Music of Cuba

The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance and

dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by
Music of Cuba
west African and European (especially Spanish) music.[1] Due to the General topics
syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often Related articles
considered one of the richest and most influential regional musics of
Genres
the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish
guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban Afro · Afro-Cuban jazz · Bakosó ·
percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native Bolero (filin) · Canción · Chachachá
traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th · Charanga · Conga · Contradanza
century.[2] (habanera) · Criolla · Cubatón ·
Danzón · Descarga · Guajira ·
Since the 19th century Cuban music has been hugely popular and
Guaracha · Hip hop · Mambo ·
influential throughout the world. It has been perhaps the most popular
form of regional music since the introduction of recording technology. Mozambique · Nueva trova ·
Cuban music has contributed to the development of a wide variety of Pachanga · Pilón · Pregón · Punto
genre and musical styles around the globe, most notably in Latin guajiro · Rock · Rumba
America, the Caribbean, West Africa and Europe. Examples include (guaguancó, columbia, yambú,
rhumba, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, soukous, many West African re- batá-rumba, guarapachangueo) ·
adaptations of Afro-Cuban music (Orchestra Baobab, Africando), Son (montuno) · Songo · Timba ·
Spanish fusion genres (notably with flamenco), and a wide variety of Trova
genres in Latin America.
Specific forms
Religious Abakuá · Arará · Iyesá
music · Makuta · Palo ·
Contents Santería · Yuka
Overview Traditional Changüí · Coros de
18th and 19th centuries music clave · Kiribá · Nengón
20th-century classical and art music · Tumba francesa

21st-century classical and art music Media and performance

Electroacoustic music in Cuba Music Beny Moré Award

awards
Classical guitar in Cuba
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
Classical piano in Cuba
National La Bayamesa
Classical violin in Cuba
anthem
Opera in Cuba
Regional music
Musicology in Cuba
Anguilla · Antigua and Barbuda ·
Popular music Aruba and the Dutch Antilles ·
Música campesina (peasant music) Bahamas · Barbados · Bermuda ·
African heritage Bonaire · Cayman Islands ·
Curaçao · Dominica · Dominican
Contradanza
Republic · Grenada · Guadeloupe ·
Danza Guyana · Haiti · Jamaica · Louisiana
Habanera · Martinique · Montserrat · Puerto
Danzón Rico · St Kitts and Nevis · St Lucia ·
Danzonete St Vincent and Grenadines ·
Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago ·
Guaracha
Turks and Caicos · Virgin Islands
Musical theatre
Zarzuela
Bufo theatre
Other theatrical forms
The Black Curros (Negros Curros)
Rumba
Rumba and guaracha
Urban rumba
Coros de Clave
Rural rumba
Proto-son
Trova
Tropical waltz
Son
Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz
Diversification and popularization
Mambo
Chachachá
Filin
1960s and 70s
1980s to the present
Rock music in Cuba
References
Sources
External links

Overview
Large numbers of enslaved Africans and European, mostly Spanish, immigrants came to Cuba and brought
their own forms of music to the island. European dances and folk musics included zapateo, fandango, paso
doble and retambico. Later, northern European forms like minuet, gavotte, mazurka, contradanza, and the
waltz appeared among urban whites. There was also an immigration of Chinese indentured laborers later in the
19th century.

Fernando Ortiz, the first great Cuban folklorist, described Cuba's musical innovations as arising from the
interplay ('transculturation') between enslaved Africans settled on large sugar plantations and Spaniards from
different regions such as Andalusia and Canary Islands. The enslaved Africans and their descendants made
many percussion instruments and preserved rhythms they had known
in their homeland.[3] The most important instruments were the drums,
of which, there were originally about fifty different types; today only
the bongos, congas and batá drums are regularly seen (the timbales
are descended from kettle drums in Spanish military bands). Also
important are the claves, two short hardwood batons, and the cajón, a
wooden box, originally made from crates. Claves are still used often,
and wooden boxes (cajones) were widely used during periods when
the drum was banned. In addition, there are other percussion
instruments in use for African-origin religious ceremonies. Chinese
immigrants contributed the corneta china (Chinese cornet), a Chinese
Ancient print of colonial Havana
reed instrument still played in the comparsas, or carnival groups, of
Santiago de Cuba.

The great instrumental contribution of the Spanish was their guitar, but even more important was the tradition
of European musical notation and techniques of musical composition. Hernando de la Parra's archives give
some of our earliest available information on Cuban music. He reported instruments including the clarinet,
violin and vihuela. There were few professional musicians at the time, and fewer still of their songs survive.
One of the earliest is Ma Teodora, supposed to be related to a freed slave, Teodora Ginés of Santiago de Cuba,
who was famous for her compositions. The piece is said to be similar to 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century Spanish
popular songs and dances.[4]

Cuban music has its principal roots in Spain and West Africa, but over time has been influenced by diverse
genres from different countries. Important among these are France (and its colonies in the Americas), and the
United States.

Cuban music has been immensely influential in other countries. It contributed not only to the development of
jazz and salsa, but also to the Argentine tango, Ghanaian high-life, West African Afrobeat, Dominican
Bachata and Merengue, Colombian Cumbia and Spanish Nuevo flamenco and to the Arabo-Cuban music
(Hanine Y Son Cubano)[5] developed by Michel Elefteriades in the 1990s.

The African beliefs and practices certainly influenced Cuba's music. Polyrhythmic percussion is an inherent
part of African music, as melody is part of European music. Also, in African tradition, percussion is always
joined to song and dance, and to a particular social setting.[6] The result of the meeting of European and
African cultures is that most Cuban popular music is creolized. This creolization of Cuban life has been
happening for a long time, and by the 20th century, elements of African belief, music and dance were well
integrated into popular and folk forms.

18th and 19th centuries

Among internationally heralded composers of the "serious" genre can be counted the
Baroque composer Esteban Salas y Castro (1725–1803), who spent much of his life
teaching and writing music for the Church.[7] He was followed in the Cathedral of
Santiago de Cuba by the priest Juan París (1759–1845). París was an exceptionally
industrious man, and an important composer. He encouraged continuous and diverse
musical events.[8]p181 Aside from rural music and Afro-Cuban folk music, the most
popular kind of urban Creole dance music in the 19th century was the contradanza,
which commenced as a local form of the English country dance and the derivative
Manuel Saumell French contredanse and Spanish contradanza. While many contradanzas were written
for dance, from the mid-century several were written as light-classical parlor pieces
for piano. The first distinguished composer in this style was Manuel Saumell (1818–
1870), who is sometimes accordingly hailed as the father of Cuban creole musical development. According to
Helio Orovio, "After Saumell's visionary work, all that was left to do was to develop his innovations, all of
which profoundly influenced the history of Cuban nationalist musical movements."[9]

In the hands of his successor, Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh, the piano idiom
related to the contradanza achieved even greater sophistication. Cervantes was
called by Aaron Copland a "Cuban Chopin" because of his Chopinesque piano
compositions. Cervantes' reputation today rests almost solely upon his famous
forty-one Danzas Cubanas, which Carpentier said, "occupy the place that the
Norwegian Dances of Grieg or the Slavic Dances of Dvořák occupy in the
musics of their respective countries". Cervantes' never-finished opera, Maledetto,
is forgotten.[8]

In the 1840s, the habanera emerged as a languid vocal song using the
contradanza rhythm. (Non-Cubans sometimes called Cuban contradanzas Ignacio Cervantes
"habaneras.") The habanera went on to become popular in Spain and elsewhere.
The Cuban contradanza/danza was also an important influence on the Puerto
Rican danza, which went on to enjoy its own dynamic and distinctive career lasting through the 1930s. In
Cuba, in the 1880s the contradanza/danza gave birth to the danzón, which effectively superseded it in
popularity.[10]

Laureano Fuentes (1825–1898) came from a family of musicians and wrote the first opera to be composed on
the island, La hija de Jefté (Jefte's daughter). This was later lengthened and staged under the title Seila. His
numerous works spanned all genres. Gaspar Villate (1851–1891) produced abundant and wide-ranging work,
all centered on opera.[8]p239 José White (1836–1918), a mulatto of a Spanish father and an Afrocuban mother,
was a composer and a violinist of international merit. He learned to play sixteen instruments, and lived,
variously, in Cuba, Latin America and Paris. His most famous work is La bella cubana, a habanera.

During the middle years of the 19th century, a young American musician came to
Havana: Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869), whose father was a Jewish
businessman from London, and his mother a white creole of French Catholic
background.[11] Gottschalk was brought up mostly by his black grandmother and
nurse Sally, both from Saint-Domingue. He was a piano prodigy who had listened to
the music and seen the dancing in Congo Square, New Orleans from childhood. His
period in Cuba lasted from 1853 to 1862, with visits to Puerto Rico and Martinique
squeezed in. He composed many creolized pieces, such as the habanera Bamboula,
Op. 2 (Danse de negres) (1845), the title referring to a bass Afro-Caribbean drum; El
cocoye (1853), a version of a rhythmic melody already present in Cuba; the
L. M. Gottschalk contradanza Ojos criollos (Danse cubaine) (1859) and a version of María de la O,
which refers to a Cuban mulatto singer. These numbers made use of typical Cuban
rhythmic patterns. At one of his farewell concerts he played his Adiós a Cuba to huge
applause and shouts of 'bravo!' Unfortunately, his score for the work has not survived.[12] In February 1860
Gottschalk produced a huge work La nuit des tropiques in Havana. The work used about 250 musicians and a
choir of 200 singers plus a tumba francesa group from Santiago de Cuba. He produced another huge concert
the following year, with new material. These shows probably dwarfed anything seen in the island before or
since, and no doubt were unforgettable for those who attended.[13]p147

20th-century classical and art music

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th a number of composers excel within the
Cuban music panorama. They cultivated genres such as the popular song and the concert lied, dance music,
the zarzuela and the vernacular theatre, as well as symphonic music. Among others, we should mention
 Hubert de Blanck (1856-1932); José Mauri (1856-1937); Manuel Mauri (1857-1939);
José Marín Varona; Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes (1874-1944); Jorge Anckermann
(1877-1941); Luis Casas Romero (1882-1950) and Mario Valdés Costa (1898-
1930).[14]

The work of José Marín Varona links the Cuban musical

activity from the end of the 19th century and the beginning
of the 20th century. In 1896, the composer included in his
zarzuela "El Brujo" the first Cuban guajira which has been
historically documented.[15][16]
José Marín Varona.
About this piece, composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes
said: "The honest critique of a not very far day will bestow
the author of the immortal guajira of "El Brujo" the honor to which he is
undoubtedly entitled at any time".[17]

Gonzalo Roig (1890–1970) was a major force in the first half of the century.[18] A
composer and orchestral director, he qualified in piano, violin and composition Gonzalo Roig.
theory. In 1922 he was one of the founders of the National Symphony Orchestra,
which he conducted. In 1927 he was appointed Director of the Havana School of
Music. As a composer he specialized in the zarzuela, a musical theatre form, very popular up to World War II.
In 1931 he co-founded a bufo company (comic theatre) at the Teatro Martí in Havana. He was the composer
of the most well-known Cuban zarzuela, Cecilia Valdés, based on the famous 19th-century novel about a
Cuban mulata. It was premiered in 1932. He founded various organizations and wrote frequently on musical
topics.[19]

One of the greatest Cuban pianist/composers of the 20th century was Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963).[20]
Lecuona composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional
quality. He was a prolific composer of songs and music for stage and film. His works consisted of zarzuela,
Afro-Cuban and Cuban rhythms, suites and many songs that became Latin standards. They include Siboney,
Malagueña and The Breeze And I (Andalucía). In 1942 his great hit Always in my heart (Siempre en mi
Corazon) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song; it lost out to White Christmas. The Ernesto Lecuona
Symphonic Orchestra performed the premiere of Lecuona's Black Rhapsody in the Cuban Liberation Day
Concert at Carnegie Hall on 10 October 1943.[21]

Although their music is rarely played today, "Amadeo Roldán (1900–1939) and Alejandro García Caturla
(1906–1940) were Cuba's symphonic revolutionaries during the first half of the 20th Century.[13] They both
played a part in Afrocubanismo: the movement in black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, and
extensively analysed by Fernando Ortiz.

Roldan, born in Paris to a Cuban mulatta and a Spanish father, came to Cuba in 1919 and became the concert-
master (first-chair violin) of the new Orquesta Sinfónica de La Habana in 1922. There he met Caturla, at
sixteen a second violin. Roldan's compositions included Overture on Cuban themes (1925), and two ballets:
La Rebambaramba (1928) and El milagro de Anaquille (1929). There followed a series of Ritmicas and
Poema negra (1930) and Tres toques (march, rites, dance) (1931). In Motivos de son (1934) he wrote eight
pieces for voice and instruments based on the poet Nicolás Guillén's set of poems with the same title. His last
composition was two Piezas infantiles for piano (1937). Roldan died young, at 38, of a disfiguring facial
cancer (he had been an inveterate smoker).

After his student days, Caturla lived all his life in the small central town of Remedios, where he became a
lawyer to support his growing family. His Tres danzas cubanas for symphony orchestra was first performed in
Spain in 1929. Bembe was premiered in Havana the same year. His Obertura cubana won first prize in a
 national contest in 1938. Caturla was murdered at 34 by a young gambler.[8]

Founded in 1942 under the guidance of José

Ardévol (1911–1981), a Catalan composer
established in Cuba since 1930, the "Grupo
de Renovación Musical" served as a platform
for a group of young composers to develop a
proactive movement with the purpose of
Alejandro García improving and literally renovating the quality
Caturla of the Cuban musical environment. During its
existence from 1942 to 1948, the group
organized numerous concerts at the Havana
Lyceum in order to present their avant-garde compositions to the José Ardévol, Harold Gramatges,
general public and fostered within its members the development of Alejo Carpentier
many future conductors, art critics, performers and professors. They
also started a process of investigation and reevaluation of the Cuban
music in general, discovering the outstanding work of Carlo Borbolla[22] and promoting the compositions of
Saumell, Cervantes, Caturla and Roldán. The "Grupo de Renovación Musical" included the following
composers: Hilario González, Harold Gramatges, Julián Orbón, Juan Antonio Cámara, Serafín Pro, Virginia
Fleites, Gisela Hernández, Enrique Aparicio Bellver, Argeliers León, Dolores Torres and Edgardo Martín.[23]
Other contemporary Cuban composers that were little or no related at all to the "Groupo de Renovación
Musical" were: Aurelio de la Vega, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, Alfredo Diez Nieto[24] and Natalio Galán.[25]

Although, in Cuba, many composers have written both classical and popular creole types of music, the
distinction became clearer after 1960, when (at least initially) the regime frowned on popular music and closed
most of the night-club venues, whilst providing financial support for classical music rather than creole forms.
From then on, most musicians have kept their careers on one side of the invisible line or the other. After the
Cuban Revolution in 1959, a new crop of classical musicians came onto the scene. The most important of
these is guitarist Leo Brouwer, who have made significant contributions to the technique and repertoire of the
modern classical guitar, and has been the director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. His
directorship in the early 1970s of the "Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora del ICAIC" was instrumental in the
formation and consolidation of the Nueva trova movement.

Other important composers from the early post-revolution period that began in 1959 were: Carlos Fariñas and
Juan Blanco, a pioneer of "concrete" and "electroacoustic music" in Cuba.[26]

Closely following the early post-revolution generation, a group of young composers started to attract the
attention of the public that attended classical music concerts. Most of them had obtained degrees in reputable
Schools outside the country thanks to scholarships granted by the government, like Sergio Fernández Barroso
(also known as Sergio Barroso), that received a post-graduate degree from the Superior Academy of Music in
Prague,[27] and Roberto Valera, who studied with Witold Rudziński and Andrzej Dobrowolski in Poland.[28]
Three other composers belong to this group: Calixto Alvarez,[29] Carlos Malcolm[30] and Héctor Angulo.[31]

In 1962, the North American composer Federico Smith arrives in Havana. He embraced the Cuban nation as
his own country and became one of the most accomplished musicians living and working in Cuba at that time.
He remained in Cuba until his death, and made an important contribution to the Cuban musical patrimony.

During the early 1970s, a group of musicians and composers, most of them graduated from the National
School of Arts and the Havana Conservatory, gathered around an organization recently created by the
government as the junior section of UNEAC (National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), the "Brigada
Hermanos Saíz.[32][33] Some of its member were composers Juan Piñera (nephew of the renowned Cuban
writer Virgilio Piñera),[24] Flores Chaviano, Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz, Danilo Avilés,[24] Magaly Ruiz,
 Efraín Amador Piñero and José Loyola . Other contemporary
composers less involved with the organization were José María
Vitier, Julio Roloff,[24] and Jorge López Marín.[34]

After the Cuban Revolution (1959), many

future Cuban composers emigrated at a very
young age and developed most of their
careers outside the country. Within this
group are the composers Tania León,
Orlando Jacinto García, Armando
Tranquilino, [24] Odaline de la Martinez,
José Raul Bernardo,[34] Jorge Martín Tania León
(composer) and Raul Murciano.[35]

21st-century classical and art music

During the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of
the 21st century a new generation of composers emerged into the
Cuban classical music panorama. Most of them received a solid
musical education provided by the official arts school system
Left row, top to bottom: Armando created by the Cuban government and graduated from the
Rodríguez Ruidíaz, Carlos Malcolm, Juan Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). Some of those composers are
Piñera. Right row, top to bottom: Flores Louis Franz Aguirre,[36] Ileana Pérez Velázquez, Keila María
Chaviano, Magali Ruiz, Danilo Avilés.
Orozco,[34] Viviana Ruiz,[24] Fernando (Archi) Rodríguez
Alpízar,[37] Yalil Guerra, Eduardo Morales Caso,[38] Ailem
Carvajal Gómez.,[39] Irina Escalante Chernova.[40] and Evelin
Ramón. All of them have emigrated and currently live and work in other countries.

Electroacoustic music in Cuba

Juan Blanco was the first Cuban composer to create an electroacoustic piece in 1961. This first composition,
titled "Musica Para Danza", was produced with just an oscillator and three common tape recorders. As a result
of the enormous scarcity generated by the trade embargo placed on Cuba by the United States, access to the
necessary technological resources to produce electroacoustic music was always very limited for anyone
interested. For this reason, it was not until 1969 that another Cuban composer, Sergio Barroso, dedicated
himself to the creation of electroacoustic musical compositions.

In 1970, Juan Blanco began to work as a music advisor for the Department of Propaganda of ICAP (Insituto
Cubano de Amistad con Los Pueblos). In this capacity, he created electroacoustic music for all the audiovisual
materials produced by ICAP. After nine years working without restitution, Blanco finally obtained financing to
set up an Electroacoustic Studio to be used for his work. He was appointed as Director of the Studio, but
under the condition that he should be the only one to use the facility.

After a few months, and without asking for permission, he opened the Electroacoustic Studio to all composers
interested in working with electroacoustic technology, thus creating the ICAP Electroacoustsic Music
Workshop (TIME), where he himself provided training to all participants. In 1990, the ICAP Workshop
changed its name to Laboratorio Nacional de Música Electroacústica (LNME) and its main objective was to
support and promote the work of Cuban electroaocustic composers and sound artists.
Some years later, another electroacoustic music studio was created at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). The
Estudio de Música Electroacústica y por Computadoras (EMEC), currently named Estudio Carlos Fariñas de
Arte Musical (Carlos Fariñas Studio of Musical Electroacoustic Art), is intended to provide electroacoustic
music training to the composition students during the last years of their careers.

After 1970, Cuban composers such as Leo Brouwer, Jesús Ortega, Carlos Fariñas and Sergio Vitier began
also creating electroacoustic pieces; and in the 1980s a group of composers that included Edesio Alejandro,
Fernando (Archi) Rodríguez Alpízar, Marietta Véulens, Mirtha de la Torre, Miguel Bonachea and Julio
Roloff, started receiving instruction and working at the ICAP Electroacoustic Studio. A list of Cuban
composers that have utilized elecotroacoustics technology include Argeliers León, Juan Piñera, Roberto
Valera, José Loyola, Ileana Pérez Velázquez and José Angel Pérez Puentes.[41]

Most Cuban composers that established their residence outside Cuba have worked with electroacoustic
technology. These include composers Aurelio de la Vega, Armando Tranquilino, Tania León, Orlando Jacinto
García, Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz, Ailem Carvajal Gómez and Irina Escalante Chernova.[42]

Classical guitar in Cuba

From the 16th to the 19th century

The guitar (as it is known today or in one of its historical versions) has been present in Cuba since the
discovery of the island by Spain. As early as the 16th century, a musician named Juan Ortiz, from the village
of Trinidad, is mentioned by famous chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo as "gran tañedor de vihuela y viola"
("a great performer of the vihuela and the guitar"). Another "vihuelista", Alonso Morón from Bayamo, is also
mentioned in the Spanish conquest chronicles during the 16th century.[43][44]

A disciple of famous Spanish guitarist Dionisio Aguado, José Prudencio Mungol was the first Cuban guitarist
trained in the Spanish guitar tradition. In 1893 he performed at a much acclaimed concert in Havana, after
returning from Spain. Mungol actively participated in the musical life of Havana and was a professor at the
Hubert de Blanck conservatory.[45]

20th century and beyond

Severino López was born in Matanzas. He studied guitar in Cuba with Juan Martín Sabio and Pascual Roch,
and in Spain with renowned Catalan guitarist Miguel Llobet. Severino López is considered the initiator in
Cuba of the guitar school founded by Francisco Tárrega in Spain.[46]

Clara Romero (1888-1951), founder of the modern Cuban School of Guitar, studied in Spain with Nicolás
Prats and in Cuba with Félix Guerrero. She inaugurated the guitar department at the Havana Municipal
Conservatory in 1931, where she also introduced the teachings of the Cuban folk guitar style. She created the
Guitar Society of Cuba (Sociedad Guitarrística de Cuba) in 1940, and also the "Guitar" (Guitarra) magazine,
with the purpose of promoting the Society's activities. She was the professor of many Cuban guitarists
including her son Isaac Nicola and her daughter Clara (Cuqui) Nicola.[47]

After studying with his mother, Clara Romero, at the Havana Municipal Conservatory, Isaac Nicola (1916 –
1997) continued his training in Paris with Emilio Pujol, a disciple of Francisco Tárrega. He also studied the
vihuela with Pujol and researched about the guitar's history and literature.[48]

Modern Cuban Guitar School

 After the Cuban revolution in 1959, Isaac Nicola and other professors such as
Marta Cuervo, Clara (Cuqui) Nicola, Marianela Bonet and Leopoldina Núñez
were integrated to the national music schools system, where a unified didactical
method was implemented. This was a nucleus for the later development of a
national Cuban Guitar School with which a new generation of guitarists and
composers collaborated.

Maybe the most important contribution to the modern Cuban guitar technique
and repertoire comes from Leo Brouwer (born 1939). The grandson of Ernestina
Lecuona, sister of Ernesto Lecuona, Brouwer began studying the guitar with his
father and after some time continued with Isaac Nicola. He taught himself
harmony, counterpoint, musical forms and orchestration before completing his
Leo Brouwer
studies at the Juilliard School and the University of Hartford.

New generations

Since the 1960s, several generations of guitar performers, professors and composers have been formed under
the Cuban Guitar School at educational institutions such as the Havana Municipal Conservatory, the National
School of Arts, and the Instituto Superior de Arte. Others, such as Manuel Barrueco, a concertist of
international renown, developed their careers outside the country. Among many other guitarists related to the
Cuban Guitar School are Carlos Molina, Sergio Vitier, Flores Chaviano, Efraín Amador Piñero, Armando
Rodriguez Ruidiaz, Martín Pedreira, Lester Carrodeguas, Mario Daly, José Angel Pérez Puentes and Teresa
Madiedo. A younger group includes guitarists Rey Guerra, Aldo Rodríguez Delgado, Pedro Cañas, Leyda
Lombard, Ernesto Tamayo, Miguel Bonachea,[49] Joaquín Clerch[50][51] and Yalil Guerra.

Classical piano in Cuba

After its arrival in Cuba at the end of the 18th century, the pianoforte (commonly
called piano) rapidly became one of the favorite instruments among the Cuban
population. Along with the humble guitar, the piano accompanied the popular Cuban
"guarachas" and "contradanzas" (derived from the European Country Dances) at
salons and ballrooms in Havana and all over the country.[52] As early as in 1804, a
concert program in Havana announced a vocal concert "accompanied at the
fortepiano by a distinguished foreigner recently arrived"[53] and in 1832, Juan
Federico Edelmann (1795-1848), a renowned pianist, son of a famous Alsatian
composer and pianist, arrived in Havana and gave a very successful concert at the
Teatro Principal. Encouraged by the warm welcome, Edelmann decided to stay in
Ernesto Lecuona Havana, and he was very soon promoted to an important position within the Santa
Cecilia Philharmonic Society. In 1836, he opened a music store and publishing
company.[54]

One of the most prestigious Cuban musicians, Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963), began studying piano with his
sister Ernestina and continued with Peyrellade, Saavedra, Nin and Hubert de Blanck. A child prodigy,
Lecuona gave a concert, at just five, at the Círculo Hispano. When he graduated from the National
Conservatory, he was awarded the First Prize and the Gold Medal of his class by unanimous decision of the
board. He is by far the Cuban composer of greatest international recognition and his contributions to the
Cuban piano tradition are considered exceptional.[21]

Classical violin in Cuba

From the 16th to the 18th century

Bowed stringed instruments have been present in Cuba since the 16th century. Musician Juan Ortiz from the
Ville of Trinidad is mentioned by chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo as a "great performer of "vihuela" and
"viola". [46] On In 1764, Esteban Salas y Castro, became the new chapel master of the Santiago de Cuba
Cathedral, and to fulfill his musical duties he counted with a small vocal-instrumental group that included two
violins.[55] In 1793, numerous colonists fleeing from the slave revolt in Saint Domingue arrived in Santiago de
Cuba, and an orchestra consisting of a flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, three horns, three violins, viola, two
violoncellos, and percussion was founded.[56]

From the 18th to the 19th century

During the transition from the 18th to the 19th centuries, the Havanese Ulpiano Estrada (1777–1847) offered
violin lessons and conducted the Teatro Principal orchestra from 1817 to 1820. Apart from his activity as a
violinist, Estrada kept a very active musical career as a conductor of numerous orchestras, bands and operas,
and composing many contradanzas and other dance pieces, such as minuets and valses.[57]

José Vandergutch, Belgian violinist, arrived at Havana along with his father Juan and brother Francisco, also
violinists. They returned at a later time to Belgium, but José established his permanent residence in Havana,
where he acquired great recognition. Vandergutch offered numerous concerts as a soloist and accompanied by
several orchestras, around the mid-19th century. He was a member of the Classical Music Association and also
a Director of The "Asociación Musical de Socorro Mutuo de La Habana."[58]

Within the universe of the classical Cuban violin during the 19th century, there are two outstanding Masters
that may be considered among the greatest violin virtuosos of all time; they are José White Lafitte y Claudio
Brindis de Salas Garrido.

After receiving his first musical instruction from his father, the virtuoso
Cuban violinist José White Lafitte (1835–1918) offered his first concert
in Matanzas on March 21, 1854. In that presentation he was
accompanied by the famous American pianist and composer Louis
Moreau Gottschalk, whom encouraged him to further his musical
instruction in Paris, and also collected funds for that purpose.[59]

José White studied musical composition in the Conservatoire de Paris

from 1855 to 1871. Just ten months after his arrival he won the first prize
in the violin category on the Conservatorie's contest and was highly
praised by Gioachino Rossini. At a later time he was a professor of the
renowned violinists George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud.

From 1877 to 1889, White was appointed as Director of the Imperial

José White in 1856, after
receiving ana award from the
Conservatoire de Paris
Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, where he also served as court
musician of the Emperor Pedro II.[60] At a later time he returned to Paris
where he stayed until his death. The famous violin named "Swan's song"
was his preferred instrument and his most famous composition is the
Habanera "La bella cubana". White also composed many other pieces,
including a concert for violin and orchestra.[61]

Claudio José Domingo Brindis de Salas y Garrido (1852–1911) was a renowned Cuban violinist, son of the
also famous violinist, double-bassist and conductor Claudio Brindis de Salas (1800-1972), which conducted
one of the most popular orchestras of Havana during the first half of the 19th century, named "La Concha de
Oro" (The Golden Conch). Claudio José surpassed the fame and
expertise of his father and came to acquire international
recognition.[62][63][64]

Claudio Brindis de Salas Garrido began his musical studies with

his father and continued with Maestros José Redondo and the
Belgian José Vandergutch. He offered his first concert in Havana
in 1863, in which Vandegutch participated as accompanist. The
famous pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes also participated
in that event.

According with the contemporary critique, Brindis de Salas was

considered one of the most outstanding violinists of his time at an
international level. Alejo Carpentier referred to him as: "The
most outstanding black violinist from the 19th century...
something without any precedent in the musical history of the
continent".[65]

The French government named him member of the Légion

d'Honneur, and gave him a nobility title of "Baron". In Buenos
Claudio José Domingo Brindis de Salas y
Aires he received a genuine Stradivarius, and while living in
Garrido, called the "Black "Paganini"
Berlin he married a German lady, was named Chamber Musician posing with his famous Stradivarius
of the Emperor and received an honorary citizenship from that
country. Brindis de Salas died poor and forgotten in 1911 from
tuberculosis, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1930 his remains were transferred to Havana with great
honors.[66]

Another outstanding Cuban violinist from the 19th century was Rafael Díaz Albertini (1857–1928). He
studied violin with José Vandergutch and Anselmo López (1841-1858), well known Havanese violinist that
was dedicated also to music publishing. In 1870, Albertini travelled to Paris with the purpose of perfecting his
technique with famous violinist Jean-Delphin Alard, and in 1875 received First prize in the Paris Contest, in
which he subsequently participated as a Juror. He toured extensively through the world, accompanied some
times by prestigious Masters such as Hugo Wolf and Camille Saint-Saëns. In 1894 he made presentations,
along with Ignacion Cervantes, through the most important cities of Cuba.[67]

A list of prominent Cuban violinist from the second half of the 19th century and the first of the 20th may
include: Manuel Muñoz Cedeño (b. 1813), José Domingo Bousquet (b. 1823), Carlos Anckermann (b. 1829),
Antonio Figueroa (b. 1852), Ramón Figueroa (b. 1862), Juan Torroella (b.1874), Casimiro Zertucha (b. 1880),
Joaquín Molina (b. 1884), Marta de La Torre (1888), Catalino Arjona (b. 1895) and Diego Bonilla (1898-).[68]

From the 20th to the 21st century

During the first half of the 20th century the name of Amadeo Roldán stands out (1900–1939), because apart
from an excellent violinist, professor and conductor, Roldán is considered one of the most important Cuban
composers of all time.

After his graduation at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1935 with just 16 years old, the renowned Cuban violinist
Ángel Reyes (1919–1988) developed a very successful career as a soloist and also accompanied by prestigious
orchestras of many countries. He established his residence in the United States at a very young age, obtained
an award in the Ysaÿe Contest in Brussels and was a professor at the Michigan and Northwestern Universities,
until his retirement in 1985.[69]
Eduardo Hernández Asiaín (1911-2010) was born in Havana, began his musical studies at a very early age
and offered his first concert with just seven years old. When he was 14, he obtained the First Award at the
Municipal Conservatory of Havana and was appointed as Concertino of the Havana Symphony Orchestra. In
1932, he travelled to Madrid to further his musical education with professors Enrique Fernández Arbós and
Antonio Fernández Bordas. Since 1954, Hernández Asiaín performed as a soloist with the orchestras from the
Pasdeloup Concert Society and the Radiodiffusion française in Paris, the "Orquesta Nacional de España", the
"Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao", the "Orquesta de Cámara de Madrid" and the "Orquesta Sinfónica y de
Cámara de San Sebastián", of which he is the founder. In 1968, he was appointed as First Violin of the
"Cuarteto Clásico" of RTVE, participating with pianist Isabel Picaza González in the "Quinteto Clásico de
RNE", with which he offered concerts and made numerous recordings in Spain and other countries. He also
toured extensively through the US.[70]

Other prominent Cuban violinists from the first half of the 20th century are: Robero Valdés Arnau (1919-
1974), Alberto Bolet and Virgilio Diago.[71]

After 1959, already in the post revolutionary period, stands out a Cuban violinist that has made a substantial
contribution, not just to the development of the violin and the bowed string instruments, but also to the national
musical culture in general.

Evelio Tieles began to study music in Cuba with his father, Evelio Tieles Soler, when he was just seven years
old,[72] and continued at a later time with professor Joaquín Molina.[73] Between 1952 and 1954, Tieles
studied violin in Paris, France, with Jacques Thibaud and René Benedetti. In 1955 he returned to Paris and
studied at the National Superior Music Conservatory in that city, and in 1958, he continued his musical
training at Conservatorio Tchaikovsky in Moscú, where he was a disciple of renowned violinists David
Oistrakh and Igor Oistrakh. Tieles graduated in 1963 and by recommendation of the Conservatory he pursued
his master's degree from 1963 to 1966, with the same mentioned professors.[72] Tieles received also
professional training from the prestigious violinists Henryk Szeryng and Eduardo Hernández Asiaín.[74]

Evelio Tieles has offered numerous presentations as a concert performer, in a duo with his brother, pianist
Cecilio Tieles, or accompanied by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and other symphonic and
chamber ensembles. He has performed along with prestigious conductors such as Thomas Sanderling, Boris
Brott, Enrique González Mántici y Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, among others.[73]

Tieles has established his residence in Spain since 1984, and he teaches violin in the Vila-Seca Conservatory,
in the province of Tarragona, where he has been appointed as "Professor Emeritus".[73] He has also served at
the Superior Conservatory of the Barcelona Lyceum as Chief of the Chamber Music Department (1991–
1998), Head of the Division of Bowed String Instruments (1986-2002) and Academic Director (2000–
2002).[74]

Apart from his outstanding career as a concert performer and professor, during the Post-Revolutionary period,
Tieles promoted and organized in Cuba the bowed string instruments training, fundamentally for the violin.[74]

Another prominent violinist is professor Alla Tarán (1941). She was formed as a violinist in her native Ukraine
and worked as a professor of Chamber Ensemble Practice. Tarán established her residence in Cuba since
1969.[75]

Alfredo Muñoz (1949) began studying the violin at Conservatorio Orbon in Havana, Cuba, and subsequently
continued at the National School of Arts and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). He joined the National
Symphony Orchestra as a violinist in 1972 and since then has been very active as a soloist and a member of
the White Trio, in Cuba and abroad. He is currently a professor at the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA).[76]

Other Cuban violinists that have developed their careers between the 20th and the 21st century are: Armando
Toledo (1950), Julián Corrales (1954), Miguel del Castillo and Ricardo Jústiz.[68]
21st century

Already at the beginning of the 21st century the violinists Ilmar López-Gavilán, Mirelys Morgan Verdecia,
Ivonne Rubio Padrón, Patricia Quintero and Rafael Machado are worthy of note.

Opera in Cuba
Opera has been present in Cuba since the latest part of the 18th century, when the first full-fledged theater,
called Coliseo, was built. Since then to present times, the Cuban people have highly enjoyed opera, and many
Cuban composers have cultivated the operatic genre, sometimes with great success at an international level.

The 19th century

The first documented operatic event in Havana took place in 1776. That presentation was mentioned in a note
published in the newspaper Diario de La Habana on December 19, 1815: "Today, Wednesday 19th of the
current, if the weather allows, the new tragic opera of merit in three acts that contains 17 pieces of music, titled
Dido Abandoned will be performed ... This is one of the premiere dramas from the French theater. In Italy, the
one composed by renowned Metastasio deserved a singular applause, and was sung in this city on October 12,
1776."[77]

Cristóbal Martínez Corrés was the first Cuban opera composer, but his Works, such as El diablo
contrabandista and Don papanero were never premiered and haven't been preserved until the present time.
Born in Havana, in 1822, composer and pianist Martínez Corrés established his residence together with his
family in France when he was just nine years old; and at a later tame they went to Italy. Due to his premature
death, a third opera named Safo, never surpassed an early creative stage. Martínez Corrés died in Genoa, in
1842.[16]

Gaspar Villate y Montes was born in Havana, in 1851 and since an early age he showed a great musical talent.
As a child, he began to study piano with Nicolás Ruiz Espadero and in 1867, when he was just 16 years old,
he composed his first opera on a drama by Victor Hugo, titled Angelo, tirano de Padua. A year later, at the
beginning of the 1868 war, he travelled to the United States with his family and upon his return to Havana in
1871 he wrote another opera called Las primeras armas de Richelieu.

Villate travelled to France with the purpose to continue his music studies in the Paris Conservatory, where he
received classes from François Bazin, Victorien de Joncieres and Adolphe Danhauser. He composed
numerous instrumental pieces such as contradanzas, habaneras, romances and waltzes, and in 1877 he
premiered with great audience acclaim his opera Zilia in Paris, which was presented in Havana in 1881. Since
then, Villate focused his efforts mainly in opera and composed pieces such as La Zarina and Baltazar,
premiered at La Haya and Teatro Real de Madrid respectively. It is known that he worked on an opera with a
Cuban theme called Cristóbal Colón, but its manuscript has been lost.

Villate died in Paris in 1891, soon after starting to compose a lyrical drama called Lucifer, from which some
fragments have been preserved.[78]

From 1901 to 1959

Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes was born in Havana, in 1874, within an artistic family; his father was a writer
and his mother a pianist and singer. He began his musical studies at Conservatorio Hubert de Blanck and at a
later time took classes from Carlos Anckermann. He received also a Law Degree in 1894.[79] When Sánchez
de Fuentes was just 18 years old, he composed the famous Habanera "Tú", which became an extraordinary
international success. Alejo Carpentier said it was: "the most famous Habanera".[80]

On October 26, 1898, Sánchez de Fuentes premiered at the Albisu Theater in Havana his first opera called
Yumuri, based on the Island's colonization theme. In it, an aborigine princess falls in love with a handsome
Spanish conqueror, which abducts her at the wedding ceremony with another indigenous character. At the end,
while escaping, both suffer a tragic death during an earthquake.[81] Sánchez de Fuentes would go on to
compose another five operas: El Náufrago (1901), Dolorosa (1910), Doreya (1918), El Caminante (1921) and
Kabelia (1942).[82]

From 1960 to present time

One of the most active and outstanding composers of his generation, Sergio Fernández Barroso (also known
as Sergio Barroso) (1946), is the author of an opera called La forma del camino, which also possesses the
complementary title of s-XIV-69 (which means Siglo XIV – 1969). With an approximate duration of 60
minutes, this piece utilizes as a script a story from the Popol Vuh (the sacred text of the Maya culture) about the
mythic brothers Hunahpu and Ixbalanqué. The score includes soloists and a choir of nine mixed voices,
accompanied by an instrumental group and an electro-acoustic quadraphonic system. The scene requires a
stage elevated over the choir spatial position, which members wear dinner jackets, in opposition to the more
casual attire of the soloists. All singers wear Indian masks.[83]

Most recently the work of two young Cuban composers stand out, Jorge Martín (composer) and Louis Franz
Aguirre.

Jorge Martín (1959) was born in Santiago de Cuba and established his residence in the US at a very young
age. He studied musical composition at the Yale and Columbia Universities. He has composed three lyric
pieces: Beast and Superbeast, a series of four operas in one act each, based on short stories by Saki;
Tobermory, opera in one act that obtained first prize in the Fifth Biennial of the National Opera Association
(USA), and has been presented in several cities of the United States; and Before Night Falls, an opera based
on the famous autobiography of the Cuban novelist, playwright and poet Reinaldo Arenas, renowned dissident
from the Fidel Castro government.[84]

Louis Franz Aguirre (1968) is currently one of the most prolific and renowned Cuban composers at an
international level. His catalog includes four operatic works: Ebbó (1998), premiered on January 17, 1999, at
the Brotfabrik Theater in Bonn, Germany; Ogguanilebbe (Liturgy of the divine word) (2005), premiered in the
Salla dil Parlamento d'il Castello di Udine, Italy. Yo el Supremo (Comic play with Dictator in one Act),
premiered on October 27, 2015 in the Teatro Galileo, Madrid, Spain and The way the dead love (Theogony:
an operatic manifest), commissioned by the Lydenskab Ensemble and financed by KODA, Denmark.
Premiered on February 24, 2017 in Godsbanen, Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the Århus European Capital of
Culture 2017.

Musicology in Cuba
Throughout the years, the Cuban nation has developed a wealth of musicological material created by
numerous investigators and experts on this subject. The work of some authors who provided information about
the music in Cuba during the 19th century was usually included in chronicles covering a more general subject.
The first investigations and studies specifically dedicated to the musical art and practice did not appear in Cuba
until the beginning of the 20th century.[85]
A list of important personalities that have contributed to musicological studies in Cuba
includes Fernando Ortiz, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, Emilio Grenet, Alejo Carpentier,
Argeliers León, Maria Teresa Linares, Pablo Hernández Balaguer, Alberto Muguercia
and Zoila Lapique.

A second generation of musicologists formed after de Cuban revolution of 1959 include:

Zoila Gómez, Victoria Elí, Alberto Alén Pérez, Rolando Antonio Pérez Fernández and
Leonardo Acosta.

Most recently, a group of young Cuban musicologists have earned a well deserved
Alejo Carpentier
reputation within the international academic field, due to their solid investigative work.
Some of the most prominent members of this group are: Miriam Escudero Suástegui,[86]
Liliana González Moreno,[87] Iván César Morales Flores[88] and Pablo Alejandro Suárez Marrero.[89]

Popular music

Hispanic heritage

It is obvious that the first popular music played in Cuba after the Spanish conquest was brought by the Spanish
conquerors themselves, and was most likely borrowed from the Spanish popular music in vogue during the
16th century. From the 16th to the 18th century some danceable songs that emerged in Spain were associated
with Hispanic America, or considered to have originated in America. Some of these songs with picturesque
names such as Sarabande, Chaconne, Zambapalo, Retambico and Gurumbé, among others,[90] shared a
common trait, its characteristic rhythm called Hemiola or Sesquiáltera (in Spain).

This rhythm has been described as the alternation or superposition of

a duple meter and a triple meter (6/8 + 3/4), and its utilization was
widespread in the Spanish territory since at least the 13th century,
where it appears in one of the Cantigas de Santa María (Como poden
per sas culpas).[91]
Vertical hemiola. Play
Hemiola or Sesquiáltera is also a typical rhythm within the African
musical traditions, both from the North of the Continent as from the
South.[92] Therefore, it is quite probable that the original song-dances brought by the Spanish to America
already included elements from the African culture with which the enslaved Africans that arrived to the Island
were familiar; and they further utilized them in order to create new creole genres.[93]

The well known Son de la Ma Teodora, an ancient Cuban song, as well as the first Cuban autochthonous
genres, Punto and Zapateo, show the Sesquiáltera rhythm on their accompaniment, which greatly associate
those genres to the Spanish song-dances from the 16th to the 18th centuries.[94]

Música campesina (peasant music)

It seems that Punto and Zapateo Cubano were the first autochthonous musical genres of the Cuban nation.
Although the first printed sample of a Cuban Creole Zapateo (Zapateo Criollo) was not published until 1855 in
the "Álbum Regio of Vicente Díaz de Comas",[95] it is possible to find references about the existence of those
genres since long time before.[96] Its structural characteristics have survived almost unaltered through a period
of more than two hundred years and they are usually considered the most typically Hispanic Cuban popular
music genres. Cuban musicologists María Teresa Linares, Argeliers León and Rolando Antonio Pérez
coincide in thinking that Punto and Zapateo are based on Spanish dance –songs (such as chacone and
sarabande) that arrived first at the most important
population centers such as Havana and Santiago de Cuba
and then spread throughout the surrounding rural areas
where they were adopted and modified by the peasant
(campesino) population at a later time.[95]

Punto guajiro

Punto guajiro or Punto Cubano, or simply Punto is a

sung genre of Cuban music, an improvised poetic-music Cuban rural landscape
art that emerged in the western and central regions of
Cuba during the 19th century.[97] Although Punto
appears to come from an Andalusian origin, it is a true Cuban genre because of its creole modifications.[98]

Punto is played by a group with various types of plucked string instruments: the tiple (a treble guitar currently
in disuse), the Spanish guitar, the Cuban tres, and the laúd. The word punto refers to the use of a plucked
technique (punteado), rather than strumming (rasgueado). Also some percussion instruments have been utilized
such as the clave, the güiro and the guayo ( a metallic scraper). Singers gather themselves in contending teams,
and improvise their lines.

They sing fixed melodies called "tonadas" which are based on a meter of ten strophe verses called "décimas",
with intervals between stanzas to give the singers some time to prepare the next verse.[99] Early compositions
were sometimes recorded and published, as were the names of some of the singers and composers. Beginning
around 1935, Punto reached a peak of popularity on Cuban radio.

Punto was one of the first Cuban genres recorded by American companies at the beginning of the 20th
century, but at a later time the interest decayed and little effort was made to continue recording the live radio
performances. A fan of this genre, stenographer Aida Bode, wrote down many verses as they were broadcast
and finally, in 1997, her transcriptions were published in book form.[100]

Celina González and Albita Rodríguez both sang Punto at the beginning of their careers, proving that the
genre is still alive. Celina had one of the greatest voices in popular music, and her supporting group Campo
Alegre was outstanding. For aficionados, however, Indio Naborí (Sabio Jesús Orta Ruiz, b. 30 September
1922) is the greatest name in Punto for his "decima" poetry, which he wrote daily for the radio and
newspapers. He is also a published author with several collections of his poetry, much of which has a political
nueva trova edge.[101]

Zapateo

Zapateo is a typical dance of the Cuban "campesino" or "guajiro," of Spanish

origin. It is a dance of pairs, involving tapping of the feet, mostly performed by
the male partner. Illustrations exist from previous centuries and today it survives
cultivated by Folk Music Groups as a fossil genre. It was accompanied by tiple,
guitar and güiro, in combined 6/8 and 3/4 rhythm (hemiola), accented on the
first of every three quavers.
Cuban güiro

Guajira
A genre of Cuban song similar to the Punto cubano and the Criolla.[102] It contains bucolic countryside lyrics,
similar to décima poetry. Its music shows a mixture of 6/8 and 3/4 rhythms called Hemiola. According to
Sánchez de Fuentes, its first section is usually presented in a minor key, and its second section in its direct
major relative key.[103] The term Guajira is now used mostly to describe a slow dance music in 4/4 time, a
fusion of the Guajira (music) and the Son (called Guajira-Son). Singer and guitarist Guillermo Portabales was
the most outstanding representative of this genre.

Criolla

Criolla is a genre of Cuban music which is closely related to the music of the Cuban Coros de Clave and a
genre of Cuban popular music called Clave.

The Clave became a very popular genre in the Cuban vernacular theater and was created by composer Jorge
Anckermann based on the style of the Coros de Clave.[104] The Clave served, in turn, as a model for the
creation of a new genre called Criolla. According to musicologist Helio Orovio, "Carmela", the first Criolla,
was composed by Luis Casas Romero in 1909, which also created one of the most famous Criollas of all time,
"El Mambí".[105]

African heritage

Origins of Cuban African groups

Clearly, the origin of African groups in Cuba is due to the island's long history of slavery. Compared to the
US, slavery started in Cuba much earlier and continued for decades afterwards. Cuba was the last country in
the Americas to abolish the importation of slaves, and the second last to free the slaves. In 1807 the British
Parliament outlawed slavery, and from then on the British Navy acted to intercept Portuguese and Spanish
slave ships. By 1860 the trade with Cuba was almost extinguished; the last slave ship to Cuba was in 1873.
The abolition of slavery was announced by the Spanish Crown in 1880, and put into effect in 1886. Two years
later, Brazil abolished slavery.[106]

Subsequent organization

The roots of most Afro-Cuban musical forms lie in the cabildos, self-organized social clubs for the African
slaves, separate cabildos for separate cultures. The cabildos were formed mainly from four groups: the Yoruba
(the Lucumi in Cuba); the Congolese (Palo in Cuba); Dahomey (the Fon or Arará). Other cultures were
undoubtedly present, more even than listed above, but in smaller numbers, and they did not leave such a
distinctive presence.

Cabildos preserved African cultural traditions, even after the abolition of slavery in 1886. At the same time,
African religions were transmitted from generation to generation throughout Cuba, Haiti, other islands and
Brazil. These religions, which had a similar but not identical structure, were known as Lucumi or Regla de
Ocha if they derived from the Yoruba, Palo from Central Africa, Vodú from Haiti, and so on. The term
Santería was first introduced to account for the way African spirits were joined to Catholic saints, especially
by people who were both baptized and initiated, and so were genuinely members of both groups. Outsiders
picked up the word and have tended to use it somewhat indiscriminately. It has become a kind of catch-all
word, rather like salsa in music.[13]p171; p258

African sacred music in Cuba

All these African cultures had musical traditions, which survive erratically to the present day, not always in
detail, but in general style. The best preserved are the African polytheistic religions, where, in Cuba at least,
the instruments, the language, the chants, the dances and their interpretations are quite well preserved. In what
other American countries are the religious ceremonies conducted in the old language(s) of Africa? They
certainly are in Lucumí ceremonies, though of course, back in Africa the language has moved on. What unifies
all genuine forms of African music is the unity of polyrhythmic percussion, voice (call-and-response) and
dance in well-defined social settings, and the absence of melodic instruments of an Arabic or European kind.

Yoruba and Congolese rituals

Religious traditions of African origin have survived in Cuba, and are the basis of ritual music, song and dance
quite distinct from the secular music and dance. The religion of Yoruban origin is known as Lucumí or Regla
de Ocha; the religion of Congolese origin is known as Palo, as in palos del monte.[107] There are also, in the
Oriente region, forms of Haitian ritual together with its own instruments, music etc.

Clave

The clave rhythmic pattern is used as a tool for temporal

organization in Afro-Cuban music, such as rumba, conga
de comparsa, son, mambo (music), salsa, Latin jazz,
songo and timba. The five-stroke clave pattern
(distributed in groups of 3 + 2 or 2 + 3 beats) represents
the structural core of many Afro-Cuban rhythms.[108]
Just as a keystone holds an arch in place, the clave
pattern holds the rhythm together in Afro-Cuban
3-2 clave ( Play ) and 2-3 clave ( Play ) written
music.[109] The clave pattern originated in sub-Saharan in cut-time
African music traditions, where it serves essentially the
same function as it does in Cuba. The pattern is also
found in the African diaspora musics of Haitian Vodou drumming and Afro-Brazilian music. The clave pattern
is used in North American popular music as a rhythmic motif or ostinato, or simply a form of rhythmic
decoration.

Cuban Carnival

In Cuba, the word comparsa refers to the "Cabildos de Nación" neighbourhood groups that took part in the
carnival authorized by the Spanish government on the Three Kings Day (Día de Reyes) during the colonial
period. Conga is of African origin, and derives from street celebrations of the African spirits. The distinction is
blurred today, but in the past the congas have been prohibited from time to time. Carnival as a whole was
banned by the revolutionary government for many years, and still does not take place with the regularity of
old. Conga drums are played (along with other typical instruments) in comparsas of all kinds. Santiago de
Cuba and Havana were the two main centers for street carnivals. Two types of dance music (at least) owe their
origin to comparsa music:

Conga: an adaptation of comparsa music and dance for social dances. Eliseo Grenet may be the person who
first created this music,[13]p408 but it was the Lecuona Cuban Boys who took it around the world. The conga
became, and perhaps still is, the best-known Cuban music and dance style for non-latins.

Mozambique is a comparsa-type dance music developed by Pello el Afrokan (Pedro Izquierdo) in 1963. It had
a brief period of high popularity, peaked in 1965, and was soon forgotten. Apparently, to make it work
properly, it needed 16 drums plus other percussion and dancers.[110]
Tumba francesa

Immigrants from Haiti settled in Oriente and established their style of music, called Tumba Francesa, which
uses its own type of drum, dance and song. It embodies one of the oldest and most tangible links to the Afro-
Haitian heritage of Cuba's Oriente province and developed from an 18th-century fusion of music from
Dahomey in West Africa and traditional French dances. This fossil genre survives to the present day in
Santiago de Cuba and Haiti, performed by specialized folk ensembles.

Contradanza
The Contradanza is an important precursor of several later popular dances. It arrived in Cuba in the late 18th
century from Europe where it had been developed first as the English country dance, and then as the French
contradanse. The origin of the word is a corruption of the English term "country dance".[111] Manuel Saumell
wrote over fifty contradanzas (in 2/4 or 6/8 time), in which his rhythmic and melodic inventiveness was
astonishing.

The Contradanza is a communal sequence dance, with the dance figures conforming to a set pattern. The
selection of figures for a particular dance was usually set by a master of ceremonies or dance leader. There
were two parts of 16 bars each, danced in a line or square format. The tempo and style of the music was bright
and fairly fast.

The earliest Cuban creole composition of a Contradanza appeared published in Havana in 1803 and was
named San Pascual bailón. This version shows for the first time the well known rhythm of "Tango" or
"Habanera" which differentiates it from the European contradance. The Cubans developed a number of
creolized version, such as the "paseo", "cadena", "sostenido" and "cedazo". This creolization is an early
example of the influence of the African traditions in the Caribbean. Most of the musicians were black or
mulatto (even early in the 19th century there were many freed slaves and mixed race persons living in Cuban
towns). "The women of Havana have a furious taste for dancing; they spend entire nights elevated, agitated,
crazy and pouring sweat until they fall spent."[112]

The contradanza supplanted the minuet as the most popular dance until from
1842 on, it gave way to the habanera, a quite different style.[113]
Rhythm of Tango or
Habanera. Play Danza
This genere, the offspring of the contradanza, was also danced in lines or
squares. It was also a brisk form of music and dance in double or triple time. A repeated 8-bar paseo was
followed by two 16-bar sections called the primera and segunda. One famous composer of danzas was Ignacio
Cervantes, whose forty-one danzas cubanas were a landmark in musical nationalism. This type of dance was
eventually replaced by the danzón, which was, like the habanera, much slower and more sedate.[114]

Habanera
The habanera developed out of the contradanza in the early 19th century. Its great novelty was that it was
sung, as well as played and danced. Written in 2/4 meter, the Habanera is characterized by an expressive and
languid melodious development and its characteristic rhythm called "Habanera Rhythm."

The dance style of the habanera is slower and more stately than the danza. By the 1840s habaneras were
written, sung, and danced in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Spain.[115] Since about 1900 the habanera
has been a relic dance; but the music has a period charm, and there are some famous compositions, such as Tú
from Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, which has been recorded in many versions.

Versions of habanera-type compositions have appeared in the music of Ravel, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Debussy,
Fauré, Albeniz. The rhythm is similar to that of the tango, and some believe the habanera is the musical father
of the tango.[116]

Danzón
Orquesta Enrique Peña. Peña seated left,
Barreto (violin) and Urfé (clarinet)
The European influence on Cuba's later musical development is
represented by danzón, an elegant musical form that was once
more popular than the Son in Cuba. It is a descendant of the
creolized Cuban contradanza. The danzón marks the change
from the communal sequence dance style of the late 18th century
to the couple dances of later times. The stimulus for this was the
success of the once-scandalous walz, where couples danced
facing each other, independently from other couples and not as
part of a pre-set structure. The danzón was the first Cuban dance
to adopt such methods, though there is a difference between the
two dances. The walz is a progressive ballroom dance where
couples move round the floor in an anti-clockwise direction; the
danzón is a 'pocket-handkerchief' dance where a couple stays
within a small area of the floor.[117]

The danzón was developed by Miguel Faílde in Matanzas, the official date of origin being 1879.[118] Failde's
was an orquesta típica, a form derived from military bands, using brass, kettle-drums etc. The later
development of the charanga was more suited to the indoor salon and is an orchestral format still popular today
in Cuba and some other countries. The charanga uses double bass, cello, violins, flute, piano, paila criolla and
güiro. This change in instrumental set-up is illustrated in Early Cuban bands.

From time to time in its 'career', the danzón acquired African

influences in its musical structure. It became more syncopated,
especially in its third part. The credit for this is given to José
Urfé, who worked elements of the son into the last part of the
danzón in his composition El bombin de Barreto (1910).[119]
Both the danzón and the charanga line-up have been strongly
influential in later developments.

The danzón was exported to popular acclaim throughout Latin

America, especially Mexico. It is now a relic, both in music and
in dance, but its highly orchestrated descendants live on in Charanga de Antonio (Papaíto) Torroella
charangas that Faílde and Urfé would likely not recognize. Juan (1856–1934)
Formell has had a huge influence through his reorganization of
first Orquesta Revé, and later Los Van Van.

Danzonete
Early Danzons were purely instrumental. The first to introduce a vocal part in a Danzón was Aniceto Díaz (in
1927 in Matanzas), that was called Rompiendo la rutina, thereby creating a new genre called the Danzonete.
Later, the black singer Barbarito Diez joined the charanga of Antonio María Romeu in 1935 and, over the
years, recorded eleven albums of Danzonetes. All later forms of the Danzón have included vocals.
Guaracha
On January 20, 1801, Buenaventura Pascual Ferrer published a note in a
newspaper called "El Regañón de La Habana," in which he refers to
certain chants that "run outside there through vulgar voices". Between
them he mentioned a "guaracha" named "La Guabina", about which he
says: "in the voice of those that sings it, tastes like any thing dirty,
indecent or disgusting that you can think about." At a later time, in an
undetermined date, "La Guabina" appears published between the first
musical scores printed in Havana at the beginning of the 19th
century.[120]

According to the commentaries published in "El Regañón de La

María Teresa Vera & Rafael Habana", it can be concluded that those "guarachas" were very popular
Zequeira within the Havana population at that time, because in the same
previously mentioned article the author says: "but most importantly, what
bothers me most is the liberty with which a number of chants are sung
throughout the streets and town homes, where innocence is insulted and morals offended ... by many
individuals, not just of the lowest class, but also by some people that are supposed to be called well educated."
Therefore, it can be said that those "guarachas" of a very audacious content, were apparently already sung
within a wide social sector of the Havana population.[120]

According to Alejo Carpentier (quoting Buenaventura Pascual Ferrer), at the beginning of the 19th century
there were held in Havana up to fifty dance parties every day, where the famous "guaracha" was sung and
danced, among other popular pieces.[121]

The guaracha is a genre of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics.[122] It originated at the end of the 18th
century, and during the early 20th century was still often played in the brothels and other places in
Havana.[123][124] The lyrics were full of slang, and dwelt on events and people in the news. Rhythmically,
guaracha exhibits a series of rhythm combinations, such as 6/8 with 2/4.[125]

Many of the early trovadores, such as Manuel Corona (who worked in a brothel area of Havana), composed
and sang guarachas as a balance for the slower boleros and canciones. The satirical lyric content also fitted
well with the son, and many bands played both genres. In the mid-20th century the style was taken up by the
conjuntos and big bands as a type of up-tempo music. Today it seems no longer to exist as a distinct musical
form; it has been absorbed into the vast maw of Salsa. Singers who can handle the fast lyrics and are good
improvisors are called guaracheros or guaracheras.

Musical theatre
From the 18th century (at least) to modern times, popular theatrical formats used, and gave rise to, music and
dance. Many famous composers and musicians had their careers launched in the theatres, and many famous
compositions got their first airing on the stage. In addition to staging some European operas and operettas,
Cuban composers gradually developed ideas that better suited their audience. Recorded music was to be the
couduit for Cuban music to reach the world. The most recorded artist in Cuba up to 1925 was a singer at the
Alhambra, Adolfo Colombo. Records show he recorded about 350 numbers between 1906 and 1917.[126]

The first theatre in Havana opened in 1776. The first Cuban-composed opera appeared in 1807. Theatrical
music was hugely important in the 19th century[127] and the first half of the 20th century; its significance only
began to wane with the change in political and social weather in the second part of the 20th century. Radio,
 which began in Cuba in 1922, helped the growth of popular music because it
provided publicity and a new source of income for the artists.

Zarzuela
Zarzuela is a small-scale light operetta format. Starting off with imported Spanish
content (List of zarzuela composers), it developed into a running commentary on
Cuba's social and political events and problems. Zarzuela has the distinction of
providing Cuba's first recordings: the soprano Chalía Herrera (1864–1968) made,
outside Cuba, the first recordings by a Cuban artist. She recorded numbers from the
Adolfo Colombo zarzuela Cadíz in 1898 on unnumbered Bettini cylinders.[128]

Zarzuela reached its peak in the first half of

the 20th century. A string of front-rank composers such as Gonzalo
Roig, Eliseo Grenet, Ernesto Lecuona and Rodrigo Prats produced a
series of hits for the Regina and Martí theatres in Havana. Great stars
like the vedette Rita Montaner, who could sing, play the piano, dance
and act, were the Cuban equivalents of Mistinguett and Josephine
Baker in Paris. Some of the best known zarzuelas are La virgen
morena (Grenet), La Niña Rita (Grenet and Lecuona), María la O, El
batey, Rosa la China (all Lecuona); Gonzalo Roig with La Habana
de noche; Rodrigo Prats with Amalia Batista and La perla del caribe;
and above all, Cecilia Valdés (the musical of the most famous Cuban
novel of the 19th century, with music by Roig and script by Prats and
Agustín Rodríguez). Artists who were introduced to the public in the
lyric theatre include Caridad Suarez, María de los Angeles Santana,
Esther Borja and Ignacio Villa, who had such a round, black face that
Rita Montaner called him Bola de Nieve ('Snowball').

Another famous singer was Maruja González Linares. Born from Rita Montaner in 1938 during
Spanish parents in the Mexican locality of Mérida, Yucatán in 1904, shooting of El romance del palmar
González travelled from Cuba to the US at a very young age. She
studied vocal techniques in Cuba, where she made her debut in 1929
as a lyrical singer in the Company of Maestro Ernesto Lecuona. González performed in several theaters of
Havana before going on a tour through the United States and, upon her return to Havana, she sang La
Bayadere and The Merry Widow in the same city. At the beginning of the 1930s, she signed a number of
contracts in Latin America and in Spain. She married Perico Suarez. The Cuban Revolution caught her abroad
and she never returned to her country. She died in Miami in 1999.

Bufo theatre
Cuban bufo theatre is a form of comedy, ribald and satirical, with stock figures imitating types that might be
found anywhere in the country. Bufo had its origin around 1800-15 as an older form, tonadilla, began to
vanish from Havana. Francisco Covarrubias the 'caricaturist' (1775–1850) was its creator. Gradually, the comic
types threw off their European models and became more and more creolized and Cuban. Alongside, the music
followed. Argot from slave barracks and poor barrios found its way into lyrics that are those of the guaracha:

Una mulata me ha muerto!

Y no prenden a esa mulata?
Como ha de quedar hombre vivo
si no prenden a quien mata!
 La mulata es como el pan;
se debe comer caliente,
que en dejandola enfriar
ni el diablo le mete el diente![8]p218

(A mulata's done for me!

What's more, they don't arrest her!
How can any man live
If they don't take this killer?

A mulatta is like fresh bread

You gotta eat it while it's hot
If you leave it till it's cool
Even the devil can't get a bite!)

The "guaracha" occupied a predominant place within the development of vernacular theater in Cuba, which
appearance at the beginning of the 19th century coincides with the emergence of the first autochthonous
Cuban musical genres, the "guaracha" and the"contradanza.". Since 1812, Francisco Covarrubias (considered
as the father of the Bufo Theater) gradually substituted in his theatrical pieces the typical characters of the
Spanish "tonadilla escénica" with creole characters such as "guajiros", "monteros", "carreteros" or "peones".
Those structural transformations were also associated to certain changes in the musical background of the
pieces. Thus, the Spanish genres such as "jácaras", "tiranas", "boleras" or "villancicos", were substituted by
"guarachas", "décimas" and "canciones cubanas."[121]

Other theatrical forms

Vernacular theatre of various types often includes music. Formats rather like the British Music Hall, or the
American Vaudeville, still occur, where an audience is treated to a potpourri of singers, comedians, bands,
sketches and speciality acts. Even in cinemas during the silent movies, singers and instrumentalists appeared in
the interval, and a pianist played during the films. Bola de Nieve and María Teresa Vera played in cinemas in
their early days. Burlesque was also common in Havana before 1960.

The Black Curros (Negros Curros)

In reference to the emergence of the Guaracha and, at a later time, also of the Urban Rumba in Havana and
Matanzas, it is important to mention an important and picturesque social sector called Black Curros (Negros
Curros). Composed of free blacks that had arrived from Seville on an undetermined date, this group was
integrated to the population of free blacks and mulattos that lived in the marginal zones of the city of
Havana.[129]

José Victoriano Betancourt a Cuban "costumbrista" writer from the 19th century described them as follows:
"they [the curros] had a peculiar aspect, and was enough to look at them to recognize them as curros: their
long hunks of kinky braids, falling over their face and neck like big millipedes, their teeth cut (sharp and
pointed) to the carabalí style, their fine embroidered cloth shirts, their pants, almost always white, or with
colored stripes, narrow at the waist and very wide in the legs; the canvas shoes, cut low with silver buckles,
the short jacket with pointed tail, the exaggerated straw hat, with black hanging silk tassles, and the thick gold
hoops that they wore in their ears, from which they hung harts and padlocks of the same metal, forming an
ornament that only they wear; ... those were the curros of El Manglar (The mangrove neighborhood)."[130]

The curro was dedicated to laziness, theft and procuring, while his companion, the curra, also called "mulata
de rumbo", exercised the prostitution in Cuba. According to Carlos Noreña, she was well known for the use of
burato shawls of meticulous work and plaited fringes, for which they used to pay from nine to ten ounces of
gold", as well as by the typical clacking (chancleteo) they produced
with their wooden slippers.[131]

But the Curros also provided entertainment, including songs and

dances to the thousands of Spanish men that came to the Island every
year in the ships that followed the "Carrera de Indias", a route
established by the Spanish Crown for their galleons in order to avoid
attacks from pirates and privateers, and stayed for months until they
returned to the Port of Seville.

Being subject to the influence of both the Spanish and the African
culture from birth, they are supposed to have played an important role
in the creolization of the Spanish song-dances original proto-type
(copla-estribillo) that originated the Cuban Guaracha. The Black curro
and the Mulata de Rumbo (Black Curra) disappeared since the mid-
19th century by integrating to the Havana general population, but
their picturesque images survived in social prototypes manifested in
the characters of the Bufo Theater.[132]

The famous "Mulatas de Rumbo" (mulatto characters) Juana

Chambicú and María La O, as well as the black "cheches" (bullies)
José Caliente "who rips in half those who oppose him,"[133] Candela,
"negrito that flies and cuts with the knife," as well as the Black Curro
Juán Cocuyo, were strongly linked to the characteristic image of the
Black Curro and to the ambiance of the Guaracha and the Negro Curro Juan Cocuyo
Rumba.[134]

Rumba
The word Rumba is an abstract term that has been applied with different purposes to a wide variety of subjects
for a very long time. From a semantic point of view, the term rumba is included in a group of words with
similar meaning such as conga, milonga, bomba, tumba, samba, bamba, mambo, tambo, tango, cumbé, cumbia
and candombe. All of them denote a Congolese origin due to the utilization of sound combinations such as,
mb, ng and nd, that are typical of the Niger-Congo linguistic complex.[135]

Maybe the most ancient and general of its meanings is that of a feast or "holgorio". As far as the second half of
the 19th century, this word can be found used several times to represent a feast in a short story called "La
mulata de rumbo", from the Cuban folklorist Francisco de Paula Gelabert: "I have more enjoyment and fun in
a rumbita with those of my color and class", or "Leocadia was going to bed, as I was telling you, nothing less
than at twelve noon, when one of his friends from the rumbas arrived, along with another young man that he
wanted to introduce to her."[136] According to Alejo Carpentier "it is significant that the word rumba have
passed to the Cuban language as a synonym of holgorio, lewd dance, merrymaking with low class women
(mujeres del rumbo)."[137]

As an example, In the case of the Yuka, Makuta and Changüí feasts in Cuba, as well as the Milonga and the
Tango in Argentina, the word rumba was originally utilized to nominate a festive gathering; and after some
time it was used to name the musical and dance genres that were played at those gatherings.

Among many others, some ultizations of the term "rumba include a cover-all term for faster Cuban music
which started in the early 1930s with The Peanut Vendor. This term was replaced during the 1970s by salsa,
which is also a cover-all term for marketing the Cuban music and other Hispano-Caribbean genres to non-
Cubans. In the international Latin-American dance syllabus rumba is a misnomer for the slow Cuban rhythm
more accurately called bolero-son.

Rumba and guaracha

Some scholars have pointed out that in reference to the utilization of the terms rumba and guaracha, there is
possibly a case of synonymy, or the use of two different words to denominate the same thing. According to
María Teresa Linares: "during the first years of the 20th century, there were used at the end of the vernacular
(Bufo) theater plays some musical fragments that the authors sang, and that were called closing rumba (rumba
final)" and she continues explaining that those (rumbas) "were certainly guarachas."[138] The musical pieces
used to close those plays may have been indistinctly called rumbas or guarachas, because those terms didn't
denote any generic or structural difference between them. Linares also said in reference to this subject: "Some
recordings of guarachas and rumbas have been preserved that do not differentiate between them in the guitar
parts – when it was a small group, duo or trio, or by the theater orchestra or a piano. The labels of the
recordings stated: dialogue and rumba (diálogo y rumba)."[138]

Urban rumba
Urban rumba (also called Rumba (de solar o de cajón)), is an
amalgamation of several African drumming and dance traditions,
combined with Spanish influences. According to Cuban musicologist
Argeliers León: "In the feast that constituted a rumba concurred,
therefore, determined African contributions, but also converged other
elements from Hispanic roots, that were already incorporated to the
expressions that appeared in the new population emerging in the
Island."[139]

Rumba (de solar o de cajón) is a secular musical style from the docks and
the less prosperous areas of Havana and Matanzas. A the beginning,
rumba musicians used a trio of wooden boxes (cajones) to play, that were
substituted at a later time by drums, similar in appearance to conga
drums. The treble drum is called "quinto", the medium range drum is
called "macho or tres-dos" (three-two), because its essential rhythm is
based on the Cuban clave pattern, and the bass drum is called "hembra o
Rumba drummer salidor," because it usually began or "broke in" (rompía) the rumba.[140]
In the Rumba ensemble they also utilize two sticks or spoons to beat over
a hollow piece of bamboo called "guagua" or "catá," as well as the
Cuban Claves, the Güiro and some rattles from bantu origin called "nkembi".[141]

The vocal part of the rumba corresponds to a modified version of the ancient Spanish style of "copla-estribillo"
(quatrain-refrain), including a "montuno" section that one may consider an expanded or developed "refrain"
that constitute an independent section which include the call and response style, so typical of the African
traditions.[142]

From the many rumba styles that began to appear during the end of the 19th century called "Spanish times"
(Tiempo'españa), such as tahona, jiribilla, palatino and resedá, three basic Rumba forms have survived: the
Columbia, the guaguancó and the yambú. The Columbia, played in 6/8 time, is often as a solo dance
performed only by a male performer. It is fast and swift and also includes aggressive and acrobatic moves. The
guaguancó is danced by a pair of one man and one woman. The dance simulates the man's pursuit of the
woman. The yambú, now a relic, featured a burlesque imitation of an old man walking with a stick. All forms
of rumba are accompanied by song or chants.[143][144]
Rumba (de solar o de cajón) is today a fossil genre
usually seen in Cuba in performances of professional
groups. There are also amateur groups based on Casas
de Cultura (Culture Centers), and on work groups. Like
all aspects of life in Cuba, dance and music are organised
by the state through Ministries and their various
committees.[145]

Coros de Clave
Coros de Clave were popular choral groups that emerged
Rumba drummers
at the beginning of the 20th century in Havana and other
Cuban cities.

The Cuban government only allowed black people, slaves or free, to cultivate their cultural traditions within
the boundaries of certain mutual aid societies, which were founded during the 16th century. According to
David H. Brown, those societies, called Cabildos, "provided in times of sickness and death, held masses for
deceased members, collected funds to buy nation-brethren out of slavery, held regular dances and diversions
on Sundays and feast days, and sponsored religious masses, processions and dancing carnival groups (now
called comparsas) around the annual cycle of Catholic festival days."[146]

Within the Cabildos of certain neighborhoods from Havana, Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus and Trinidad, some
choral groups were founded during the 19th century that organized competitive activities, and in some
occasions were visited by local authorities and neighbors that gave them money and presents. Those choral
societies were called Coros de Clave, probably after the instrument that used to accompany their performances,
the Cuban Claves.[147]

The accompaniment of the choirs also included a guitar and the percussion was executed over the sound box
of an American banjo from which the strings were removed, due to the fact that African drums performance
was strictly forbidden in Cuban cities.[148] The style of the Coros de Clave music, and particulally its rhythm,
originated at a later time a popular song genre called Clave, which most probable served as the original
prototype for the creation of the Criolla genre. Both genres, the Clave and the Criolla became very popular
within the Cuban vernacular theater repertoire.

Rural rumba
In a similar way as the first Spanish song-dances spread
from the cities to the countryside, also the characteristics
of the Cuban Guaracha, that enjoyed great popularity in
Havana, began to spread to the rural areas in an
undetermined time during the 19th century. This process
was not difficult at all if one considers how close one to
the other were the urban and the rural areas in Cuba at
that time. That was why the Cuban peasants (guajiros)
began to include in their parties called "guateques" or
Cuban rural landscape "changüís", and in feasts such as the "fiestas patronales"
(patron saint celebrations) and the "parrandas", some
Rumbitas (little rumbas) that were very similar to the
urban Guarachas, which binary meter contrasted with the ternary beat of their traditional "tonadas" and
"zapateos".[149]
Those little rural rumbas have been called by renowned musicologist Danilo Orozco "proto-sones", "soncitos
primigenios", "rumbitas", "nengones"or "marchitas," and some of them, such as: Caringa, Papalote, Doña
Joaquina, Anda Pepe and the Tingotalango have been preserved until the present time.[150]

The Rumbitas were considered as Proto-sones (primeval Sones), because of the evident analogy that its
structural components show with the Son, which emerged in Havana during the first decades of the 20th
century. The Rumbitas may be considered as the original prototype of this popular genre.[151]

According to musicologist Virtudes Feliú, those Rumbitas appeared in cities and towns throughout the entire
territory of the Island, such as: Ciego de Ávila, Sancti Espíritus, Cienfuegos, Camagüey, Puerta de Golpe in
Pinar del Río and Bejucal in Havana, as well as Remedios in Villa Clara and Isla de Pinos (Pines Island).[152]

There are many references to the Cuban Independence Wars (1868-1898), related to the rural Rumbitas, in the
Eastern region of the country as well as in the Western region and Isla de Pinos, which suggest that their
emergence took place approximately during the second half of the 19th century.[153]

The rural Rumbitas included a greater number of African characteristics in comparison with the Cuban
Guaracha, due to the gradual integration of free Afro-Cuban citizens to the rural environment.[154]

Since the 16th century, thanks to a government approved program called "manumisión", the black slaves were
allowed to pay for their freedom with their own savings. Therefore, a larger number of free blacks were
dedicated to the manual labors in the fields than in the cities and some of them were also able to become
proprietaries of land and slaves.[155]

Characteristics of the rural rumba

One of the most salient characteristics of the rural Rumbitas was its own form, very
similar to the African typical song structure. In this case, the entire piece was based on a
single musical fragment or phrase of short duration that was repeated, with some
variations, time and time again; often alternating with a choir. This style was called
"Montuno" (literally "from the countryside") due to its rural origin.[156]

Another characteristic of the new genre was the

superposition of different rhythmic patterns
simultaneously executed, similarly to the way it is
utilized in the Urban Rumba, which is also a
common trait of the African musical tradition.[157]
Those layers or "franjas de sonoridades" according
to Argeliers León, were assigned to different
Tres cubano instruments that were gradually incorporated to the
group. Therefore, the ensemble grew from the
Marímbula
traditional Tiple and Güiro, to a one that included:
guitar, "bandurria", Cuban lute, claves, and other instruments such as
the"tumbandera", the "marímbula", the "botija", the bongoes, the
common "machete" (cutlass) and the accordion.[158]

Some important musical functions were assigned to the sonority layers, such as the: "Time Line" or Clave
Rhythm performed by the claves, a "1-eighth note + 2-sixteenth notes" rhythm played by the güiro or the
machete, the patterns of the "guajeo" by the Tres (instrument), the improvisation on the bongoes and the
anticipated bass on the "tumbandera" or the "botija".[159]
Proto-son
The origin of the Cuban son can be traced to the rural rumbas, called proto-sones (primeval sones) by
musicologist Danilo Orozco. They show, in a partial or embryonic form, all the characteristics that at a later
time were going to identify the Son style: The repetition of a phrase called montuno, the clave pattern, a
rhythmic counterpoint between different layers of the musical texture, the guajeo from the Tres, the rhythms
from the guitar, the bongoes and the double bass and the call and response style between soloist and choir.[160]
According to Radamés Giro: at a later time the refrain (estribillo) or montuno was tied to a quatrain (cuarteta –
copla) called regina, which was how the peasants from the Eastern side of the country called the quatrain. In
this way, the structure refrain–quatrain–refrain appears at a very early stage in the Son Oriental, like in one of
the most ancient Sones called "Son de Máquina" (Machine Son) which comprises three reginas with its
correspondent refrains.[161]

During an investigative project about the Valera-Miranda family (old Soneros) conducted by Danilo Orozco in
the region of Guantánamo, he recorded a sample of Nengón, which is considered an ancestor of the Changüí.
It shows the previously mentioned refrain–quatrain–refrain structure. In this case, the several repetitions of the
refrain constitute a true "montuno."

Refrain: Yo he nacido para ti nengón, yo he nacido para ti nengón, yo he nacido para ti Nengón... (I was born
for you Nengón...)[162]

Nengón

The "Nengón" is considered a Proto-Son, precursor of the Changüí and also of the Oriental Son. Its main
characteristic is the alternance of improvised verses between a soloist and a choir. The Nengón is played with
Tres, Guitar, Güiro and Tingotalango or Tumbandera.[163]

Changüí

Changüí is a type of son from the eastern provinces (area of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo), formerly
known as Oriente. It shares relevant characteristics with the Oriental Son in regard to rhythms, instruments and
choral refrains; and at the same time it shows certain original elements.[164]

Changüí exists today in the form of dozens of small groups, mostly from Guantanamo province.[165] The
instrumentation is similar to that of the early Son groups who set up in Havana before 1920. These son groups,
for example, the early Sexteto Boloña and Sexteto Habanero, used either marimbulas or botijas as bass
instruments before they changed over to the double bass, musically a more flexible instrument.

Changui is a genuinely distinctive music and culture practiced by residents of the Guantanamo province with
its own distinctive social dance form (couple dance). Guantanameros engage in Changui in house parties
(called Peñas), street parties, concerts at venues such as Casa de Changui, a weekly Monday night dance
broadcast live on Radio Guantanamo, an annual Changui festival to celebrate the anniversary of Chito
Latanble, and the bi-annual Festival de Changui. There is often a Changui function on most nights of the week
at the Province.

Some modern orchestras, such as Orquesta Revé, have claimed Changüí as their main influence. Whether this
is accurate, or not, is unclear.

Sucu-Sucu
We can also find in Isla de Pinos, at the opposite Western side of the Island a primeval Proto-Son called Sucu-
Sucu, which also shows the same structure of the Oriental Proto-Sones. According to Maria Teresa Linares, In
the Sucu-Sucu the music is similar to a Son Montuno in its formal, melodic, instrumental and harmonic
structure. A soloist alternates with a choir and improvises on a quatrain or a "décima." The instrumental
section is introduced by the Tres, gradually joined by the other instruments. The introduction of eight measures
is followed by the refrain by the choir that alternates with the soloist several times.[166]

An urban legend claims that the name "Sucu Sucu" came from the grandmother of one of the local musicians
in la Isla de Juventud. The band was playing in the patio, and the dances were dancing while shuffling their
feet on the sandy floor. The grandmother came out of the house to say "Please stop making noise with all that
sucu sucu," referring to the sound of shuffling feet on a sandy floor. The legend claim that the name stuck, and
the music the dancers were dancing too started to be named "Sucu Sucu".

Trova
In the 19th century, Santiago de Cuba became the focal point of a group of itinerant musicians, troubadors,
who moved around earning their living by singing and playing the guitar.[167] They were of great importance
as composers, and their songs have been transcribed for all genres of Cuban music

Pepe Sánchez, born José Sánchez (1856–1918), is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the
Cuban bolero.[168] He had no formal training in music. With remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers
in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost for ever, though some
two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples transcribed them. His first bolero, Tristezas, is still
remembered today. He also created advertisement jingles before radio was born.[169] He was the model and
teacher for the great trovadores who followed him.[170]

The first, and one of the longest-lived, was Sindo Garay (1867–1968).
He was an outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been
sung and recorded many times. Garay was also musically illiterate – in
fact, he only taught himself the alphabet at 16 – but in his case not only
were scores recorded by others, but there are recordings. Garay settled in
Havana in 1906, and in 1926 joined Rita Montaner and others to visit
Paris, spending three months there. He broadcast on radio, made
recordings and survived into modern times. He used to say "Not many
men have shaken hands with both José Martí and Fidel
Castro!"[13]p298[171]

José 'Chicho' Ibáñez (1875–1981)[172] was even longer-lived than

Garay. Ibáñez was the first trovador to specialize in the son; he also sang
guaguancós and pieces from the abakuá.

The composer Rosendo Ruiz (1885–1983) was another long-lived

trovador. He was the author of a well-known guitar manual. Alberto
Villalón (1882–1955), and Manuel Corona (1880–1950) were of similar Guarionex & Sindo Garay
stature. Garay, Ruiz, Villalón and Corona are known as the four greats of
the trova, though the following trovadores are also highly regarded.

Patricio Ballagas (1879–1920); María Teresa Vera (1895–1965), Lorenzo Hierrezuelo (1907–1993), Ñico
Saquito (Antonio Fernandez: 1901–1982), Carlos Puebla (1917–1989) and Compay Segundo (Máximo
Francisco Repilado Muñoz: 1907–2003) were all great trova musicians. El Guayabero (Faustino Oramas:
1911–2007) was the last of the old trova.
Trova musicians often worked in pairs and trios, some of them exclusively so (Compay Segundo). As the
sexteto/septeto/conjunto genre grew many of them joined in the larger groups. And let's not forget the Trio
Matamoros, who worked together for most of their lives. Matamoros was one of the greats.[173]

Bolero

This is a song and dance form quite different from its Spanish namesake. It originated in the last quarter of the
19th century with the founder of the traditional trova, Pepe Sánchez. He wrote the first bolero, Tristezas,
which is still sung today. The bolero has always been a staple part of the trova musician's repertoire.

Originally, there were two sections of 16 bars in 2/4 time

separated by an instrumental section on the Spanish guitar called
the pasacalle. The bolero proved to be exceptionally adaptable,
and led to many variants. Typical was the introduction of
sychopation leading to the bolero-moruno, bolero-beguine,
bolero-mambo, bolero-cha. The bolero-son became for several
decades the most popular rhythm for dancing in Cuba, and it was
this rhythm that the international dance community picked up and
taught as the wrongly-named 'rumba'.

Rosendo Ruiz, Manuel Corona, Sindo The Cuban bolero was exported all over the world, and is still
Garay & Alberto Villalon popular. Leading composers of the bolero were Sindo Garay,
Rosendo Ruiz, Carlos Puebla, and Agustín Lara
(Mexico).[168][174][175][176][177]

Canción

Canción means 'song' in Spanish. It is a popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where
many of the compositions originate. Its roots lie in Spanish, French and Italian popular song forms. Originally
highly stylized, with "intricate melodies and dark, enigmatic and elaborate lyrics"[178] The canción was
democratized by the trova movement in the latter part of the 19th century, when it became a vehicle for the
aspirations and feelings of the population. Canción gradually fused with other forms of Cuban music, such as
the bolero.[179]

Tropical waltz
The waltz (El vals) arrived in Cuba by 1814. It was the first dance in which couples were not linked by a
communal sequence pattern. It was, and still is, danced in 3/4 time with the accent on the first beat. It was
originally thought scandalous because couples faced each other, held each other in the 'closed' hold, and, so to
speak, ignored the surrounding community. The waltz entered all countries in the Americas; its relative
popularity in 19th-century Cuba is hard to estimate.

Indigenous Cuban dances did not use the closed hold with couples dancing independently until the danzón
later in the century, though the guaracha might be an earlier example. The waltz has another characteristic: it is
a 'travelling' dance, with couples moving round the arena. In Latin dances, progressive movement of dancers is
unusual, but does occur in the conga, the samba and the tango.

The Tropical waltz was performed in a slower tempo and frequently included a sung melody with a text.
Those texts usually referred to the beauties of the Cuban countryside, the longing of the Siboneyes (Cuban
aboriginee) and other creole themes. With accents on its three beats, its melody was fluid and composed of
equal value notes. It was similar to many other songs in which the melody was treated in a syllabic way, where
the first beat was not stressed by a brief anacrusis but had a tendency to move toward the second beat like in
the peasant (guajiro) song.[180]

Son
Son cubano is a style of music and dance that originated in Cuba and gained
worldwide popularity during the 1930s. Son combines the structure and traits of
the Spanish canción with Afro-Cuban stylistic and percussion instruments
elements. The Cuban Son is one of the most influential and widespread forms of
Latin American music: its derivatives and fusions, especially salsa, have spread
across the world.[181]

The Son, said Cristóbal Díaz, is the most important genre of Cuban music, and
the least studied.[182] It can fairly be said that son is to Cuba what the tango is to
Argentina, or the samba to Brazil. In addition, it is perhaps the most flexible of all
forms of Latin-American music. Its great strength is its fusion between European
Guitar and Tres and African musical traditions. Its most characteristic instruments are the Cuban
instrument known as the tres, and the well-known double-headed bongó; these
are present from the start to the present day. Also typical are the claves, the
Spanish guitar, the double bass (replacing the early botija or marímbula), early on the cornet or trumpet and
finally the piano.

In spite of a traditional tendency to attribute the origin of Cuban Son to the Eastern region of Cuba (Oriente),
most recently, some musicologists have shown a more inclusive stance. Although Alejo Carpentier, Emilio
Grenet and Cristóbal Díaz Ayala support the "Eastern origin" theory, Argeliers León doesn't mention anything
about it in his pivotal work "Del Canto y el Tiempo", as well as María Teresa Linares in "The Music between
Cuba and Spain."[183] Ramadamés Giro states about this subject: "If Son was an artistic phenomenon that was
developing since the second half of the 19th century – and not just in the old Oriente (Eastern) province -, it is
logical to suppose, but not to affirm, that long before 1909 it was heard in the Capital City (Havana) because
of the aforementioned reasons."[184]

It was in Havana where the encounter of the rural rumba and the urban rumba, that had been developing
separately during the second half of the 19th century, took place. The guaracheros and rumberos that used to
play with the Tiple and the Guiro finally met other Rumberos that sang and danced accompanied by the
wooden box (cajón) and the Cuban Clave, and the result was the fusion of both styles in a new genre called
Son.[185] Around 1910 the Son most likely adopted the clave rhythm from the Havana-based rumba, which
had been developed in the late 19th century in Havana and Matanzas.[186]

The mass popularization of Son music led to an increased valorization of Afro-Cuban street culture and of the
artists who created it. It also opened the door for other music genres with Afro-Cuban roots to become popular
in Cuba and throughout the world.[187]

Cuban jazz
The history of jazz in Cuba was obscured for many years, but it has become clear that its history in Cuba is
virtually as long as its history in the US.[188][189][190][191][192][193]

Much more is now known about early Cuban jazz bands, but a full assessment is plagued by the lack of
recordings. Migrations and visits to and from the US and the mutual exchange of recordings and sheet music
kept musicians in the two countries in touch. In the first part of the 20th century, there were close relations
between musicians in Cuba and those in New Orleans. The orchestra leader in the famous Tropicana Club,
Armando Romeu Jr, was a leading figure in the post-World War II development of Cuban jazz. The
phenomenon of cubop and the jam sessions in Havana and New York organized by Cachao created genuine
fusions that influence musicians today.

A key historian of early Cuban jazz is Leonardo Acosta.[188][189] Others have explored the history of jazz and
Latin jazz more from the U.S. perspective.[190][191][192][193]

Early Cuban jazz bands

The Jazz Band Sagua was founded in Sagua la Grande

in 1914 by Pedro Stacholy (director & piano). Members:
Hipólito Herrera (trumpet); Norberto Fabelo (cornet);
Ernesto Ribalta (flute & sax); Humberto Domínguez
(violin); Luciano Galindo (trombone); Antonio
Temprano (tuba); Tomás Medina (drum kit); Marino
Rojo (güiro). For fourteen years they played at the Teatro
Principal de Sagua. Stacholy studied under Antonio
Fabré in Sagua, and completed his studies in New York,
Jazz Band Sagua, 1920s
where he stayed for three years.[194]

The Cuban Jazz Band was founded in 1922 by Jaime

Prats in Havana. The personnel included his son Rodrigo Prats on violin, the great flautist Alberto Socarrás on
flute and saxophone and Pucho Jiménez on slide trombone. The line-up would probably have included double
bass, kit drum, banjo, cornet at least. Earlier works cited this as the first jazz band in Cuba,[195] but evidently
there were earlier groups.

In 1924 Moisés Simons (piano) founded a group which played on the roof garden of the Plaza Hotel in
Havana, and consisted of piano, violin, two saxes, banjo, double bass, drums and timbales. Its members
included Virgilio Diago (violin); Alberto Soccarás (alto saz, flute); José Ramón Betancourt (tenor sax); Pablo
O'Farrill (d. bass). In 1928, still at the same venue, Simons hired Julio Cueva, a famous trumpeter, and Enrique
Santiesteban, a future media star, as vocalist and drummer. These were top instrumentalists, attracted by top
fees of $8 a day.[188]p28

During the 1930s, several bands played Jazz in Havana, such as those of Armando Romeu, Isidro Pérez,
Chico O'Farrill and Germán Lebatard. Their most important contribution was its own instrumental format
itself, which introduced the typical Jazz sonority to the Cuban audience. Another important element within this
process were the arrangements of Cuban musicians such as Romeu, O'Farrill, Bebo Valdés, Peruchín Jústiz
and Leopoldo "Pucho" Escalante.[196]

Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz and mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz
harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban jazz first emerged in the early 1940s, with the Cuban
musicians Mario Bauza and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, based in New
York City. In 1947 the collaborations of bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie with Cuban percussionist Chano
Pozo brought Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, most notably the tumbadora and the bongo, into the East
Coast jazz scene. Early combinations of jazz with Cuban music, such as Dizzy's and Pozo's "Manteca" and
Charlie Parker's and Machito's "Mangó Mangüé", were commonly referred to as "Cubop", short for Cuban
bebop.[197] During its first decades, the Afro-Cuban jazz movement was stronger in the United States than in
 Cuba itself.[198] In the early 1970s, the Orquesta Cubana de Música
Moderna and later Irakere brought Afro-Cuban jazz into the Cuban
music scene, influencing new styles such as songo.

Diversification and popularization

Cuban music enters the United States

In 1930, Don Azpiazú[199] had the first million-selling record of

Cuban music: The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero), with Antonio
Machín as the singer.[200] This number had been orchestrated and
Machito and his sister Graciella
included in N.Y. theatre by Azpiazú before recording, which no doubt
Grillo
helped with the publicity. The Lecuona Cuban Boys[201] became the
best-known Cuban touring ensemble: they were the ones who first
used the conga drum in their conjunto, and popularized the conga as a
dance. Xavier Cugat at the Waldorf Astoria was highly influential.[202] In 1941 Desi Arnaz popularized the
comparsa drum (similar to the conga) in the U.S with his performances of Babalú. There was a real 'rumba
craze' at the time.[203] Later, Mario Bauza and Machito set up in New York and Miguelito Valdés also arrived
there.

1940s and '50s

In the 1940s, Chano Pozo[204] formed part of the bebop revolution in jazz, playing conga with Dizzy Gillespie
and Machito in New York City. Cuban jazz had started much earlier, in Havana, in the period 1910–1930.

Arsenio Rodríguez, one of Cuba's most famous tres

players and conjunto leaders, emphasised the son's
African roots by adapting the guaguancó style, and by
adding a cowbell and conga to the rhythm section. He
also expanded the role of the tres as a solo
instrument.[205]

In the late 1930s and 40s, the danzonera Arcaño y sus

Maravillas incorporated more syncopation and added a
montuno (as in son), transforming the music played by
charanga orchestras.[206]

The big band era

Conjunto of Arsenio Rodríguez

The big band era arrived in Cuba in the 1940s, and

became a dominant format that survives. Two great
arranger-bandleaders deserve special credit for this, Armando Romeu Jr. and Damaso Perez Prado. Armando
Romeu Jr. led the Tropicana Cabaret orchestra for 25 years, starting in 1941. He had experience playing with
visiting American jazz groups as well as a complete mastery of Cuban forms of music. In his hands the
Tropicana presented not only Afrocuban and other popular Cuban music, but also Cuban jazz and American
big band compositions. Later he conducted the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna.[188][207][208]
Damaso Perez Prado had a number of hits, and sold more 78s than any other Latin music of the day. He took
over the role of pianist/arranger for the Orquesta Casino de la Playa in 1944, and immediately began
introducing new elements into its sound. The orchestra began to sound more Afrocuban, and at the same time
Prado took influences from Stravinsky, Stan Kenton and elsewhere. By the time he left the orchestra in 1946
he had put together the elements of his big band mambo.:[209] "Above all, we must point out the work of
Perez Prado as an arranger, or better yet, composer and arranger, and his clear influence on most other Cuban
arrangers from then on."[188]p86

Benny Moré, considered by many as the greatest Cuban singer of all time, was in his heyday in the 1950s. He
had an innate musicality and fluid tenor voice, which he colored and phrased with great expressivity. Although
he could not read music, Moré was a master of all the genres, including son montuno, mambo, guaracha,
guajira, cha cha cha, afro, canción, guaguancó, and bolero. His orchestra, the Banda Gigante, and his music,
was a development – more flexible and fluid in style – of the Perez Prado orchestra, which he sang with in
1949–1950.

Cuban music in the US

Three great innovations based on Cuban music hit the US after World War II: the first was Cubop, the latest
latin jazz fusion. In this, Mario Bauza and the Machito orchestra on the Cuban side and Dizzy Gillespie on the
American side were prime movers. The rumbustious conguero Chano Pozo was also important, for he
introduced jazz musicians to basic Cuban rhythms. Cuban jazz has continued to be a significant influence.

The mambo first entered the United States around 1950, though ideas had been developing in Cuba and
Mexico City for some time. The mambo as understood in the United States and Europe was considerably
different from the danzón-mambo of Orestes "Cachao" Lopez, which was a danzon with extra syncopation in
its final part. The mambo—which became internationally famous—was a big band product, the work of Perez
Prado, who made some sensational recordings for RCA in their new recording studios in Mexico City in the
late 1940s. About 27 of those recordings had Benny Moré as the singer, though the best sellers were mainly
instrumentals. The big hits included "Que rico el mambo" (Mambo Jambo); "Mambo No. 5"; "Mambo #8";
"Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)". The later (1955) hit "Patricia" was a mambo/rock fusion.[210]
Mambo of the Prado kind was more a descendant of the son and the guaracha than the danzón. In the U.S. the
mambo craze lasted from about 1950 to 1956, but its influence on the bugaloo and salsa that followed it was
considerable.

Violinist Enrique Jorrín invented the chachachá in the early 1950s. This
was developed from the danzón by increased syncopation. The
chachachá became more popular outside Cuba when the big bands of
Perez Prado and Tito Puente produced arrangements that attracted
American and European audiences.[211]

Along with "Nuyoricans" Ray Barretto and Tito Puente and others,
several waves of Cuban immigrants introduced their ideas into US music.
Among these was Celia Cruz, a guaracha singer. Others were active in
Latin jazz, such as percussionist Patato Valdés of the Cuban-oriented
"Tipíca '73", linked to the Fania All-Stars. Several former members of
Irakere have also become highly successful in the US, among them
Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. Tata Güines, a famous conguero,
moved to New York City in 1957, playing with jazz players such as
Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, and Miles Davis at Birdland. As a
Celia Cruz percussionist, he performed with Josephine Baker and Frank Sinatra. He
returned to Cuba in 1959 after Fidel Castro came to power in the Cuban Revolution, which he helped fund
with contributions from his earnings as a musician.[212]

Mambo
Mambo is a musical genre and dance style that developed originally in Cuba. The word "Mambo", similarly to
other afroamerican musical denominations as conga, milonga, bomba, tumba, samba, bamba, bamboula,
tambo, tango, cumbé, cumbia and candombe, denote an African origin, particularly from Congo, due to the
presence of certain characteristic combinations of sounds, such as mb, ng and nd, which belong to the Niger-
Congo linguistic complex.

The earliest roots of the Cuban Mambo can be traced to the "Danzón de Nuevo Ritmo" (Danzón with a new
rhythm) made popular by the orchestra "Arcaño y sus Maravillas" conducted by famous bandleader Antonio
Arcaño. He was the first to denominate a section of the popular Cuban Danzón as a "Mambo." It was
Arcaño's cellist, Orestes López, who created the first Danzón called "Mambo" (1938).[213] In this piece, some
syncopated motives, taken from the Son style, were combined with improvised flute passages.[214]

Pianist and arranger from Matanzas, Cuba, Dámaso Pérez Prado (1927) established his residence in Havana at
the beginning of the 1940s and began to work at night clubs and orchestras, such as Paulina Alvarez's and
Casino de La Playa. In 1949 he traveled to Mexico looking for job opportunities and achieved great success
with a new style, to which he assigns a name that had been already utilized by Antonio Arcaño, the
"Mambo."[215]

Perez Prado's style differed from the previous "Mambo" concept. The new style possessed a greater influence
from the North-American Jazz band music, and an expanded instrumentation consisting of four or five
trumpets, four of five saxophones, double bass, drum set, maracas, cowbell, congas and bongoes. The new
"Mambo" included a catchy counterpoint between the trumpets and the saxophones, that impulsed the body to
move along with the rhythm, stimulated at the end of each musical phrase by a characteristic deep throat sound
expression.[216]

Prado's recordings were meant for the Latin American and U.S. Latino markets, but some of his most
celebrated mambos, such as "Mambo No. 5" and "Que Rico el Mambo", quickly crossed over to the United
States.[217]

Chachachá
Chachachá is a genre of Cuban music. It has been a popular
dance music which developed from the Danzón-mambo in the
early 1950s, and became widely popular throughout the entire Cha-Cha rhythm.[218]
world.

Chachachávis a Cuban music genre whose creation has been traditionally attributed to Cuban composer and
violinist Enrique Jorrín, which began his career playing for the charanga band Orquesta América.[219]

According to the testimony of Enrique Jorrín, he composed some "Danzones" in which the musician of the
orchestra had to sing short refrains, and this style was very successful. In the Danzón "Constancia" he
introduced some montunos and the audience was motivated to join in singing the refrains. Jorrín also asked the
members of the orchestra to sing in unison so the lyrics may be heard more clearly and achieve a greater
impact in the audience. That way of singing also helped to mask the poor singing skills of the orchestra
members.
Since its inception, Chachachá music had a close relationship with the dancer's steps. The well-known name
Chachachá came into being with the help of the dancers at the Silver Star Club in Havana. When the dance
was coupled to the rhythm of the music, it became evident that the dancer's feet were making a peculiar sound
as they grazed the floor on three successive beats. It was like an onomatopoeia that sounded as: Chachachá.
From this peculiar sound, a music genre was born which motivated people from around the world to dance at
its catchy rhythm.[220]

According to Olavo
ALén: "During the
1950s, Chachachá
maintained its popularity
thanks to the efforts of
many Cuban composers
who were familiar with
Typical piano accompaniment to a cha-cha-chá (Orovio 1981:132)
the technique of
composing danzones and
who unleashed their
creativity on the Chachachá", such as Rosendo Ruiz, Jr. ("Los Marcianos" and "Rico Vacilón"), Félix Reina
("Dime Chinita," "Como Bailan Cha-cha-chá los Mexicanos"), Richard Egűes ("El Bodeguero" and "La
Cantina") and Rafael Lay ("Cero Codazos, Cero Cabezazos").[221]

The Chachachá was first presented to the public through the instrumental medium of the charanga, a typical
Cuban dance band format made up of a flute, strings, piano, bass and percussion. The popularity of the
Chachachá also revived the popularity of this kind of orchestra.[222]

Filin
Filin was a Cuban fashion of the 1940s and 1950s, influenced by popular music in the US. The word is
derived from feeling. It describes a style of post-microphone jazz-influenced romantic song (crooning).[223] Its
Cuban roots were in the bolero and the canción. Some Cuban quartets, such as Cuarteto d'Aida and Los
Zafiros, modelled themselves on U.S. close-harmony groups. Others were singers who had heard Ella
Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole. A house in Havana, where the trovador Tirso Díaz lived,
became a meeting-place for singers and musicians interested in filin such as: Luis Yañez, César Portillo de la
Luz, José Antonio Méndez, Niño Rivera, José Antonio Ñico Rojas, Elena Burke, Froilán, Aida Diestro and
Frank Emilio Flynn. Here lyricists and singers could meet arrangers, such as Bebo Valdés, El Niño Rivera
(Andrés Hechavarria), Peruchín (Pedro Justiz), and get help to develop their work. Filin singers included
César Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez, who spent a decade in Mexico from 1949 to 1959, Frank
Domínguez, the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, and the great singers of boleros Elena Burke and the still-
performing Omara Portuondo, who both came from the Cuarteto d'Aida. The filin movement originally had a
place every afternoon on Radio Mil Diez. Some of its most prominent singers, such as Pablo Milanés, took up
the banner of the Nueva Trova at a later time.

1960s and 70s

Modern Cuban music is known for its relentless mixing of genres. For example, the 1970s saw Los Irakere use
batá in a big band setting; this became known as son-batá or batá-rock. Later artists created the mozambique,
which mixed conga and mambo, and batá-rumba, which mixed rumba and batá drum music. Mixtures
including elements of hip hop, jazz and rock and roll are also common, like in Habana Abierta's rockoson.

Revolutionary Cuba and Cuban exiles

 The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 signalled the
emigration of many musicians to Puerto Rico, Florida and New
York, and in Cuba artists and their work came under the
protection (and control) of the Socialist state, and the monopoly
state-owned recording company EGREM. The Castro
government abolished copyright laws in Cuba, closed many of
the venues where popular music used to be played (e.g. night
clubs), and so indirectly threw many musicians out of
work.[188]p202 This undoubtedly had deleterious effects on the
evolution of popular music and dance.[224]
Tropicana stage

Many young musicians now studied classical music and

not popular music. All musicians employed by the state
were given academic courses in music. In Cuba, the
Nueva Trova movement (including Pablo Milanés)
reflected the new leftist ideals. The state took over the
lucrative Tropicana Club, which continued as a popular
attraction for foreign tourists until 1968, when it was
closed along with many other music venues (and later
reopened with the rebirth of tourism).[188] p202 Tourism
was almost non-existent for three decades. Traditional Pianist Bebo Valdés
Cuban music could be found in local Casas de la Trova.
Musicians, if in work, were full-time and paid by the
state after graduating from a conservatory. The collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the loss of its support for
Cuba changed the situation quite a bit. Tourism became respectable again, and so did popular music for their
entertainment. Musicians were even allowed to tour abroad and earn a living outside the state-run system.

Famous artists from the Cuban exile include Celia Cruz and the whole conjunto she sang with, the Sonora
Matancera. 'Patato' (Carlos Valdes), Cachao, La Lupe, Arturo Sandoval, Willy Chirino, Hansel y Raul, La
Palabra, Paquito D'Rivera, Bebo Valdés and Gloria Estefan are some others. Many of these musicians,
especially Cruz, became closely associated with the anti-revolutionary movement, and as 'unpersons'[225] have
been omitted from the standard Cuban reference books, and their subsequent musical recordings are never on
sale in Cuba.[226]

Salsa

Salsa was the fourth innovation based on Cuban music to hit the US, and differed in that it was initially
developed in the US, not in Cuba. Because Cuba has so many indigenous types of music there has always
been a problem in marketing the 'product' abroad to people who did not understand the differences between
rhythms that, to a Cuban, are quite distinct. So, twice in the 20th century, a kind of product label was
developed to solve this problem. The first occasion was in the 1930s after "The Peanut Vendor" became an
international success. It was called a 'rumba' even though it really had nothing to do with genuine rumba: the
number was obviously a son pregon. The label 'rumba' was used outside Cuba for years as a catch-all for
Cuban popular music.[227]

The second occasion happened during the period 1965–1975 in New York City, as musicians of Cuban and
Puerto-Rican origin combined to produce the great music of the post Cha-cha-cha period. This music acquired
the label of 'salsa'. No-one really knows how this happened, but everyone recognised what a benefit it was to
have a common label for son, mambo, guaracha, guajira, guaguancó, etc. Cubans and non Cubans, such as
 Tito Puente, Rubén Blades and many
experts of the Cuban music and salsa have
always said "Salsa is just another name for
Cuban, music. Tito Puentes once said, now
they call it Salsa, later they may call it Stir
Fry, but to me it will alway be Cuban
Music"; but over time salsa bands worked
in other influences. For example, in the late
1960s Willie Colón developed numbers that
made use of Brazilian rhythms. New York
radio programmes offered 'salsarengue' as a
further combination. You look at a band of
the 1940s playing Cuban music and you
Rubén Blades will see the same exact instruments in Salsa
Music. Later still 'Salsa romantica' was the
label for an especially sugary type of Musicians at the Hotel Nacional,
bolero. Even when, Benny Moré, Perez Prado the greatest Sonero that Havana. October 2002
ever existed, was singing Boleros with a salsa cadence in the 1940s. It
was not until the 1950s that Cuban music became popular for Puerto
Rican bands. Plena, Bomba and other styles or music were popular at the time in Puerto Rico. Many famous
Puerto Rican musicians went to learn the music styles of Cubans in the 1930s and 1940s, and it was not until
the arrival of Castro in 1959 and the Cuban music stopped its exportation to the world, that Puerto Ricans in
New York were able to be greatly noticed, but what is known as Salsa today, was brought to New York in the
1920s and 1930s by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo,[228][229] this last one was discovered by Dizzy
Gillespie as he was one of the greatest percussionist that ever lived.[230][231][232]

The question of whether or not salsa is anything more than Cuban music has been argued over for more than
thirty years. Initially, not much difference could be seen. Later it became clear that not only was New York
salsa different from popular music in Cuba, but salsa in Venezuela, Colombia and other countries could also be
distinguished. It also seems clear that salsa has receded from the great position it achieved in the late 1970s.
The reasons for this are also much disputed.[233]

Nueva Trova

Paralleling nueva canción in Latin America is the Cuban

Nueva trova, which dates from about 1967/68, after the
Cuban Revolution. It differed from the traditional trova,
not because the musicians were younger, but because the
content was, in the widest sense, political. Nueva trova is
defined by its connection with Castro's revolution, and
by its lyrics, which attempt to escape the banalities of life
by concentrating on socialism, injustice, sexism,
colonialism, racism and similar issues.[234] Silvio
Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés became the most important
exponents of this style. Carlos Puebla and Joseíto A local musical house, Casa de la Trova, at
Fernández were long-time old trova singers who added Santiago de Cuba
their weight to the new regime, but of the two only
Puebla wrote special pro-revolution songs.

Nueva trova had its heyday in the 1970s, but was already declining before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Examples of non-political styles in the nueva trova movement can be found, for example, Liuba María Hevia
whose lyrics are focused on more traditional subjects such as love and solitude, sharing with the rest a highly
poetical style. On the other side of the spectrum, Carlos Varela is famous in Cuba for his open criticism of
some aspects of Castro's revolution.

The nueva trova, initially so popular, suffered both inside Cuba, perhaps from a growing disenchantment with
one-party rule, and externally, from the vivid contrast with the Buena Vista Social Club film and recordings.
Audiences round the world have had their eyes opened to the extraordinary charm and musical quality of the
older forms of Cuban music. By contrast, topical themes that seemed so relevant in the 1960s and 1970s now
seem dry and passé. Even "Guantanamera" has been damaged by over-repetition in less skilled hands. All the
same, those pieces of high musical and lyrical quality, among which Puebla's "Hasta siempre, Comandante"
stands out, will probably last as long as Cuba lasts.[235]

1980s to the present

Son remains the basis of most popular forms of modern Cuban music. Son is represented by long-standing
groups like Septeto Nacional, which was re-established in 1985, Orquesta Aragón, Orquesta Ritmo Oriental
and Orquesta Original de Manzanillo. Sierra Maestra, is famous for having sparked a revival in traditional son
in the 1980s. Nueva trova still has influence, but the overtly political themes of the 1960s are well out of
fashion. Meanwhile, Irakere fused traditional Cuban music with jazz, and groups like NG La Banda, Orishas
and Son 14 continued to add new elements to son, especially hip hop and funk, to form timba music; this
process was aided by the acquisition of imported electronic equipment. There are still many practitioners of
traditional son montuno, such as Eliades Ochoa, who have recorded and toured widely as a result of interest in
the son montuno after the Buena Vista Social Club success. Europe-based Cuban female singer-songwriter
Addys Mercedes merged her roots of Son and Filin with elements of urban, rock and pop-music, reaching
mainstream airplay charts in Germany.[236]

In the 1990s, increased interest in world music coincided with the post-Soviet Union periodo especial in Cuba,
during which the economy began opening up to tourism. Orquesta Aragón, Charanga Habanera and Cándido
Fabré y su Banda have been long-time players in the charanga scene, and helped form the popular timba scene
of the late 1990s. The biggest award in modern Cuban music is the Beny Moré Award.

Timba

Cubans have never been content to hear their music described as salsa, even though it is crystal clear that this
was a label for their music. Since the early 1990s Timba has been used to describe popular dance music in
Cuba, rivaled only lately by Reggaetón. Though derived from the same roots as salsa, Timba has its own
characteristics, and is intimately tied to the life and culture of Cuba, and especially Havana.

As opposed to salsa, whose roots are strictly from Son and the Cuban conjunto bands of the 1940s and 1950s,
Timba represents a synthesis of many folkloric (rumba, guaguancó, batá drumming and the sacred songs of
santería.[237]), and popular sources (even taking inspiration from non Afro Cuban musical genres such as rock,
jazz and funk). According to Vincenzo Perna, author of Timba: The Sound of the Cuban Crisis, timba needs to
be spoken of because of its musical, cultural, social, and political reasons; its sheer popularity in Cuba, its
novelty and originality as a musical style, the skill of its practitioners, its relationship with both local traditions
and the culture of the black Diaspora, its meanings, and the way its style brings to light the tension points
within society.[238] In addition to timbales, timba drummers make use of the drum-set, further distinguishing
the sound from that of mainland salsa. The use of synthesised keyboard is also common. Timba songs tend to
sound more innovative, experimental and frequently more virtuosic than salsa pieces; horn parts are usually
fast, at times even bebop influenced, and stretch to the extreme ranges of all instruments. Bass and percussion
patterns are similarly unconventional. Improvisation is commonplace.
Revival projects

Several projects gained international attention in the 1990s due to

their revival of traditional music styles such as the son cubano of
the septeto and the conjunto era. Founded in 1976, Sierra
Maestra (band) was one of the first revivalist groups in Cuba. In
1995, Juan de Marcos González, director and tres player of
Sierra Maestra, was contacted by Nick Gold (head of World
Circuit Records) to record a traditional Cuban album featuring
African musicians. In the end, the African musicians could not
make it to Havana, so the project became a 100% Cuban affair
featuring veteran Cuban musicians such as Rubén González,
Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Omara Portuondo. It
spawned two bands, both of which involved American guitarist
Ry Cooder: Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club.
Both bands recorded their debut albums, A Toda Cuba le Gusta
and Buena Vista Social Club, respectively, in March 1996. The
release of the latter in September 1997 was a true watershed
event. The album became a worldwide hit, selling millions of
copies and turning established musicians into globally renowned
figures.

Cuban bandleader and musician Juan de

Marcos González

Buena Vista resulted in several follow-up recordings and

spawned a film of the same name, as well as tremendous interest
in other Cuban groups. In subsequent years, dozens of singers
and conjuntos made recordings for foreign labels and toured
internationally.

The conclusion some have drawn is that the wholesale closure of

popular music venues (after the revolution), which threw many
Guitarist Eliades Ochoa musicians out of work, and subsequent control by state
committees, damaged the development of Cuban popular
music.[188][224]

Hip hop

Hip hop grew steadily more popular in Cuba in the 1980s and 1990s through Cuba's Special Period.[239] After
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cuban economy went into decline. Poverty became more widespread and
visible in Cuba. In the 1990s, some Cubans started to protest this situation by means of rap and hip-hop.
During this period of economic crisis, which the country's poor and black populations especially hard, hip hop
became a way for the country's Afro-descended population to embrace their blackness and articulate a demand
for racial equality for black people in Cuba.[240] The idea of blackness and black liberation was not always
compatible with the goals of the Cuban government, which was still operating under the idea that a raceless
society was the correct realization of the Cuban Revolution. When hip-hop emerged, the Cuban government
opposed the vulgar image that rappers portrayed, but later accepted that it might be better to have hip-hop
under the influence of the Ministry of Culture as an authentic expression of Cuban Culture.[241] Rap music in
Cuba is heavily influenced by the country's pre-existing musical traditions, such as salsa and rumba.[241]
In some ways, hip hop is tolerated by the government of Cuba and performers are provided with venues and
equipment by the government.[242] The Cuban rap and hip-hop scene sought out the involvement of the
Ministry of Culture in the production and promotion of their music, which would otherwise have been
impossible to accomplish. After the Cuban government provided lukewarm endorsement, the Cuban Rap
Agency provided the Cuban rap scene, in 2002, with a state-sponsored record label, magazine, and Cuba's
own hip-hop festival.[241]

The government gives rap and hip-hop groups time on mass media outlets in return for hip-hop artists limiting
self-expression and presenting the government in a positive way.[243] Rappers who explicitly speak about race
or racism in Cuba are still under scrutiny by the government.[244] The government recognizes that hip-hop is
growing in Cuba, and would be difficult to eliminate.

Cubatón

Like Spanish reggae from Panama is a new genre for the Cubans but by 2012 was so massively popular that
"the face of Cuban pop music" was considered to be Cuban reggae (cubatón) singer, Osmani García "La
Voz".[245] The advent of web software helped to distribute music unofficially. Both lyrics and dance
movements have been criticised. Reggaeton musicians such as responded by making songs that defended their
music. Despite their efforts, the Ministry of Culture has ruled that reggaeton is not to be used in teaching
institutions, parties and at discos,[246] and in 2011 restricted its airplay after massive popularity of García's
"Chupi Chupi", which referred to oral sex. Other popular cubatón artists include Eddy K and Gente de Zona
("People from the 'Hood").

Rock music in Cuba

The musical interaction between Cuba and the US is ancient. Already in the
18th century, during the Spanish rule of Louisiana (1763–1803), the Havanese
orchestras and bands offered concerts in New Orleans and in the 19th century
the Cuan contradanza was very popular in the US. At the beginning of the 20th
century, the first jazz bands were created in Cuba, in the style of the American
groups. The "Sagua" Jaz Band was founded in Sagua la Grande in 1914 by
Pedro Stacholy (conductor and pianist). The group played during 14 years at
the Teatro Principal de Sagua.[194]

The strong influenece of the American music on the Cuban younger

generations gave way to the beginning of the soloists and groups of rock and
roll in Cuba during the 1950s. Many Cuban artists sang versions of American
songs translated to Spanish, as it was also happening in Mexico.[247]

The launching of the group Los LLopis represented the entrance in a new stage
for the Cuban music, that of the generation and amplification of the sound by
Gorki Águila, leader of the
electroacoustic devices; because in the sound composition of this group one can
Cuban rock band Porno
observe a novel element of great importance, the inclusion of an electric
para Ricardo
guitar.[248]

In 1961 other artists emerged such as Dany Puga, called the King of Twist, and
bands such as Los Satélites, Los Diablos Melódicos and Los Enfermos del Rock, as well as Los Halcones and
Los Huracanes from Marianao.
The vocal quartet Los Zafiros was another successful group from the beginning of the sixties. Founded in
1961, it was influenced by the doo-wop style of The Platters, The Diamonds and other American groups, and
counted on a repertoire consisting of ballads, calypsos and bossanovas, as well as songs with a slow rock ad
bolero rhythms.

At that time, the popular group Los Astros, led by the singer and guitarist Raúl Gómez, was threatened by
pressures exerted by the Fidel Castro regime over the rock groups, which were considered as a form of
"ideological diversionism" and actively opposed in all its manifesations. Its style, strongly influenced by the
British Invasion groups, as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, was labelled as "deviant" and consequently
repressed without any hesitation. Since then, the Revolutionary government of Cuba began to implement an
absolute control over all aspects of the Cuban society, including, of course, all cultural expressions.

Around 1965, the Revolutionary government implemented a strategy to substitute the foreign products that the
young people preferred, with others that better matched their official guidelines; and as a result of this strategy,
a new radio program called Nocturno was broadcast in 1966, which initial musical theme was "La chica de la
valija" (Girl with a suitcase) from the Italian sax player Fausto Papetti. The program presented modern songs,
giving priority to the European repertoire in Spanish language of soloists and groups such as: Los Mustang,
Los Bravos, Los Brincos, Juan y Junior, Rita Pavone, Massiel, Nino Bravo, Leonardo Fabio, Salvatore
Adamo and Raphael, and some Cuban groups as Los Zafiros and Los Dan.[249] The ban against rock music
was lifted in 1966, but rock fans continued to be marginalized by the communist establishment, and watched
over with suspicion as "counter-revolutionaries".[250]

Actually, rock music began to be heard in Havana during the seventies, in a radio program from Radio
Marianao called Buenas Tardes Juventud. That program presented groups such as The Rolling Stones, The
Beatles, Dave Clark Five, The Animals, Grand Funk, Rare Earth, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley,
Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka. At the beginning of the eighties, that radio station joined Radio Ciudad de La
Habana.[251]

In 1979, a three-day music festival called Havana Jam took place at the Karl Marx Theater, in Havana, Cuba,
where a group of rock artists that included Billy Joel and Stephen Stills performed.

In the 1980s, a heavy metal band called Venus was formed by Roberto Armada in Municipio Playa. They
achieved much success and created a headbanger following among the Cuban youth. Punk rock was
introduced in Cuba in the late 1980s and gained a cult-type following among a minority of the youth.

During the nineties, rock and roll in Cuba was still an underground phenomenon. In Havana, the "Ciudad de
La Habana" radio station presented several programs showing the most recent tendencies on that type of music
around the world. Juan Camacho, an old musician and radio host had a morning program called Disco
Ciudad. El programa de Ramón was also a successful radio show. Some bands from that period were Gens,
Zeus and Los Tarsons.

In 2001, the Welsh group Manic Street Preachers was invited to perform in Cuba,[252] and Fidel castro
attended its concert along with other government authorities. In 2004, Castro gave a speech honoring the
Birthday of John Lennon, whose music, as a member of The Beatles and as a soloist, was banned in Cuba for
a very long time. A bronze statue of Lennon was placed in a Havanese well known park, and it became a
notoriety because of becoming a victim of constant vandalism from passers by that frequently stole its bronze
spectacles.

At the same time that the government was showing a more indulgent attitude toward the foreign rock groups,
as part of an international campaign which purpose was to achieve an opening in the commercial transactions
and investments of the US and Europe in Cuba, it continued to implement an inflexible repression against any
form of internal dissidence. This was the case of the rocker Gorki Águila and his group Porno para Ricardo. In
August 2008, Águila was arrested under charges of dangerousness, a law that allows the authorities to detain
people whom they think are likely to commit crimes, even when they have not yet committed them.[253]

More recently, Rick Wakeman, Sepultura and Audioslave performed in Havana,[254] and The Rolling Stones
offered a historic concert that has become the most outstanding rock event since the beginning of the
Revolutionary period in 1959.[255]

A new phenomenon occurred in 2013 when several Cuban metal bands begin to emigrate to the United States,
creating a parallel scene with the bands Agonizer, Escape, Ancestor, Hipnosis, Suffering Tool and Chlover
[256]

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67. Canizares, Dulcila 1995. La trova tradicional. 2nd ed, La Habana.
68. Orovio, Helio 1995. El bolero latino. La Habana.
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gives a verse on Cola marca Palma Real
70. Orovio, Helio 2004. Cuban music from A to Z. p195.
71. de Leon, Carmela 1990. Sindo Garay: memorias de un trovador. La Habana. Garay's life story
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73. Rodrígeuz Domíngues, Ezequiel. El Trio Matamoros: trienta y cinco anos de música popular.
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75. Orovio, Helio 1992. 300 boleros de oro. Mexico City.
76. García Marcano, José Francisco 1994. Siempre bolero. Donal Guerra, Valencia.
77. Restrepo Duque, Hernán 1992. Lo que cantan los boleros. Columbia.
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79. Leon, Argeliers 1964. Musica folklorica cubana. Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, La Habana. p.
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80. Giro, Radamés: Panorama de la música popular cubana. Editorial Letras Cubanas, La
Habana, Cuba, 1998, p. 38.
81. Orovio, Helio 2004. Cuban music from A to Z. p203.
82. Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1994. Cuba canta y baila: discografía de la música cubana 1898–1925.
Fundación Musicalia, San Juan P.R. p317
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84. Giro, Radamés: Los Motivos del son. Panorama de la música popular cubana. Editorial Letras
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86. Peñalosa (2009: 83) The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins.
Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
87. Moore, R. "Afrocubanismo and Son." The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Ed.
Chomsky, Carr, and Smorkaloff. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 198. Print.
88. Acosta, Leonardo 2003. Cubano be, cubano bop: one hundred years of jazz in Cuba. Transl.
Daniel S. Whitesell. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
89. Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. Extensive
essay on Cuban jazz in vol 2, p261–269.
90. Roberts, John Storm 1979. The Latin tinge: the influence of Latin American music on the United
States. Oxford.
91. Roberts, John Storm 1999. Latin jazz: the first of the fusions, 1880s to today. Schirmer, N.Y.
92. Isabelle Leymarie 2002. Cuban fire: the story of salsa and Latin jazz. Continuum, London.
93. Schuller, Gunther 1986. Early jazz: its roots and musical development. Oxford, N.Y.
94. Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. vol 2, p.
261.
95. Orovio, Helio 1981. Diccionario de la música cubana. La Habana. p306
96. Acosta, Leonardo: Otra visión de la música popular cubana, Ediciones museo de la música,
Habana, Cuba, 2014, p. 228.
97. Fernandez, Raul A. (2006). From Afro-Cuban rhythms to Latin jazz. University of California
Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780520939448. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
98. Acosta, Leonardo (2003: 59). Cubano be, cubano bop: one hundred years of jazz in Cuba.
Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 158834147X
99. Giro, Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. Vol 1, p79.
00. Sublette, Ned: Cuba and its music. Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2004, p. 395
01. Sublette, Ned: Cuba and its music. Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2004, p. 383
02. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004. p. 63
03. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004. p. 20
04. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004, p. 168
05. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004, p. 180
06. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004, p. 17.
07. Orovio, Helio 2004. Cuban music from A to Z. p. 187
08. Lowinger, Rosa and Ofelia Fox 2005. Tropicana nights: the life and times of the legendary
Cuban nightclub. Harcourt, Orlando FL.
09. See, for example the number Llora in Memories of Cuba: Orquesta Casino de la Playa (1937-
1944) Tumbao TCD-003, and the numbers La ultima noche, Guano seco and Ten jabon in
Orlando Guerra 'Cascarita', El Guarachero, con la Orchesta Casino de la Playa. Tumbao TCD-
033.
10. Consult Tumbao TCD-006 Kuba Mambo; Tumbao TCD-010 El Barbaro del Ritmo; Tumbao
TCD-013 Go Go Mambo
11. RCA Victor LP 1459 Latin Satin: Perez Prado and his orchestra offered a number of Latin
standards in chachachá style.
12. Boadle, Anthony (2008-02-12). "Tata Güines; percussionist called 'King of the Congas' - The
Boston Globe" (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/02/12/tata_guines
_percussionist_called_king_of_the_congas/). www.boston.com. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
13. Garcia, David F. (2006). "Going Primitive to the Movements and Sounds of Mambo". The
Musical Quarterly. 89 (4): 505–523. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdm006 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmu
sqtl%2Fgdm006).
14. Orovio, Helio: Cuban music from A to Z. Tumi Music Ltd. Bath, U.K., 2004, p. 130.
15. Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal: Música cubana, del Areyto a la Nueva Trova, Ediciones Universal,
Miami Florida, 1993. p. 194.
16. Rodríguez Ruidíaz, Armando: Los sonidos de la música cubana. Evolución de los formatos
instrumentales en Cuba.
https://www.academia.edu/18302881/Los_sonidos_de_la_m%C3%BAsica_cubana._Evoluci%C
p. 49–50.
17. León, Javier F. "Mambo." Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture. Ed. Cordelia Chávez
Candelaria, Arturo J. Aldama, Peter J. García, Alma Alvarez-Smith. 2 vols. Connecticut:
Praeger, 2004: 510
18. Blatter, Alfred (2007). Revisiting music theory: a guide to the practice, p. 28. ISBN 0-415-97440-
2.
19. Orovio, Helio. 1981. Diccionario de la Música Cubana. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas.
ISBN 959-10-0048-0, p. 130
20. Sanchez-Coll, Israel (February 8, 2006). "Enrique Jorrín" (http://www.conexioncubana.net/inde
x.php?st=content&sk=view&id=1753&sitd=305). Conexión Cubana. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
21. Alén Rodríguez, Olavo. 1994. De lo Afrocubano a la Salsa. La Habana, Ediciones ARTEX.
22. Alén Rodríguez, Olavo. 1994. De lo Afrocubano a la Salsa. La Habana, Ediciones ARTEX, p.
87
23. Diaz Ayala, Cristobal 1981. Música cubana del Areyto a la Nueva Trova. 2nd rev ed,
Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. p. 257
24. Juan Formell in Padura Fuentes, Leonardo 2003. Faces of salsa: a spoken history of the
music. Translated by Stephen J. Clark. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. p. 69
25. A word coined by George Orwell, see Nineteen Eighty-Four
26. At last Cruz has been recognized in a Cuban work of reference: Giro Radamés 2007.
Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. The Cruz entry is in volume 2.
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Sources
The works below are reliable sources for all aspects of traditional Cuban popular music. Spanish titles indicate
those that have not been translated into English.

Acosta, Leonardo 1987. From the drum to the synthesiser. Martí, Havana, Cuba. Articles written
from 1976 to 1982.
Acosta, Leonardo 2003. Cubano be, cubano bop: one hundred years of jazz in Cuba. Transl.
Daniel S. Whitesell. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. Outstanding review by former conjunto
trumpeter.
Betancur Alvarez, Fabio 1993. Sin clave y bongó no hay son: música afrocubano y
confluencias musicales de Colombia y Cuba. Antioqia, Medellín, Colombia.
Blanco, Jesús 1992. 80 años del son y soneros en el Caribe. Caracas.
Brill, Mark. Music of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2nd Edition, 2018. Taylor & Francis
ISBN 1138053562
Cabrera, Lydia 1958. La sociedád secreta Abakuá. Colección del Chicerekú, La Habana.
Calderon, Jorge 1983. Maria Teresa Vera. La Habana.
Calvo Ospina, Hernando 1995. Salsa! Havana heat, Bronx beat. Latin American Bureau.
Cañizares, Dulcila 1995. La trova tradicional. 2nd ed, La Habana.
Cañizares, Dulcila 1999. Gonzalo Roig, hombre y creador.
Carpentier, Alejo 2001 [1945]. Music in Cuba. Minneapolis MN. A standard work on the history
of Cuban music up to 1940.
Chediak, Natalio 1998. Diccionario del jazz latino. Fundacion Author, Barcelona.
Collazo, Bobby 1987. La ultima noche que pase contigo: 40 anos de fanandula Cubana.
Cubanacan, Puerto Rico.
Depestre Catony, Leonardo 1989. Homenaje a la musica cubana. Oriente, Santiago de Cuba.
Biographies of Abelardo Barroso, Joseíto Fernández, Paulina Alvarez, Roberto Faz and Pacho
Alonso.
Depestre Catony, Leonardo 1990. Cuatro musicos de una villa. Letras Cubanas, La Habana.
Biographies of four musicians from Guanabacoa: Ernesto Lecuona, Rita Montaner, Bola de
Nieve and Juan Arrondo.
Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1981. Música cubana del Areyto a la Nueva Trova. 2nd rev ed,
Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. Excellent history up to the 1960s, with a chapter on Cuban music in
the US.
Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1988. Si te quieres por el pico divertir: historia del pregón musical
latinoamericano. Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. Music based on street-sellers cries; title is taken
from lyricof Peanut Vendor.
Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1994. Cuba canta y baila: discografía de la música cubana 1898–1925.
Fundación Musicalia, San Juan P.R. A vital research tool.
Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1998. Cuando sali de la Habana 1898-1997: cien anos de musica
cubana por el mundo. Cubanacan, San Juan P.R.
Failde, Osvalde Castillo 1964. Miguel Faílde: créador musical del Danzón. Consejo Nacional
de Cultura, La Habana.
Fairley, Jan. 2000. Troubadours old and new, and ¡Que rico bailo yo! How well I dance. In S.
Broughton and M. Ellingham, with J. McConnachie and O. Duane, (eds) World Music, Vol. 2:
Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific p386-413. Rough Guides, Penguin.
ISBN 1-85828-636-0
Fajardo, Ramon 1993. Rita Montaner. La Habana.
Fajardo, Ramon 1997. Rita Montaner: testimonio de una epoca. La Habana.
Fernandez Robaina, Tomas 1983. Recuerdos secretos de los mujeres publicas. La Habana.
Galan, Natalio 1983. Cuba y sus sones. Pre-Textos, Valencia.
Giro, Radamés (ed) 1993. El mambo. La Habana. Nine essays by Cuban musicians and
musicologists.
Giro, Radamés (ed) 1998. Panorama de la musica popular Cubana. Letras Cubanas, La
Habana. Reprints some important essays on Cuban popular music.
Giro, Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. 4 vols, La Habana. An
invaluable source.
Grenet, Emilio 1939. Popular Cuban music. Havana.
Leal, Rine 1986. Teatro del siglo XIX. La Habana.
Leon, Carmela de 1990. Sindo Garay: memoria de un trovador. La Habana.
Leon, Argeliers 1964. Musica folklorica cubana. Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, La Habana.
Leymarie, Isabelle (1998). Cuba: La Musique des dieux. Paris: Éditions du Layeur. ISBN 978-
2911468162.
Leymarie, Isabelle (2002). Cuban Fire: The Story of salsa and Latin jazz. New York:
Continuum. ISBN 978-0826455864.
Leymarie, Isabelle (2003). La Música cubana: Cuba. Barcelona: Océano. ISBN 978-
8449424090.
Linares, María Teresa 1970. La música popular. La Habana, Cuba. Illustrated introduction.
Linares, María Teresa 1981. La música y el pueblo. La Habana, Cuba.
Lowinger, Rosa and Ofelia Fox 2005. Tropicana nights: the life and times of the legendary
Cuban nightclub. Harcourt, Orlando FL. Fox (1924–2006) was the wife of the owner.
Loyola Fernandez, Jose 1996. El ritmo en bolero: el bolero en la musica bailable cubana.
Huracan, Rio Piedras.
Manuel, Peter (ed) 1991. Essays on Cuban music: North America and Cuban perspectives.
Lanham MD.
Manuel, Peter, with K. Bilby and M. Largey. 2006. Caribbean currents: Caribbean music from
rumba to reggae 2nd ed. Temple University. ISBN 1-59213-463-7
Martinez, Orlando 1989. Ernesto Lecuona. La Habana, Cuba.
Naser, Amín E. 1985. Benny Moré: perfil libre. La Habana, Cuba.
Orovio, Helio 1995. El bolero latino. La Habana.
Orovio, Helio 2004. Cuban music from A to Z. Revised by Sue Steward. ISBN 0-8223-3186-1 A
biographical dictionary of Cuban music, artists, composers, groups and terms. Duke University,
Durham NC; Tumi, Bath.
 Ortiz, Fernando 1950. La Afrocania de la musica folklorica de Cuba. La Habana, revised ed
1965.
Ortiz, Fernando 1951. Los bailes y el teatro de los negros en el folklore de Cuba. Letras
Cubanas, La Habana. Continuation of the previous book; contains transcriptions of percussion
innotation and lyrics of toques and cantos a los santos variously in Lucumi and Spanish.
Ortiz, Fernando 1952. Los instrumentos de la musica Afrocubana. 5 volumes, La Habana.
Padura Fuentes, Leonardo 2003. Faces of salsa: a spoken history of the music. Translated by
Stephen J. Clark. Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. Interviews with top musicians, recorded in
the 1989–1993 era.
Peñalosa, David 2009. The clave matrix; Afro-Cuban rhythm: its principles and African origins.
Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
Pérez Sanjuro, Elena 1986. Historia de la música cubana. Miami.
Perna, Vincenzo 2005. "Timba, the Sound of the Cuban Crisis". Ashgate, Aldershot, UK-
Burlington, US
Pichardo, Esteban 1835 (repr 1985). Diccionario provincial casi razionado de voces y frases
cubanos. La Habana. Includes contemporary explanations of musical and dance names.
Roberts, John Storm 1979. The Latin tinge: the impact of Latin American music on the United
States. Oxford. One of the first on this theme; still excellent.
Roberts, John Storm 1999. Latin jazz: the first of the fusions, 1880s to today. Schirmer, N.Y.
Rodríguez Ruidíaz, Armando: El origen de la música cubana. Mitos y realidades.
Academia.edu, 2015.
Rodríguez Domíngues, Ezequiel. El Trio Matamoros: trienta y cinco anos de música popular.
La Habana.
Rondon, César Miguel 2008. The book of salsa: a chronicle of urban music from the Caribbean
to New York City. University of North Carolina Press.
Roy, Maya 2002. Cuban music: from son and rumba to the Buena Vista Social Club and timba
cubana. Latin American Bureau/Wiener.
Steward, Sue 1991. Salsa: musical heartbeat of Latin America. Thames & Hudson, London.
Highly illustrated.
Sublette, Ned 2004. Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo. Chicago. ISBN 1-
55652-516-8 First of two planned volumes, covers up to March 1952.
Sweeney, Philip 2001. The Rough Guide to Cuban music: the history, the artists, the best CDs.
Rough Guides, London. Small format.
Thomas, Hugh 1971. Cuba, or the pursuit of freedom. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London. Revised
and abridged edition 2001, Picador, London. The abridged edition, a slim-line 1151 pages, has
shortened the section of Cuba's early history. The standard work in English.
Thomas, Hugh 1997. The slave trade: the history of the Atlantic slave trade 1440-1870.
Picador, London. 925 pages.
Urfé, Odilio 1965. El danzón. La Habana.

External links
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Santiago de Cuba and Son Music. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/pro
grammes/b007m6x9) Accessed November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Changai and Decimas Music. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/program
mes/b007n2d1) Accessed November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Matanzas, birthplace of rumba and danzon. (http://www.bbc.c
o.uk/programmes/b007npls) Accessed November 25, 2010.
 (in French) Audio clips: Traditional music of Cuba. (http://www.ville-ge.ch/meg/musinfo_ph.ph
p?what=pays=Cuba&debut=0&bool=AND) Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. Accessed
November 25, 2010.
The Diaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection at FIU (http://latinpop.fiu.
edu/)

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