated into a secular context. As a result, black themes were occasionally portrayed in a stereotypical and derogatory manner. Nonetheless, many afros accurately depicted the working-class life of black communities in Cuba.
Puchito Records was Cuba's second independent record label. It was founded in 1954 during the mambo and cha-cha-chá explosion. Many of its recordings, produced by its founder Jesús Gorís, became instant hits.
Puchito Records was Cuba's second independent record label. It was founded in 1954 during the mambo and cha-cha-chá explosion of the 1950s. Many of its recordings, produced by its founder Jesús Gorís (1921–2006), became instant hits. Cuban music styles represented in its discography include danzón, güajira, son cubano, son montuno, cha-cha-chá, guaracha, guaguancó, Cuban bolero, Cuban rumba, mambo, new flamenco, and Zarzuela. Other styles include farruca, merengue (Dominican), Ranchera (Mexican), nueva canción (Mexican) ... styles from Spain include cuplé, pasodoble, and flamenco. The ensembles range from studio orchestras to jazz combos to big bands to charangas.
References
- ↑ Encaribe.org biography (Spanish) [usurped]
- ↑ Ned Sublette Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo 2004 1556525168 "Working in a more popular dimension than Roldán or Caturla, Gilberto Valdés probably made more changes in the landscape of Cuban music than they did. On July 25, 1940, he presented a grand work, Tambó in negro mayor, in the Havana Amphitheater. With Gonzalo Roig conducting and Rita Montaner in the featured role, the production featured an all-city rumba group that Valdés had assembled on expeditions to various barrios of Havana, where he canvassed the bars to find the best rumberos in the area."
- ↑ "El Concierto Afro-Cubano de Gilberto S. Valdés," 344 Estudios Afrocubanos , 1 (1937), 139-145.
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