Jazz In America
“Jazz In America:
Influence of African and Spanish Rhythms”
Introduction: By Ernesto R. Pichardo ©2002
At the height of its popularity Jazz in America began to become influenced by Cuban music. Cuban music was born from the merging of the European and African cultures that made up the island. Although the main European influence is of the ancestry of Spain, both French and Italian music were influential in the 19th century and these musical influences were shared. Cuban music, more so than the music of other Latin-American countries, represents a more balanced merger of African and Spanish traditions. Other Latin-American countries have a distinct Amerindian tradition. This was not possible in Cuba because Cuba’s indigenous tribes were virtually wiped out by European disease early in the island’s colonization. Thus the African traditions took their place. The historical, economic and religious forces of the time allowed for the survival of traceable African traditions. They were well documented by the Spanish authorities, down to the geographic/ethnic origins of slaves purchased.
The Slave Trade
The history of the island of Cuba, since its discovery, was rooted in the political and economic needs of the colonizing Spaniards and others who utilized the island for trade and products. The economy of the island was, until the end of the 18th century – concerned mainly with the raising of cattle and the cultivation of tobacco. The introduction of sugar as a crop during the beginning of the 19th century created a demand for African slaves that transformed the island into a plantation economy. Although slaves had been introduced into Cuba from Spain and Portugal in the 16th century, the cultivation of sugar exponentially increased the demand for slaves. It is estimated that almost 400,000 slaves were brought to Cuba from West Africa from approximately 1835 until 1864, with slaves making up over 40% of the total Cuban population by 1841. With them they carried their rich musical tradition growing out of the cultures and religions of their homelands. Many of the captives sold as slaves came from the area now known as West Africa, during a time of inter-tribal wars (such as the Yoruba-Dahomey conflicts) that supplied prisoners of war to the slave traders (Marks).
The African slave trade to Cuba began early in the 1440's and lasted longer than in the rest of the Americas/Caribbean. Although records show that people of over 100 different African ethnic backgrounds came to Cuba as slaves, the four major ethnic groups were: Bantu, Yoruba Ibo, Ibibio & Ijaw and Ewe/Fon. The number of slaves brought to Cuba (and having survived the trip) was approximately 1.3 million or about 1/10th of all slaves brought to the Americas (Lopes). (Appendix # 2)
The Development of Afro-Cuban Culture
Cuba was, by the 1850’s, coveted by the United States, which wanted to annex Cuba. The Cuban sugar planters, who heralded this as a way to protect slavery and their prosperity, supported the idea. On the other hand, Great Britain had recently freed the slaves on its Caribbean colonies and saw emancipation in Cuba as a way to level the economic playing field by driving up the cost of producing sugar in Cuba and thereby increasing the competitive ability of Britain. In the face of these challenges, Spain reacted by abolishing the slave trade to Cuba and freeing all slaves imported to Cuba after 1835. Also permitted was intermarriage between the races and the importation of non-slave black labor to Cuba. This paved the way for Afro-Cuban culture. (Starr 172)
Throughout this entire period the Catholic Church, who considered slaves to be humans, allowed slaves to interact together by participating in mutual aid societies called Cabildos. These societies eventually included both free and enslaved blacks and their descendants all of whom came from the same ethnic areas within Africa. The renowned Cuban researcher, Fernando Ortiz, identified 14 different “nations” that preserved their identity solely through the Cabildos. After Emancipation in 1886, the Catholic Church required the Cabildos to adopt the name of a Catholic patron saint. It is within these church sponsored organizations that African based religion and traditions survived. The Cabildos were mostly an urban phenomena. In the rural areas the sugar estates (or Ingenios or Centrales) also became the centers of specific African “nations” because they were mostly self-contained industrial townships rather than plantations (Ortiz). In both of these communities Africans were allowed to play their own music freely and hence their musical tradition was not lost.
A still dominant example of cultural survival is the Regla Lukumi religion, also referred to as Regla de Ocha or Santeria (there is currently an ongoing debate on the anthropological semantics used in the naming of this religion and its followers), which can be primarily traced to the Yoruba traditions. In Lukumi there is an all-powerful God, Olodumare, along with a set of deities each of which represent a different section of nature and society. In traditional Yoruba culture, each family worshiped a particular deity, such as Shango, the god of War and Fire. With the transfer to the New World, the worship of multiple gods called Orisha was merged into a religious tradition. Each of the African Orisha became identified with a Catholic Saint, much in the same way as the Cabildos adopted a patron saint. The worship itself remained essentially African in nature (Wippler __). The traditional instruments, music and singing of the ritual chants are an essential element in the Lukumi worship, sung in archaic Yoruba and Yoruba/Spanish (Cabrera).
Early Afro-Cuban Music
Several of the surviving “nations” had major impacts on the development of Cuban music. Each of these had different styles and drum patterns, mostly based in religious ceremonies. The ones that had the most influence can be broken into four groups which come from the same geographic regions.
Yoruba Traditions
Yoruba ceremonies in Africa today still include a variety of instruments. The most sacred of these instruments are the Bata drums. These are trio of sacred drums which are ritually consecrated (they are known as fundamento or foundation) and are believed to contain an inner deity or sacredness called ana. The Bata drums are played at many ceremonies such as initiation rights, funerals, celebrations, and anniversaries of initiations, among many others. Bata drums are shaped in the form of a double-headed cylinder (Illustration #1) and are held horizontally by the drummers in their laps and struck on both heads. There is a master drum called the Iya and then the itotele drum that follows the rhythmic patterns of the master drum, the third is the okonkolo drum that plays different phrases (Ortiz). The drums can be played with singing and dancing to accompany them, such as in celebrations, and they can also be played alone in ceremonial mode. Along with the Bata, the ensembles often contain beaded gourds called chekere (Marks) and other drums. Some of these having a different drumming form that survived such as the Iyesa drums, which are thought to be of Yoruba ancestry and are played with sticks usually in groups of three or four, and with more unified rhythmic patterns than the Bata. They are often accompanied by two dance gongs of different pitches called agogo (Marks). Yoruba music is usually slower and more ceremonial whether or not it is being played.
Ewe/Fon (Arara) Traditions
The instruments and music heritage of the Dahomean (Benin Republic) slaves brought to Cuba has a distinct style of drumming played on four drums. The master drum is called the junga and is played with both the palm of the hand and with a stick. Two drums support the master: the junguede and the juncito both played with sticks and play different rhythms. The fourth drum is called the jun and follows the rhythm of the juncito drum. Additional instruments include the ogan which is a hoe blade that is played with a piece of metal and a pair of metal rattles called cheres as well as the use of claps and body percussion (Marks). The Arara in Cuba eventually began assimilated into the Yoruba culture. This is because the religion of the Arara is as similar to Lukumi as the Greek Gods were to the Roman Gods. In fact, one of the Lukumi deities, Asoyin, is said to originally come from the Arara region by the Lukumi themselves. Ironically, it was the Ewe and Fon who, during an inter-tribal war, captured the Yoruba who were eventually shipped to Cuba.
Abakua Traditions
The Abakua tradition in Cuba refers to those slaves brought to Cuba from Cameroon and parts of Nigeria know as Carabali or Brikao including the Ibo and Ibibio. These cultures established a leopard secret society, called Ngbe, with their first lodge (potencia) opening in the port town of Regla (across the bay from Havana) in 1835. These secret societies were often found in Africa. They are similar to religions in terms of practice, but are actually not religions. One could compare them to the Stonecutters in the popular cartoon “The Simpsons.” Only the members of the secret society are allowed to know anything about its origin and practices. One of the traditional symbols of Afro-Cuban folklore is the “ireme” or the leopard-masker of the society (Illustration # 2). The Abakua have different songs for almost every ritual performed in their society. The traditional song leader is called a Morua. He sings in a leader-chorus alternation and instruments included in their musical ensemble (called a biankomeko) are four drums, basket rattles (erikunde), dance gongs (ekon) and two sticks that are beaten one of the drums for additional rhythms (Ortiz).
Congo Tradition
The Cuban Kongo or Congo musical tradition encompasses a vast array of peoples and ethnic designations with some more dominant clans such as Mayombe giving their name to the Cuban-Kongo religion called Palo Mayombe (also known as Regla de Congo or Palo Monte). The initiation ceremony or juramento includes singing and drumming as part of the ritual exercise, and a common element of worship seems to be the Nkisi or Nganga which is a sacred containing the concentrated forces of nature and of certain spirits. Palo Mayombe or Congo songs are played on three drums called ngoma accompanied by a huataca or metal hoe called and Ngongi and rattles called nkembi. The song leader is called a “gallo” (rooster) in Spanish and insunsu in Kongo and the chorus is called vasallo or muanan. Many forms of Cuban music have strong elements of Congo tradition and references such as the rumba and the traditional carnaval music such as the Conga (Marks). The most common drums used in Kongo music are the yuka drums. This set of three drums takes four drummers to play since the master drum, the caja, requires one person to hold the drum and hit the base while a second uses a pair of sticks to strike the body of the drum (Ortiz). The music of the Kongo is much less complicated than that of the Lukumi and the Arara styles. This simplicity and more structured repetitions along with its faster, more upbeat rhythms made Kongo music extremely danceable.
The Birth of “Cuban”
Music As time progressed many different styles were merged with African drum beats spawning new musical styles which then went on to blend with each other to form all new styles. The outcome of these mergers were very complex and hard to trace African influences in most, if not all, Cuban popular musical styles. It is so complex that Fernando Ortiz needed a ten-volume work just to trace the cultural origins of the African instruments being used in the popular music of time. Several different dozen musical styles were the outcome. To this day, no book has come close to the work done by Ortiz.
Contradanza
One of the first styles of music that was born out of this blend was the Habanera (Roberts 4). The Habanera’s predecessor was the Contradanza, the Spanish version of a country line dance thought to originate in England. By the early part of the 19th century, the contradanza was well established in Cuba along with its French counterpart the contredanse. It soon took on African elements. African musicians began to play the Contradanza, according to Cuban historian Alejo Carpentier, with a certain “lift” or “swing” and then they included the traditional African call and response pattern. This Africanized European dance became popular and was called the contradanza habanera its name was abbreviated and is now known as simply the habanera (Roberts 6). An example is the 1856 contradanza called “Tu Madre es Conga” (your mother is Congolese) which featured a held first note similar to the Afro-Cuban conga. The habanera form of was identified by Cuban musical historian, Emilio Grenet, as being “perhaps the most universal of our musical genres.” It eventually became the root of the Argentine tango along with affecting American Jazz.
Another descendant of the Contradanza was the Danzon, a couples dance from the 1870's that was traditionally played by orchestras tipicas (bands that were led by cornets and supported by clarinets and trombones) and typically performed outdoors in town plazas. (Storm Roberts 8). The same dances performed in indoor venues with violins backing a flute lead were known as charangas francesas. The chachacha in turn is claimed to be a descendant of the Danzon (Roberts 10).
Rumba
Rumba stems from the Spanish mainland (Flamenco Rumbas). Its Afro-Cuban counterparts are associated with dances from three divisions that were born out rhythms played on yuka drums of Kongo origins, and following song patterns of leader and chorus in the style of the “gallo and vasallo” (Cabrera). Cuban Historian Lydia Cabrera identifies three varieties that differ in vocal style, choreography and instrumentation: the yambu, the guaguanco and the columbia. The yambu has a slow tempo with dancing mimicking old age. The guaguanco is a more urban rumba with a Spanish flourish as the opening segment, followed by a chorus with a repeated refrain where the dancing is enlivened and flourished with pelvic movements. The columbia is of rural origins and is traditionally a male solo dance featuring acrobatic and complex movements (Marks).
Carnaval
The Carnaval tradition in Cuba started in Santiago de Cuba where the Cabildos and other associations took to the streets in the months of June and July for masked celebrations during St. Johns’ Day and St. Ann’s day. The Havana version was celebrated on the day of Epiphany with both urban and rural celebrations taking advantage of Catholic holidays to celebrate in African tradition (Marks).
Carnaval with time expanded from the traditional dance groups to include celebrities and floats but demonstrated a strong base of the African ancestry which can be seen to date. In post-revolutionary Cuba, the Catholic dates of St. Ann’s have been replaced by commemoration of the day of July 27th 1953 when Fidel Castro and his troops attacked the Moncada barracks in Santiago during a Carnaval celebration. This date, which was a turning point in Castro’s regime, now commemorates both the political date and Carnaval (Marks).
The music of Carnaval includes distinct styles with their own history and origins. The cabildo associations on parade dance to the Abakua rhythms played with iron gongs parade drums and rattles. The Comparsa (or congas) parade with hand drums, parade drums, gongs and brake drums played with iron rods and sometimes incorporate an interesting instrument called the “Chinese trumpet” which reputedly was introduced to Cuba in the 19th century by Chinese laborers. In China, this instrument is known as the sona, which is derived from the surnai of Indian and Turkestan origins. The comparsa dancers which include couples and line dancers, perform elaborate routines (Marks).
Son
The son began in rural Cuba and has been described as the first rhythm invented by Cubans (Marks). I was invented by the guajiros (cowboys) of the Cuban farms and mountainous regions. Upon its arrival in Havana in the 1920's it was performed with a tres (a nine stringed small guitar) and a marimblua (a bass instruments originating from the African finger piano), along with bongos, maracas, claves, and later on the trumpet (Storm Roberts 7).
Influence on the US and on American Jazz
One of the earliest examples of the influence of Cuban music in the United States is the music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who made ample use of Cuban elements in his compositions. Gottschalk, a contemporary of Chopin, was a piano virtuoso who visited Cuba in 1854 for professional and health reasons (recuperating from malaria at a plantation where he recorded in his diary his interpretations of the slave’s singing). Within a month of his return to the US he had composed a piece called “El Cocoye” based on an Afro-Cuban dance. He went on to compose several Afro-Cuban influenced pieces and returned several times to Cuba to visit and perform. (Roberts 28) One of his short piano pieces “Ojos Criollos” (Creole eyes) demonstrates a mix of the Habanera rhythm with that of the black US cakewalk which was the basis of ragtime, with this piece having been written 40 years before the ragtime became popular (Storm Roberts 30). Ragtime then became one of the styles which became Jazz. Hence, from the start, Cuban music was influencing the base of Jazz.
The influence of Cuban music on Jazz commenced as black musicians came in contact with Cuban music and musicians. In the 1930’s the first appearance of authentic Cuban dance music was played on Broadway at New York’s Palace Theater, with the appearance of Don Azapiazu’s Casino Orchestra with authentic Cuban instruments and dancers (first exhibition rumba in the U.S.). They introduced what was to become one of the most well know Cuban song in the US: The Peanut Vendor (El Manicero), which was recorded and released that year and promoted in a syndicated column by the then famous American humorist Will Rogers. The success of the Peanut Vendor (Carpentier) led to other Cuban dance tunes and ballads becoming popular. Other popular promoters of Cuban music included Desi Arnaz, whose television show “I Love Lucy” popularized the “Conga” dance (a long line of dancers swaying with a kick on the fourth beat) and the Lukumi chant to Babalu Aye (Roberts 87).
The 1930's, 40's, 50's and Beyond – From Cuba to the U.S.
The 1930s through the 1950's brought an evolution of traditional styles into more modern ensembles. Early in this time a type of band called a conjunto evolved from the carnaval parade groups. These incorporated voices, conga drums and trumpets along with piano and bass when played indoors. One of the most influential of the conjunto musicians was a blind Afro-Cuban percussionist called Arsenio Rodriguez. He blended the Abakua Carnaval with the music of the Kongo and brought the “Mambo” rhythm into the Cuban dance halls (Roberts 9). Also credited by some as the originator of the mambo is the renowned Cuban bass player Israel “Cachao” Lopez he brought the Mambo through a danzon-mambo mix (Roberts 9). The makeup of the instrumentation in Cuban bands evolved and changed over the times with style variations developed by adding or deleting instruments such as the early ensemble groups with string quartets and trumpet led septets that performed in the 1930's. Later evolutions included the orchestras of the Havana hotels, the trumpet and percussion bands also called conjuntos and the charanga bands based on flutes and fiddles (Roberts 8).
Cuba in the 1940's and 1950's was intrinsically connected with US culture and popular trends. Its proximity to the mainland US (via ferry from Key West) made travel back and forth easy, and the island’s bustling economy and tourism industry, with US backed Casinos and Hotel Chains (such as the Hilton), made for both a cultural and a musical exchange that influenced both irrevocably. The 1940's also increased the popularity of the mambo and the brought the beginning of Latin Jazz.
At the time Cuban groups were expected to play only Cuban music and not play American Jazz. On May 28, 1943 the Machito Orquesta while playing a concert at La Conga Club in Manhattan made a mistake. The musical director, Maurio Bauza, called out the next song to be played but there was some confusion and the piano player began to play the descarga tune “El Botellero” quickly the bassist began to improvise a tune. Bauza then quickly started the rest of the band into the next tune. The next day, in the presence of Jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, Bauza had the piano and bassist replay what they had originally played and instructed the trumpets and saxophones to play a Jazzy melody. The result was the first Afro-Cuban Jazz song, Tanga (slang for marijuana) (Salazar). Each following performance of Tanga was slightly different. One of these versions had a Be-Bop feel to it and created the genre of Cu-Bop.
Dizzy Gillespie had a fascination with the Latin music which stemmed from his days as the trumpet partner of Mario Bauza in Cab Calloways band years before. After witnessing the birth of Cu-Bop he captured the sound for himself. On September 1947 Gillespies new band gave a concert at Carnegie Hall that gave Cubop a place among avant-garde jazz (Roberts 116). An interesting jazz example is a 1948 live recording of the song “Manteca” by Dizzy Gillespies’ band at a Jazz club in Manhattan. Dizzy’s conga player, Chano Pozo, was a member of the Abakua secret society. In this recording, Chano Pozo, during a long drum solo, breaks out into a passage in the Congo tradition which is answered by the band in a traditional African pattern (Marks). Many other famous jazz artists in America caught and played their own songs. These include Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon just to name a few that played with Machito’s Orquesta (Salazar).
In the 1950's the Mambo rhythm popular in the 30's made a comeback with the New York creation of Big Band Mambo, described as a “rumba with jitterbug. Artists such as Jose Curbelo, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez helped drive the hybridization process that developed the Big-Band Mambo. The Puerto Rican born Tito Puente later on became known (in what started as a publicity gimmick) as the “King of the Mambo,” and he certainly helped bring it to a peak. The Cuban popularizer of the Mambo, Perez Prado (author of the famous Mambo #5), though famous in Cuba, never gained great popularity in the New York limelight (Roberts 126).
The 1950's unfortunately brought a gradual decline of Cuban/Latin music in the US started during the late 1950’s. Ironically, one reason for the decline is attributed to the success of the chachacha. The chachacha, originally born of the Cuban charangas bands, was made famous by one of the greatest bands of the genre: the Orquesta Aragon. It swept through Cuba in 1953 and its music was catchy and easier to dance than the Afro-Cuban Mambo. When it arrived in the U.S. in 1954 it was immediately successful but its simplicity made it a fast burned out novelty as it became further and further commercialized (Roberts 132-133). The other significant factor was the rise of Rock and Roll music. Added to this mix was the rise to power of Fidel Castro and his communist government, essentially cutting off tourism and travel (including musical exchanges) between Cuba and the US.
Conclusion
Cuban music has had a definite influence on the U.S. musical world, as evidenced by Jazz and Latin-Jazz traditions and recordings. The proximity of Cuba to America and the influx of Cuban musicians in U.S. bands in the 30's-50's lay the ground work for a definitive impression including separate genres such as Cu-Bop. The Cuban Revolution and the consequent embargo artificially cut off that exchange in the 1960's through today. However, the Cuban musical tradition has made a sufficient impact to continue to thrive especially in the Jazz world and with the synergies of other Latin-American countries such as Puerto Rico. In Cuba today the Afro-Cuban music continues to thrive and grow. Recently there has been an effort to look back at the roots of Afro-Cuban music and blend it with more modern styles. Such as the “Orishas,” a group which blends the traditional Yoruba rhythms with modern Hip-Hop music. The now famous recording of bands such as the “Buena-Vista Social Club” and “Compay Segundo” are evidence that the early Cuban traditional music has continued to survive under the current government sanctions. One can only imagine the impact of Cuban music had not occurred and the free exchange of music would have continued to occur between the Island and the Americas.
Introduction: By Ernesto R. Pichardo ©2002
At the height of its popularity Jazz in America began to become influenced by Cuban music. Cuban music was born from the merging of the European and African cultures that made up the island. Although the main European influence is of the ancestry of Spain, both French and Italian music were influential in the 19th century and these musical influences were shared. Cuban music, more so than the music of other Latin-American countries, represents a more balanced merger of African and Spanish traditions. Other Latin-American countries have a distinct Amerindian tradition. This was not possible in Cuba because Cuba’s indigenous tribes were virtually wiped out by European disease early in the island’s colonization. Thus the African traditions took their place. The historical, economic and religious forces of the time allowed for the survival of traceable African traditions. They were well documented by the Spanish authorities, down to the geographic/ethnic origins of slaves purchased.
The Slave Trade
The history of the island of Cuba, since its discovery, was rooted in the political and economic needs of the colonizing Spaniards and others who utilized the island for trade and products. The economy of the island was, until the end of the 18th century – concerned mainly with the raising of cattle and the cultivation of tobacco. The introduction of sugar as a crop during the beginning of the 19th century created a demand for African slaves that transformed the island into a plantation economy. Although slaves had been introduced into Cuba from Spain and Portugal in the 16th century, the cultivation of sugar exponentially increased the demand for slaves. It is estimated that almost 400,000 slaves were brought to Cuba from West Africa from approximately 1835 until 1864, with slaves making up over 40% of the total Cuban population by 1841. With them they carried their rich musical tradition growing out of the cultures and religions of their homelands. Many of the captives sold as slaves came from the area now known as West Africa, during a time of inter-tribal wars (such as the Yoruba-Dahomey conflicts) that supplied prisoners of war to the slave traders (Marks).
The African slave trade to Cuba began early in the 1440's and lasted longer than in the rest of the Americas/Caribbean. Although records show that people of over 100 different African ethnic backgrounds came to Cuba as slaves, the four major ethnic groups were: Bantu, Yoruba Ibo, Ibibio & Ijaw and Ewe/Fon. The number of slaves brought to Cuba (and having survived the trip) was approximately 1.3 million or about 1/10th of all slaves brought to the Americas (Lopes). (Appendix # 2)
The Development of Afro-Cuban Culture
Cuba was, by the 1850’s, coveted by the United States, which wanted to annex Cuba. The Cuban sugar planters, who heralded this as a way to protect slavery and their prosperity, supported the idea. On the other hand, Great Britain had recently freed the slaves on its Caribbean colonies and saw emancipation in Cuba as a way to level the economic playing field by driving up the cost of producing sugar in Cuba and thereby increasing the competitive ability of Britain. In the face of these challenges, Spain reacted by abolishing the slave trade to Cuba and freeing all slaves imported to Cuba after 1835. Also permitted was intermarriage between the races and the importation of non-slave black labor to Cuba. This paved the way for Afro-Cuban culture. (Starr 172)
Throughout this entire period the Catholic Church, who considered slaves to be humans, allowed slaves to interact together by participating in mutual aid societies called Cabildos. These societies eventually included both free and enslaved blacks and their descendants all of whom came from the same ethnic areas within Africa. The renowned Cuban researcher, Fernando Ortiz, identified 14 different “nations” that preserved their identity solely through the Cabildos. After Emancipation in 1886, the Catholic Church required the Cabildos to adopt the name of a Catholic patron saint. It is within these church sponsored organizations that African based religion and traditions survived. The Cabildos were mostly an urban phenomena. In the rural areas the sugar estates (or Ingenios or Centrales) also became the centers of specific African “nations” because they were mostly self-contained industrial townships rather than plantations (Ortiz). In both of these communities Africans were allowed to play their own music freely and hence their musical tradition was not lost.
A still dominant example of cultural survival is the Regla Lukumi religion, also referred to as Regla de Ocha or Santeria (there is currently an ongoing debate on the anthropological semantics used in the naming of this religion and its followers), which can be primarily traced to the Yoruba traditions. In Lukumi there is an all-powerful God, Olodumare, along with a set of deities each of which represent a different section of nature and society. In traditional Yoruba culture, each family worshiped a particular deity, such as Shango, the god of War and Fire. With the transfer to the New World, the worship of multiple gods called Orisha was merged into a religious tradition. Each of the African Orisha became identified with a Catholic Saint, much in the same way as the Cabildos adopted a patron saint. The worship itself remained essentially African in nature (Wippler __). The traditional instruments, music and singing of the ritual chants are an essential element in the Lukumi worship, sung in archaic Yoruba and Yoruba/Spanish (Cabrera).
Early Afro-Cuban Music
Several of the surviving “nations” had major impacts on the development of Cuban music. Each of these had different styles and drum patterns, mostly based in religious ceremonies. The ones that had the most influence can be broken into four groups which come from the same geographic regions.
Yoruba Traditions
Yoruba ceremonies in Africa today still include a variety of instruments. The most sacred of these instruments are the Bata drums. These are trio of sacred drums which are ritually consecrated (they are known as fundamento or foundation) and are believed to contain an inner deity or sacredness called ana. The Bata drums are played at many ceremonies such as initiation rights, funerals, celebrations, and anniversaries of initiations, among many others. Bata drums are shaped in the form of a double-headed cylinder (Illustration #1) and are held horizontally by the drummers in their laps and struck on both heads. There is a master drum called the Iya and then the itotele drum that follows the rhythmic patterns of the master drum, the third is the okonkolo drum that plays different phrases (Ortiz). The drums can be played with singing and dancing to accompany them, such as in celebrations, and they can also be played alone in ceremonial mode. Along with the Bata, the ensembles often contain beaded gourds called chekere (Marks) and other drums. Some of these having a different drumming form that survived such as the Iyesa drums, which are thought to be of Yoruba ancestry and are played with sticks usually in groups of three or four, and with more unified rhythmic patterns than the Bata. They are often accompanied by two dance gongs of different pitches called agogo (Marks). Yoruba music is usually slower and more ceremonial whether or not it is being played.
Ewe/Fon (Arara) Traditions
The instruments and music heritage of the Dahomean (Benin Republic) slaves brought to Cuba has a distinct style of drumming played on four drums. The master drum is called the junga and is played with both the palm of the hand and with a stick. Two drums support the master: the junguede and the juncito both played with sticks and play different rhythms. The fourth drum is called the jun and follows the rhythm of the juncito drum. Additional instruments include the ogan which is a hoe blade that is played with a piece of metal and a pair of metal rattles called cheres as well as the use of claps and body percussion (Marks). The Arara in Cuba eventually began assimilated into the Yoruba culture. This is because the religion of the Arara is as similar to Lukumi as the Greek Gods were to the Roman Gods. In fact, one of the Lukumi deities, Asoyin, is said to originally come from the Arara region by the Lukumi themselves. Ironically, it was the Ewe and Fon who, during an inter-tribal war, captured the Yoruba who were eventually shipped to Cuba.
Abakua Traditions
The Abakua tradition in Cuba refers to those slaves brought to Cuba from Cameroon and parts of Nigeria know as Carabali or Brikao including the Ibo and Ibibio. These cultures established a leopard secret society, called Ngbe, with their first lodge (potencia) opening in the port town of Regla (across the bay from Havana) in 1835. These secret societies were often found in Africa. They are similar to religions in terms of practice, but are actually not religions. One could compare them to the Stonecutters in the popular cartoon “The Simpsons.” Only the members of the secret society are allowed to know anything about its origin and practices. One of the traditional symbols of Afro-Cuban folklore is the “ireme” or the leopard-masker of the society (Illustration # 2). The Abakua have different songs for almost every ritual performed in their society. The traditional song leader is called a Morua. He sings in a leader-chorus alternation and instruments included in their musical ensemble (called a biankomeko) are four drums, basket rattles (erikunde), dance gongs (ekon) and two sticks that are beaten one of the drums for additional rhythms (Ortiz).
Congo Tradition
The Cuban Kongo or Congo musical tradition encompasses a vast array of peoples and ethnic designations with some more dominant clans such as Mayombe giving their name to the Cuban-Kongo religion called Palo Mayombe (also known as Regla de Congo or Palo Monte). The initiation ceremony or juramento includes singing and drumming as part of the ritual exercise, and a common element of worship seems to be the Nkisi or Nganga which is a sacred containing the concentrated forces of nature and of certain spirits. Palo Mayombe or Congo songs are played on three drums called ngoma accompanied by a huataca or metal hoe called and Ngongi and rattles called nkembi. The song leader is called a “gallo” (rooster) in Spanish and insunsu in Kongo and the chorus is called vasallo or muanan. Many forms of Cuban music have strong elements of Congo tradition and references such as the rumba and the traditional carnaval music such as the Conga (Marks). The most common drums used in Kongo music are the yuka drums. This set of three drums takes four drummers to play since the master drum, the caja, requires one person to hold the drum and hit the base while a second uses a pair of sticks to strike the body of the drum (Ortiz). The music of the Kongo is much less complicated than that of the Lukumi and the Arara styles. This simplicity and more structured repetitions along with its faster, more upbeat rhythms made Kongo music extremely danceable.
The Birth of “Cuban”
Music As time progressed many different styles were merged with African drum beats spawning new musical styles which then went on to blend with each other to form all new styles. The outcome of these mergers were very complex and hard to trace African influences in most, if not all, Cuban popular musical styles. It is so complex that Fernando Ortiz needed a ten-volume work just to trace the cultural origins of the African instruments being used in the popular music of time. Several different dozen musical styles were the outcome. To this day, no book has come close to the work done by Ortiz.
Contradanza
One of the first styles of music that was born out of this blend was the Habanera (Roberts 4). The Habanera’s predecessor was the Contradanza, the Spanish version of a country line dance thought to originate in England. By the early part of the 19th century, the contradanza was well established in Cuba along with its French counterpart the contredanse. It soon took on African elements. African musicians began to play the Contradanza, according to Cuban historian Alejo Carpentier, with a certain “lift” or “swing” and then they included the traditional African call and response pattern. This Africanized European dance became popular and was called the contradanza habanera its name was abbreviated and is now known as simply the habanera (Roberts 6). An example is the 1856 contradanza called “Tu Madre es Conga” (your mother is Congolese) which featured a held first note similar to the Afro-Cuban conga. The habanera form of was identified by Cuban musical historian, Emilio Grenet, as being “perhaps the most universal of our musical genres.” It eventually became the root of the Argentine tango along with affecting American Jazz.
Another descendant of the Contradanza was the Danzon, a couples dance from the 1870's that was traditionally played by orchestras tipicas (bands that were led by cornets and supported by clarinets and trombones) and typically performed outdoors in town plazas. (Storm Roberts 8). The same dances performed in indoor venues with violins backing a flute lead were known as charangas francesas. The chachacha in turn is claimed to be a descendant of the Danzon (Roberts 10).
Rumba
Rumba stems from the Spanish mainland (Flamenco Rumbas). Its Afro-Cuban counterparts are associated with dances from three divisions that were born out rhythms played on yuka drums of Kongo origins, and following song patterns of leader and chorus in the style of the “gallo and vasallo” (Cabrera). Cuban Historian Lydia Cabrera identifies three varieties that differ in vocal style, choreography and instrumentation: the yambu, the guaguanco and the columbia. The yambu has a slow tempo with dancing mimicking old age. The guaguanco is a more urban rumba with a Spanish flourish as the opening segment, followed by a chorus with a repeated refrain where the dancing is enlivened and flourished with pelvic movements. The columbia is of rural origins and is traditionally a male solo dance featuring acrobatic and complex movements (Marks).
Carnaval
The Carnaval tradition in Cuba started in Santiago de Cuba where the Cabildos and other associations took to the streets in the months of June and July for masked celebrations during St. Johns’ Day and St. Ann’s day. The Havana version was celebrated on the day of Epiphany with both urban and rural celebrations taking advantage of Catholic holidays to celebrate in African tradition (Marks).
Carnaval with time expanded from the traditional dance groups to include celebrities and floats but demonstrated a strong base of the African ancestry which can be seen to date. In post-revolutionary Cuba, the Catholic dates of St. Ann’s have been replaced by commemoration of the day of July 27th 1953 when Fidel Castro and his troops attacked the Moncada barracks in Santiago during a Carnaval celebration. This date, which was a turning point in Castro’s regime, now commemorates both the political date and Carnaval (Marks).
The music of Carnaval includes distinct styles with their own history and origins. The cabildo associations on parade dance to the Abakua rhythms played with iron gongs parade drums and rattles. The Comparsa (or congas) parade with hand drums, parade drums, gongs and brake drums played with iron rods and sometimes incorporate an interesting instrument called the “Chinese trumpet” which reputedly was introduced to Cuba in the 19th century by Chinese laborers. In China, this instrument is known as the sona, which is derived from the surnai of Indian and Turkestan origins. The comparsa dancers which include couples and line dancers, perform elaborate routines (Marks).
Son
The son began in rural Cuba and has been described as the first rhythm invented by Cubans (Marks). I was invented by the guajiros (cowboys) of the Cuban farms and mountainous regions. Upon its arrival in Havana in the 1920's it was performed with a tres (a nine stringed small guitar) and a marimblua (a bass instruments originating from the African finger piano), along with bongos, maracas, claves, and later on the trumpet (Storm Roberts 7).
Influence on the US and on American Jazz
One of the earliest examples of the influence of Cuban music in the United States is the music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who made ample use of Cuban elements in his compositions. Gottschalk, a contemporary of Chopin, was a piano virtuoso who visited Cuba in 1854 for professional and health reasons (recuperating from malaria at a plantation where he recorded in his diary his interpretations of the slave’s singing). Within a month of his return to the US he had composed a piece called “El Cocoye” based on an Afro-Cuban dance. He went on to compose several Afro-Cuban influenced pieces and returned several times to Cuba to visit and perform. (Roberts 28) One of his short piano pieces “Ojos Criollos” (Creole eyes) demonstrates a mix of the Habanera rhythm with that of the black US cakewalk which was the basis of ragtime, with this piece having been written 40 years before the ragtime became popular (Storm Roberts 30). Ragtime then became one of the styles which became Jazz. Hence, from the start, Cuban music was influencing the base of Jazz.
The influence of Cuban music on Jazz commenced as black musicians came in contact with Cuban music and musicians. In the 1930’s the first appearance of authentic Cuban dance music was played on Broadway at New York’s Palace Theater, with the appearance of Don Azapiazu’s Casino Orchestra with authentic Cuban instruments and dancers (first exhibition rumba in the U.S.). They introduced what was to become one of the most well know Cuban song in the US: The Peanut Vendor (El Manicero), which was recorded and released that year and promoted in a syndicated column by the then famous American humorist Will Rogers. The success of the Peanut Vendor (Carpentier) led to other Cuban dance tunes and ballads becoming popular. Other popular promoters of Cuban music included Desi Arnaz, whose television show “I Love Lucy” popularized the “Conga” dance (a long line of dancers swaying with a kick on the fourth beat) and the Lukumi chant to Babalu Aye (Roberts 87).
The 1930's, 40's, 50's and Beyond – From Cuba to the U.S.
The 1930s through the 1950's brought an evolution of traditional styles into more modern ensembles. Early in this time a type of band called a conjunto evolved from the carnaval parade groups. These incorporated voices, conga drums and trumpets along with piano and bass when played indoors. One of the most influential of the conjunto musicians was a blind Afro-Cuban percussionist called Arsenio Rodriguez. He blended the Abakua Carnaval with the music of the Kongo and brought the “Mambo” rhythm into the Cuban dance halls (Roberts 9). Also credited by some as the originator of the mambo is the renowned Cuban bass player Israel “Cachao” Lopez he brought the Mambo through a danzon-mambo mix (Roberts 9). The makeup of the instrumentation in Cuban bands evolved and changed over the times with style variations developed by adding or deleting instruments such as the early ensemble groups with string quartets and trumpet led septets that performed in the 1930's. Later evolutions included the orchestras of the Havana hotels, the trumpet and percussion bands also called conjuntos and the charanga bands based on flutes and fiddles (Roberts 8).
Cuba in the 1940's and 1950's was intrinsically connected with US culture and popular trends. Its proximity to the mainland US (via ferry from Key West) made travel back and forth easy, and the island’s bustling economy and tourism industry, with US backed Casinos and Hotel Chains (such as the Hilton), made for both a cultural and a musical exchange that influenced both irrevocably. The 1940's also increased the popularity of the mambo and the brought the beginning of Latin Jazz.
At the time Cuban groups were expected to play only Cuban music and not play American Jazz. On May 28, 1943 the Machito Orquesta while playing a concert at La Conga Club in Manhattan made a mistake. The musical director, Maurio Bauza, called out the next song to be played but there was some confusion and the piano player began to play the descarga tune “El Botellero” quickly the bassist began to improvise a tune. Bauza then quickly started the rest of the band into the next tune. The next day, in the presence of Jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, Bauza had the piano and bassist replay what they had originally played and instructed the trumpets and saxophones to play a Jazzy melody. The result was the first Afro-Cuban Jazz song, Tanga (slang for marijuana) (Salazar). Each following performance of Tanga was slightly different. One of these versions had a Be-Bop feel to it and created the genre of Cu-Bop.
Dizzy Gillespie had a fascination with the Latin music which stemmed from his days as the trumpet partner of Mario Bauza in Cab Calloways band years before. After witnessing the birth of Cu-Bop he captured the sound for himself. On September 1947 Gillespies new band gave a concert at Carnegie Hall that gave Cubop a place among avant-garde jazz (Roberts 116). An interesting jazz example is a 1948 live recording of the song “Manteca” by Dizzy Gillespies’ band at a Jazz club in Manhattan. Dizzy’s conga player, Chano Pozo, was a member of the Abakua secret society. In this recording, Chano Pozo, during a long drum solo, breaks out into a passage in the Congo tradition which is answered by the band in a traditional African pattern (Marks). Many other famous jazz artists in America caught and played their own songs. These include Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon just to name a few that played with Machito’s Orquesta (Salazar).
In the 1950's the Mambo rhythm popular in the 30's made a comeback with the New York creation of Big Band Mambo, described as a “rumba with jitterbug. Artists such as Jose Curbelo, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez helped drive the hybridization process that developed the Big-Band Mambo. The Puerto Rican born Tito Puente later on became known (in what started as a publicity gimmick) as the “King of the Mambo,” and he certainly helped bring it to a peak. The Cuban popularizer of the Mambo, Perez Prado (author of the famous Mambo #5), though famous in Cuba, never gained great popularity in the New York limelight (Roberts 126).
The 1950's unfortunately brought a gradual decline of Cuban/Latin music in the US started during the late 1950’s. Ironically, one reason for the decline is attributed to the success of the chachacha. The chachacha, originally born of the Cuban charangas bands, was made famous by one of the greatest bands of the genre: the Orquesta Aragon. It swept through Cuba in 1953 and its music was catchy and easier to dance than the Afro-Cuban Mambo. When it arrived in the U.S. in 1954 it was immediately successful but its simplicity made it a fast burned out novelty as it became further and further commercialized (Roberts 132-133). The other significant factor was the rise of Rock and Roll music. Added to this mix was the rise to power of Fidel Castro and his communist government, essentially cutting off tourism and travel (including musical exchanges) between Cuba and the US.
Conclusion
Cuban music has had a definite influence on the U.S. musical world, as evidenced by Jazz and Latin-Jazz traditions and recordings. The proximity of Cuba to America and the influx of Cuban musicians in U.S. bands in the 30's-50's lay the ground work for a definitive impression including separate genres such as Cu-Bop. The Cuban Revolution and the consequent embargo artificially cut off that exchange in the 1960's through today. However, the Cuban musical tradition has made a sufficient impact to continue to thrive especially in the Jazz world and with the synergies of other Latin-American countries such as Puerto Rico. In Cuba today the Afro-Cuban music continues to thrive and grow. Recently there has been an effort to look back at the roots of Afro-Cuban music and blend it with more modern styles. Such as the “Orishas,” a group which blends the traditional Yoruba rhythms with modern Hip-Hop music. The now famous recording of bands such as the “Buena-Vista Social Club” and “Compay Segundo” are evidence that the early Cuban traditional music has continued to survive under the current government sanctions. One can only imagine the impact of Cuban music had not occurred and the free exchange of music would have continued to occur between the Island and the Americas.
