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THE HISTORY OF SALSA History of Salsa Raíces/ Roots The history of the Latin popular music
known worldwide as “salsa” began centuries ago in the islands of the Spanish
Caribbean, in a context of slavery and colonialism. Yet, it is inextricably
tied to twentieth-century New York City and the growth of a thriving Latino
community here. Its distinctive polyrhythm and vocal and instrumental
call-and-response identify the Afro-Caribbean roots of Latin music
–traditional and contemporary, sacred and secular. The colonial Era The story of Latin popular music reveals
the triumph of the human spirit over the crushing forces of slavery and
colonialism. For centuries, men, women, and children from West and Central
Africa-the lands of the great nations of the Yoruba, Efik,
and Bantu peoples, among others-were brought in chains to Cuba, Puerto Rico
and Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Thrown into encounters
with diverse and heretofore unknown African, European, and indigenous peoples
and cultures, they carved out ways to ensure their own survival and that of
their cultural expressions. Though plantation life was harsh under Spanish
rule, it allowed for the establishment of sacred and secular cultural
institutions, such as religious houses and brotherhoods, in which tradition
could be maintained and adapted and new traditions created. “Cimarron”
(escaped slave) communities also provided a context for the preservation of
traditional musical forms. By the late nineteenth century, slavery
had come to an end throughout the Caribbean region. The euphoria of freedom
soon gave way to the reality of making a new life in the midst of economic
and political upheaval. The Spanish American war of 1898 resulted in the end
of Spanish colonial rule and the emergence of the United States as the
dominant imperial power in the region. With the transformation of plantation
economies into agribusiness, displaced agricultural workers migrated from
countryside into town, and from island to island. Blacks, whites, and “criollos” arrived in Havana, bringing the rhythms of
“Rumba” and “Changui”. To San Juan they brought “Bomba” and “Seis”, and to Santo
Domingo, “Merengue” and “Carabiné”. Transplanted and transformed in the
urban settings, these and other sounds and styles were selectively brought to
New York City in successive migrations. New York City beginnings While Puerto Rican settlement in New
York began before 1898, migration increased once the island came under USA
control. The first Puerto Rican “colonia”
(neighborhood) developed in the area around the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By 1917,
when the Jones Act made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens, east Harlem’s “El
Barrio” had become the “colonia” of choice for new
arrivals. An unforeseen result of citizenship was the earliest collaboration
between African-American and Puerto Rican musicians and the earliest
documented presence of Puerto Rican musicians in New York City, brought about
by James Reese Europe (1881-1919), founder of the first booking agency for
African-American musicians and director of the first African-American band to
play in the Carnegie Hall. With the outbreak of World War I, Europe
enlisted in a black regiment of New York National Guard. When asked to
organize “the best damn brass band in the United States Army”, Europe
traveled to Puerto Rico to audition Island black musicians trained in
municipal bands. The eighteenth men recruited included Rafael Hernández
(1891-1965), who was to become one of Puerto Rico’s most famous and beloved
composers. Europe’s band (later known as the 369th infantry
“Harlem Hellfighters” band) is credited with
introducing European audiences to Jazz. Back in New York City, its Puerto
Rican members were the first Latinos to record and perform with
African-American jazz in the city’s clubs and theater orchestras.
Other Island musicians and workers
quickly followed, as the interwar decades saw continued economic hardship in
the Caribbean and the rise of employment opportunities in New York City.
Latino communities in New York supported dozens of Spanish-language theaters,
dance, halls, nightclubs, social clubs, and music stores, all which fostered
the development of a dynamic New York Latin music scene. Latin music goes mainstream From 1900 into the 1950s, popular stage,
recording, film and broadcast media as well as Tin Pan Alley –the New York
shorthand for publishers of popular sheet music- responded to the vibrant
energy of Latin music. The introduction of the tango in stage and silent film
production in 1931 gave rise to the popular image of the “Latin Lover”. New
York publishers issued songs that became standards, such as Ernesto Lecuona’s “Siboney”
(1929). Latin music and dance grew steady in
popularity during the interwar period. American tourists who flocked to the
hotels and casinos of Havana in the 1920’s heard a new music called Son. In
1930, Don Azpiazu’s Havana casino Orchestra played Son
and other Cuban dance music at New York’s Palace Theater, and introduced the
classic “manicero” (The Peanut Vendor), which
became a national hit. Under the gender of rumba, son became a
national social dance craze. Spanish-born, Havana raised Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) and his orchestra opened the new
Waldorf Astoria and became the hotel’s resident group, playing a mix of Latin
and other popular tunes there from 1932 to 1947, mellowed for a broader
American audience. The stage was set for the transition from son to salsa.
By the mid-1930’s American nightclubs
were featuring the conga, a Cuban carnival tradition, and many
Broadway musicals included Latin numbers. In 1939, two key Latino
entertainers appeared on the New York stage, Brazilian singer-dancer Carmen
Miranda (1909-1955) singing “South-American Way” in the Abbott and Costello
revue On the streets of Paris, and Cuban-born Desi
Arnaz (1917-1986) as a conga playing football
player in the Rodgers and Hart musical Too many girls. Cugat, Miranda, and Arnaz
were among the many Latinos entertainers featured in Hollywood musicals with
“south of the border” themes during the 1940’s. Teamed with Lucille Ball, Arnaz created the long running television comedy I Love
Lucy. Featuring Arnaz’s character, New York based
Latin band leader Ricky Ricardo, the show brought Latino music into homes
nationwide beginning in 1951 and helped make mambo and cha-cha-cha
the dance crazes of the 1950’s. Latin + Jazz = the New York Sound As El Rey Tito Puente (1923-2000)
said, Latin Jazz is a marriage between Latin rhythms and Jazz harmonies. The
connection that began with African-American and Puerto Rican members of James
Reese Europe’s military band went on to forge a true New York sound. Seminal
figures included Afro-Cuban Alberto Socarras, one
of the first Cubans to play in a jazz band, and Mario Bauza,
who played with both Latin and jazz groups. Bauza’s
friendship with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993), which began when both
played trumpet in Cab Calloway’s band, profoundly influenced both jazz and
Latin music. In 1940, Bauza and his brother-in-law
Frank Grillo, “Machito”
(1909-1984) formed Machito and his Afro-Cubans, the
first group to incorporate African-American jazz musicians, harmonies, and
concepts into Latin music. In 1947-1948, Gillespie collaborated with Cuban
percussionist Chano Pozo
(1915-1948), marking the first genuine synthesis of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz. By 1952, New York’s Palledium
Ballroom at Broadway and 53rd Street has become the American
center of the mambo dance craze, followed in 1954 by the cha-cha-cha.
Created as an instrumental form in Cuba by Orestes and Israel “Cachao” López and Arsenio Rodríguez, mambo was popularized in the
United States by Pérez Prado. Cha-cha-cha was the invention of Enrique Jorrín as a form of both dance and music. These dance
forms brought “The Big Three” – Machito, Tito
Puente and Tito Rodríguez (1923-1973) – International renown. And then they called “Salsa” The musical excitement of the 1950’s
flowed into the 1960’s. Alegre, the first
Latino owned record label to record the “new” New York sound, rose to
prominence. Charanga dance ensembles, with
their distinctive string and flute sound, challenged the popularity of the
mambo bands. Spearheaded by Dominican-born flutist Johnny Pacheco
(b.1935), pachanga became a hot dance fad.
Eddie Palmieri (b.1936) with Barry Rogers
(1935-1991), Ray Barreto (b.1929), and Larry Harlow,
developed innovative ensemble formats. Younger barrio musicians such
as Joe Cuba, Johnny Colon, and Pete “Conde”
Rodriguez created Latin bugalú, the first
combination of rhythm and blues and Latin music. The Lebrón
Brothers, Willie Colon (b.1950), and Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993) followed suit and moved into a
hard-edged, urban sound. Following the Cuban revolution, the
United States ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. This action cut
off the flow of music and musicians that had inspired the New York scene for
decades. Four years later, immigration policy changes opened the door to
migrations from previously excluded countries. Along with other demographic
shifts, these two events altered the course of Latin music in ways that
defined it even more sharply as a New York phenomenon. By the late 1960’s,
the Dominican community had burgeoned, and rhythms such as the Dominican merengue,
Colombia cumbia, and Puerto Rican plena
and jibaro styles had become part of the New
York music scene. By the early 1970’s music once
identified by specific forms and styles was clustered together under the salsa
rubric. The tag gained commercial currency after “Fania”
Records- the most influential record label in the field- adopted it to
describe the New York music label produced. The name may have been new, but
the sound of salsa is rooted in the rich mix of cultures, races and rhythms
that is New York Latin music. -
What separates Salsa Kings from the competition? -
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