Popular Cuban music of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s has been influential in the world of music from Havana to New York, shaping musical tastes all over the world. Musical forms such as, son and mambo became heavy influencers of Caribbean music for decades, including the music of Ismael Rivera. Along with different styles, the impact of musicians like Arsenio Rodríguez and Benny Moré is still evident even today in contemporary salsa.
Son
Son was largely shaped in its early period in an urban environment by Afro-Cuban musicians at the end of 19th Century and is today regarded as having the perfect hybrid of both European and African musical origins.1 It first emerged in popular culture with bands like Sexteto Habanero and Sexteto Nacional and was initially identified with six or seven musicians, consisting of a vocals, claves, bongo, maracas, tres, bass (earlier played on the marímbula), and possibly a trumpet or coronet.2 Structurally, son is broken into two sections, the estribillo, consisting of the main verses of the song, and the montuno, a section of call-and-response between lead singer and chorus set to rhythm. Sometimes, songs featured solos mimicking the montuno style, but both the montuno and the solos of the tres, trumpet, and bongos were constricted on record by the 78 rpm 3 minute song. Eventually, under the influence of Arsenio Rodríguez, the typical son band was expanded to include a piano, a three trumpet horn section, and a tumbadora, or conga drum.3 The use of the conga drum, particularly, showed the influence of Afro-Cuban tradition and helped incorporate previously taboo practices into broader Cuban culture, as well as international music.4
Mambo
Mambo traces its roots to Cuba’s lower classes to a far lesser extent. Instead, mambo is more closely linked to danzón, a music enjoyed during the end of the nineteenth century by middle and upper classes, consisting almost entirely of white Cubans.5 Under the leadership of Antonio Arcaño, Arcaño y sus Maravillas began to incorporate the use of the conga drum in their music. Through the popular platform of Arcaño’s band, Orestes Lopez was able to utilize the sounds of the conga drum in his song, “Mambo,” earning for him the recognition of many historians as the father of mambo.6 From this point, mambo was spread quickly throughout popular and elite classes, appearing in nightclubs from Havana to New York with little variation by the 1930s and 1940s.
Arsenio Rodríguez
Largely important in the shaping of Cuban music throughout the 1940s and 1950s was Arsenio Rodríguez, El Ciego Maravilloso (The Marvelous Blind Man), a tres player from western Cuba. Although Rodríguez was not first to incorporate the use of a conguerro in son, he is recognized as the first do so on a consistent basis.7 Rodríguez’s expansion of the typical son band set a precedent amongst his fellow musicians for years to come and altered the course of son altogether. He is also highly regarded for his further popularization of bolero throughout Cuba and the United States and seen as one of the major figures in the so-called mambo craze of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
Benny Moré
Benny Moré is considered by many to be one of the greatest Cuban singers of all time. Initially incorporated into the world of popular Cuban music as a replacement for Miguel Matamoros of the famed Trio Matamoros, Moré came to record and tour with Conjunto Matamoros, eventually leaving the group to tour work individually in Mexico before returning to Cuba. Having built fame for himself in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, Moré returned to Cuba in 1950 where he formed the famous Banda Gigante, and became an even greater international success, playing shows all throughout the Americas and maintaining regular spots at the most popular nightclubs in Havana.8
One of Benny Moré’s most popular Cuban hits is the song titled “Como fue.” This is a very popular Cuban song that is heard in the United States, in various foreign countries, and it is exceptionally popular throughout the Caribbean islands. It has been known to be one of the “most romantic Cuban songs ever.”
Title: Como fue
Artist: Benny Moré
Lyrics:
Cómo fue
No sé decirte cómo fue
No sé explicarme qué pasó
Pero de ti me enamoré
Fue una luz
Que iluminó todo mi ser
Tu risa como un manantial
Regó mi vida de inquietud
Fueron tus ojos o tu boca
Fueron tus manos o tu voz
Fue a lo mejor la impaciencia
De tanto esperar tu llegada
Más no sé
No sé decirte cómo fue
No sé explicarme qué pasó
Pero de ti me enamoré
Translation:
How did it happen
I do not know how to tell you how it happened
I do not know how to explain what happened
But I fell in love with you
It was a light
that illuminated my whole being
Your laughter like a spring
Watered my life with concern
they were your eyes or your mouth
they were your hands or your voice
It was perhaps the impatience
From having to wait so long for your arrival
More than that I do not know
I do not know how to tell you how it happened
I do not know how to explain what happened
But I fell in love with you
Manuel, Peter with Bilby, Kenneth and Largey, Michael. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Revised and Expanded Edition. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006) Chapter 2: Cuba.
Waxer, Lisa. “Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love: Dance Music in Havana and New York from the 1930s to the 1950s.” Latin American Music Review. Vol. 15, No. 2. (Autumn-Winter 1994), pp. 139-176.
García, David F. Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006) p.
Waxer, Lisa. “Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love,” p. 143.
Manuel, Peter, et al. Caribbean Currents. pp. 45-46.
Morales, Ed. Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2003) Chapter 2: The Evolution of Cuban Music into Salsa. pp. 37-38.
García, David F. Arsenio Rodríguez.
Waxer, Lisa. “Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love,” pp. 142-146.
Further Reading:
Jacobs, Glenn. “Bola de Nieve: Afro-Cuban Musical Innovator,” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, African Aesthetics in Nigeria and the Diaspora (Sep., 1991), pp. 77-103.
Manuel, Peter. “The Anticipated Bass in Cuban Popular Music,” Latin American Music Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter, 1985), pp. 249-261.
Moore, Robin. “The Commercial Rumba: Afrocuban Arts as International Popular Culture,” Latin American Music Review, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter, 1995), pp. 165-198.
Moore, Robin. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997.
Ruf, Elizabeth. “¡Que linda es Cuba!: Issues of Gender, Color, and Nationalism in Cuba’s Tropicana Nightclub Performance.” TDR Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 1997), pp. 86-105
Tagg, Philip. “Open Letter: ‘Black Music’, ‘Afro-American Music’ and European Music,” Popular Music, Vol. 8 No. 3, African Music (Oct. 1989), pp. 285-298.
Also:
Buena Vista Social Club: A Film by Wim Wenders. A Road Movies Production in Association with Kintop Pictures and Arte, Channel 4. Santa Monica, Ca., Artisan Entertainment, 1999.
