Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, which includes samba and bossa nova.
Timbales or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size. They were developed as an alternative to classical timpani in Cuba in the early 20th century and later spread across Latin America and the United States.
Bongos are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger hembra and the smaller macho, which are joined by a wooden bridge. They are played with both hands and usually held between the legs, although in some cases, as in classical music, they may be played with mallets and/or mounted on stands.
Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm. Afro-Cuban jazz emerged in the early 1940s with the Cuban musicians Mario Bauzá and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. In 1947, the collaborations of bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and percussionist Chano Pozo brought Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, such as the tumbadora and the bongo, into the East Coast jazz scene. Early combinations of jazz with Cuban music, such as "Manteca" and "Mangó Mangüé", were commonly referred to as "Cubop" for Cuban bebop.
A descarga is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was developed in Havana during the 1950s. Important figures in the emergence of the genre were Cachao, Julio Gutiérrez, Bebo Valdés, Peruchín and Niño Rivera in Cuba, and Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauzá in New York. Originally, descargas were promoted by record companies such as Panart, Maype and Gema under the label Cuban jam sessions. From the 1960s, the descarga format was usually adapted by large salsa ensembles, most notably the Fania All-Stars.
Machito was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. He was raised in Havana with the singer Graciela, his foster sister.
Cándido Camero Guerra, known simply as Cándido, was a Cuban conga and bongo player. He is considered a pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz and an innovator in conga drumming. He was responsible for the development of tuneable conga sets, as well as the combination of congas and bongos, and other instruments such as the foot-operated cowbell.
William Correa, better known by his stage name Willie Bobo, was an American Latin jazz percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Bobo rejected the stereotypical expectations of Latino music and was noted for combining elements of jazz, Latin and rhythm and blues music.
Tempo Latino is a festival of salsa music and Latin music in Vic-Fezensac, France.
Carlos Valdés Galán, better known as Patato, was a Cuban conga player. In 1954, he emigrated from La Habana to New York City where he continued his prolific career as a sideman for several jazz and Latin music ensembles, and occasionally as a bandleader. He contributed to the development of the tunable conga drum which revolutionized the use of the instrument in the US. His experimental descarga albums recorded for Latin Percussion are considered the counterpart to the commercial salsa boom of the 1970s. Tito Puente once called him "the greatest conguero alive today".
Rebeca Mauleón is an American pianist, composer, arranger and writer, specializing in salsa and other Latin American and Afro-Caribbean music.
The International Latin Music Hall of Fame (ILMHF) was an annual event established in 1999 and held in New York City to honor artists who have largely contributed to the Latin music genre.
Jimmy Sabater was an American musician of Puerto Rican ancestry. A three-time winner of the ACE Awards, he was a singer and timbales player. He gained international fame thanks to his work with the Joe Cuba Sextet in the 1960s and '70s, and later became the lead singer of various groups including Charlie Palmieri's Combo Gigante. His son, Jimmy Sabater Jr., is a trumpeter and bandleader.
Roger Dawson is a jazz percussionist, conga drummer, bandleader and jazz composer. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the US and acknowledged as at the forefront of New York's salsa music explosion of the seventies and early eighties. He was the creator of the long running "Salsa Meets Jazz" concert series at New York's Village Gate club.
John Rodríguez Jr., better known as Johnny "Dandy" Rodríguez, is an American bongo player of Puerto Rican descent. He was the long-time bongosero for Tito Puente, and also played with Tito Rodríguez, Ray Barretto and Alfredo de la Fe. He belonged to several popular bands of the salsa era such as Tico All-Stars, Fania All-Stars and Típica 73.
Ernest AnthonyPuente Jr., commonly known as TitoPuente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions from his 50-year career. His most famous song is "Oye Como Va".
Carlos Vidal Bolado also known as "Vidal Bolado" (1914–1996) was a Cuban conga drummer and an original member of Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Vidal holds the double distinction of being the first to record authentic folkloric Cuban rumba and the first to play congas in Latin jazz.
Martin Cohen is an American inventor, entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, and photographer, best known as the founder of the Latin Percussion company. He invented many percussion instruments used in the Latin, Jazz, World, for which he was awarded 8 patents. Cohen has captured and documented thousands of Latin and jazz musicians and performances through photography, videos, and audio recordings.
José Mangual Jr. is American Salsa percussionist of Puerto Rican Descent, singer and composer best known for his recordings with Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe during the 1960s and 1970s salsa boom in New York.
Edwin "Eddie" Montalvo is an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Born and raised in the Bronx, he best known for playing the Congas for Hector Lavoe, Rubén Blades as well as with the Fania All-Stars.
