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POPULAR MUSIC IN
AMERICA
Dr. Love, professor
OCTOBER 9, 2015:
UNIT 8:LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• Chapter 32: Latin Music in the United States, 1900-1960
• After American composer and pianist, Louis Moreau
Gottschalk’s (1829-1869) tour through South America
and the Caribbean, he infused Latin influences in his
music—the first noteworthy American music to show this
influence
• Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, married at the time helped
show that Latin music and musicians could blend into
American life
• The biggest hit of 1955 was “Cherry Pink and Apple
Blossom White” by Perez Prado, one of the mambo kings
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CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• Latin Music in the United States
• Latin styles formed in the Caribbean islands and Brazil as interaction
between African and European influences
• We have a strong heritage of Afro-Cuban music as well as Afro-Brazilian
music
• Unlike in the USA, these slaves kept much of their culture, languages,
instruments (drums weren’t banned in the Caribbean—like the American
South) and rhythms
• Afro-centric music from Latin American typically features:
• • More percussion instruments
• • Denser, more complex rhythmic texture
• Latin music is an American umbrella term for:
• • Popular music from countries where Spanish or Portuguese was the native language
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Most of this came to US for social dancing: rumba, cha-cha, tango, samba
• • Music created in the US by Latin musicians (some originating from Puerto Rico,
Cuba, or Spanish Caribbean
• • Music created by Americans without a Latin heritage who adapted Latin elements,
mainly the rhythms into pop songs, dance music, and jazz
CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• The Habanera and Tango
• Habanera was a popular new dance, particularly when a Mexican
military band performed it at an International Exposition in New Orleans
in 1884-85
• Name is associated with Havana (Cuba)
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The new rhythm and dance soon travelled around the world, even
catching the ear of French composer, Georg Bizet who incorporated a
famous habanera in his opera, Carmen (1875)
• Others styles such as cakewalk and ragtime song share a similar rhythm
to the Habanera
• Musical evidence suggests that the habanera also went to South
American where is became the rhythmic basis for the tango
• The tango started in the saloons of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• It came to America via of Vernon and Irene Castle who captivated
audiences with the dancing of the tango
• Latin dance fads in the US were part of popular culture, particularly in
musicals and films
CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• Mainstreaming Latin Music
• Don Azpiazú and His Havana Casino Orchestra came to
NYC from Havana in 1930
• His band had lots of prominent Latin percussion
instruments
• Were a huge hit at the Palace Theatre
• • Their recording of “El Manisero” (“The Peanut Vendor”)
reportedly sold over 1,000,000 units
• Great enthusiasm for Latin music at this point
• Music publishers, performers, songwriters are now in full
Latin mode
• Also triggered the second of Latin dance crazes—the
rumba
CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• The Rumba
• Rumba was of Cuban origin and developed out of the Afro-Cuban
dance called son
• The son was very popular in Cuba, especially with the growth of Cuban
commercial radio
• Since the music and musicians were heard but not seen, Cubans of
African descent gained access to audiences who would not normally
have heard them
• The Afro-Cuban influence on Don Azpiazú’s recording of
• “El Manisero” is evident in:
• • Vocal (in Spanish)
• • Prominent Latin percussion
• • Reverse clave rhythm
• Clave rhythm is essential to Cuban popular music:
• • Played on two cylindrical wooden sticks that are tapped together
• • Consists of five irregularly-shaped taps, spread over two four-beat measures
• • The reverse clave rhythm has the second half of the pattern come first
CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
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Americanized Latin Music: Cugat, Porter, and the Latin Song
Hit songs now have Latin influences, from Irving Berlin to Duke Ellington
With American song-writers starting to incorporate some Latin elements and sensitivity in their
songs, along with Latin composers as well, some of these new Latin songs were to become pop
standards
Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) was a Cuban violinist who came to US to play violin and eventually
formed his own bands
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He helped establish a commercial Latin style
Was very popular in Hollywood on film, he was also a fixture at the Waldorf Hotels in NYC and Hollywood
Also performed alongside Benny Goodman’s band on the network radio show, Let’s Dance
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• “Begin the Beguine” (written by Cole Porter) performed by Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra Was a big hit for
Porter
This arrangement is instrumental, even though the song itself has lyrics
A rich overlay of percussion instruments add Latin flavour as well
Among his biggest fans was Cole Porter
Porter (1891-1964) was an American composer of musicals (he wrote both music and lyrics)
Porter lived at the Waldorf Hotel in NYC and heard Cugat’s band frequently
Porter incorporated a lot of Latin influences in his songs, even though the lyrics don’t reflect
anything “south of the border”—they don’t have anything to do with Latin culture
Porter used the rumba or beguine rhythms/feel a lot
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CHAPTER 32 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• American versus Latin Rhythms
• For many songwriters, “Latin” meant mostly a change in the rhythm
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From an uneven division of the beat into an even divsion
• The typical foxtrot beat is divided into a long/short rhythm
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• Accented syllables often falling on the beat
• Unaccented syllables coming on the shorter part of the beat
• The Americanized Latin rhythm in “Begin the Beguine” divides the beat into equal parts
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• The bass notes usually play on the first, third, and fourth beats
• The accompaniment chords fall on the off beats (two and four)
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This was the generic Latin rhythm pattern of American popular music from the 1930s through the 1950s
• Underneath “Begin the Beguine” are flowing triplets, not relying on the clave pattern
• In “El Manisero,” the clave pattern is the rhythmic reference point
• The above recording of Cugat’s shows how American composers borrowed from the
Latin music they heard and interpreted it through their own musical understanding
• Latin bandleaders like Cugat accommodated the American composer
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Most Americans ignored the clave rhythm because it was so foreign, but they found the rippling
beguine pattern more familiar
CHAPTER 33 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• Chapter 33: Latin Music in the United States, 1940-1960
• Most Latin immigrants settled in New York in upper
Manhattan’s east Harlem
• Cubans in NY also shared their music with other immigrant
Latinos and Americans of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent
• There were two distinct Latin styles of music developed
from the Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians who
played:
• • Downtown Latin style—intended for the white American
market
• • Uptown—served the needs of the ever-growing Latin
community in New York
• This was more African with heavier percussion and denser, more
complex rhythmic textures
CHAPTER 33 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
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The Mambo
This was the third 20th century dance fad (after the tango and rumba)
The mambo was a musical style created by Afro-Cubans living in New York
Featured horns and riffs of the big bands with authentic Afro-Cuban son
Was very popular in New York because of the influx of Cuban musicians and a supportive Latin
population
Many Puerto Ricans also in New York, as were many others from other parts of the Caribbean;
upper Manhattan’s east Harlem, was called “Spanish Harlem”
Many Cubans living and working in New York; many played in society dance orchestras; many
played in clubs and on recordings
The Mambo was born in 1940, when Machito (Frank Grillo, 1912-1984, New York’s first important
sonero [lead singer in a son band]) formed his own band, Machito’s Afro-Cubans
Machito hired fellow Cuban (and brother-in-law) Mario Bauzá as musical director
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The Palladium Dance Hall (New York) was the main place for mambo
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Bauzá had worked in black swing bands and sought to combine Cuban rhythms with the horn sound of
swing
Despite the big-band riffs and bebop harmonies, mambo was still a basically Cuban music that was
developed in New York
The mambo caught on with non-Latin audiences
• The mambo was Americanized and this style enjoyed great success
The dilution of the mambo as it entered the mainstream similar to the watering down of the
rumba
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But there was a more enthusiastic US audience for Afro-Cuban–inspired music
CHAPTER 33 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
• The Mambo (continued)
• Two “Mambo Kings” helped propel and sustain the popularity of the Mambo in the 1950s
• • Perez Prado (1916-1989), pianist/bandleader, had a string of hits: called Mambo No. 1, 2,
5, etc.
• Also had a huge hit with “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” (actually more of a chacha)
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In many of his recordings, the Afro-Cuban rhythms and instrumentation are severely diluted or
absent
• Tito Puente (1923-2000) was the “king of the mambo” to the Latins
Born in NYC of Puerto Rican parents, he was formerly in Machito’s band
He played timbales and had strong brass section with strong full Latin percussion section
• “Complicacion” recorded by Tito Puente and His Band, 1958
Mixes big-band style horns with a full Latin percussion section
Afro-Cuban rhythm elements are heard:
• Repeated riff conforms to the clave rhythm
• Several layers of percussion produce a tense texture with considerable rhythmic conflict
• Tumbao, an offbeat bass pattern
• Montuno, a piano part that is repetitive, even more syncopated that ragtime
CHAPTER 33 –
LATIN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
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The Mambo and Beyond: Latin Music in the 1950s
The mambo, like the rumba, spawned many imitations and adaptations
Top singing stars dabbled in Latin music:
Perry Como and Nat “King” Cole both recorded “Papa Loves Mambo”
Dean Martin and Rosemary Clooney both scored with “Mambo Italiano”
The mambo gave way to the cha-cha-cha, a new dance fad
Simpler than the mambo and the tempo was slower
It replaced the mambo as the Latin dance of choice for Americans
Latin music also influenced jazz
Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter/bandleader fused Latin with jazz: “cubop” (Cuban + bop)
It was hard to mesh Latin rhythms with foxtrot or swing rhythms
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Latin rhythms in R & B songs, especially those from New Orleans, (and later on, rock and roll) were
able to blend smoothly
They didn’t have to adjust the rhythmic foundation for R & B
• Musical exchange with Cuban musicians ended in 1950 when Fidel Castro came to
power
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Diplomatic relations were severed
• About a decade later, however, the mambo would get a makeover and become salsa!