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Chapter 11See How She Moves Musics of Latin
America and the Oye Como Va Phenomenon
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What is Latin American music?

• General All music related to Latin America and
  its international and diasporic extensions
• Unit Specific A particular complex of
  dance-music genres linked to a Cuba/Puerto
  Rico/US/international track of development

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• Key Musical Focus Oye Como Va
• Key Cultural Focus Musicultural history of
  pan-Latino culture and society, with specific
  focus on
• Cha cha chá
• Newyorican music/culture
• Tito Puente
• Latin dance music (specific definition)
• Commercial music industry

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Key Musical Recordings, Oye Como Va

• Tito Puente (original, 1963)
• Santana (1970)
• Tito Puente Jr. (2004 1996)

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Key Genres, Related Historical Developments

• West African and Spanish Roots (batá drumming,
  Santería, rumba)
• Creolized Cuban dance-music forms of early 20th
  c. (contradanza, danzón, charanga, mambo,
  danzón-mambo, son, original cha cha chá)
• Stateside developments (mambo, big band mambo,
  cha cha chá, salsa, Latin jazz, Latin rock,
  Latino pop)

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Key Names

• Tito Puente, Carlos Santana (and the band
  Santana), Tito Puente Jr., Arcaño y sus
  Maravillas (Antonio Arcaño, Orestes brothers),
  Enrique Jorrin, Machito and the Afro-Cubans
  (incl. Mario Bauzá), Tito Rodríguez

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A Select Survey

• South America, Mexico, Caribbean

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Brazil

• Samba
• Bossa Nova
• Tropicália

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Samba

• Umbrella term describing many genres, all with
  African origins and characteristics
• Polyrhythmic textures, call-and-response,
  improvisational elements
• Samba-enredo is associated with Rios enormously
  popular Carnival celebration, which occurs the
  five days before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of
  Lent)

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Bossa Nova

• Originated in the 1950s in the mostly white,
  middle-class area of Rio de Janeiro
• Incorporates rhythms of music of the favelas,
  along with popular music, American jazz,
  Brazilian choro
• Laid back and subdued style. The vocals are
  hushed, almost whispered.

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Tropicália

• Emerged in the 1960s during a time of political
  crisis
• Influenced by bossa nova, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix,
  James Brown, tango, African musics, Bahian musics
• Os Mutantes
• Cannibalization

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Trinidad

• Carnival

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• Rather than a Catholic holiday, Trinidad treats
  Carnival as a nationalized secular event.
• The highlight is Panorama, in which huge steel
  bands compete against each other.
• The instruments (pans or steel drums) were
  historically made from oil drums left by the
  United States Navy in the 1940s

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Argentina and Uruguay

• Tango

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• Influenced by Spanish flamenco, Italian song,
  European polka, African-derived rhythms, and
  Cuban dance-music styles
• Developed in the 19th century Buenos Aires in
  brothels, bars
• Spread throughout Argentina and Europe in the
  20th century

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Andean Music

• Folk and folkloric traditions of
• Bolivia
• Peru
• Cosmopolitan/inter-national market

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• Rural communities in the Andean highlands use
  music in ritual and daily life seasonal
  observances, agricultural rituals, life-cycle
  events, and religious ceremonies.
• Egalitarianism is encoded through music
  instrumental pairs operate together to achieve
  the entire seven-note scale. The interlocking
  parts are nonfunctional when played separately.
• Folkloric forms modernist-cosmopolitan
  commodification of Andean authenticity

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Mexico

• Mariachi

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• Mariachi is the best-known genre of Mexican
  music, functioning additionally as a national
  symbol.
• Mariachi is also identified with unfortunate
  stereotypes, and has been exploited in the
  promotion of these negative identifications
  (Frito Bandito, Speedy Gonzales)
• Mariachi moderno often features trumpets,
  violins, vihuela, guitar, and guitarron.

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Cuba, Creolization, and Roots of Latin Dance Music
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Afro-Cuban Roots

• Spanish Colonization, 1492
• Santería (Regla de Ocha Orisha religion)
• Syncretic religion based on West African Ifa
  religion of the Yoruba
• Batá drumming sacred, 3 drums songs in sacred
  rituals devoted to the pantheon of orisha
• Rumba secular counterpart

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Afro-Cuban Roots

• Rumba features conga drums, clave (rhythm)
  Figure 11.1, Online Musical Illustration 25,
  claves (instrument), call-and-response,
  polyrhythms, dancing, social celebration
• Different varieties include Yambu, Colombia,
  guaguancó (dance flirtatious for guaguancó)

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Spanish-Cuban Roots

• Other half of the syncretic equation
• Latter 18th century Imported European dances
  (contradanza, danzón, etc.) infused with
  Afro-Cuban (Yoruba, Congolese) elements. The
  resulting syncretic dance forms became important
  symbols of a new, increasingly multiracial Cuban
  national identity.

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The Danzón-Mambo
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Danzón-Mambo

• An Afro-Cubanized version of the preceding
  danzón, developed chiefly by the charanga group
  Arcaño y sus Maravillas.
• Additions included conga drums and a cowbell
• African influence especially present in the mambo
  sections, which use repetition and textures
  featuring layered ostinatos

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Enrique Jorrin

• and the Cuban Cha Cha Chá

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Enrique Jorrin

• Violinist and bandleader Jorrin developed the
  Cuban cha cha chá in 1950
• Rhythmic simplification and easy dance steps made
  for accessability, marketability in U.S. and
  internationally

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Enrique Jorrin

• Originally played by a charanga, a sweet sounding
  ensemble featuring flute as solo instrument,
  violins, and no brass.
• Basic rhythm 1 - 2 cha-cha-cha.

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Musical Guided Tour

• Latin Percussion Rhythms of the Cha Cha Chá, 248
• Audio Musical Guided Tour

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Mambo

• (Big Band Mambo)

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Mambo

• Along with Cha Cha Chá, mambo is the other Cuban
  dance music that influenced Oye Como Va
• Originally from Cuba, but a hotter style was
  developed by Newyoricans, immigrant Puerto
  Ricans, and immigrant Cuban bandleaders in NYC in
  1950 (examples Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez,
  Machito)
• Big band mambo combination of son, mambo, other
  Cuban styles, American jazz and popular music

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Features of the Genre

• Big band instrumentation (saxophones, trumpets,
  trombones, rhythm section incl. Latin percussion)
• Layered ostinato textures (especially horn
  section)
• Driving, Afro-Cuban percussion rhythms
• Jazz influences (instrumentation, harmony,
  improv)
• Fast tempos, high energy
• Absence or limited use of singing

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Tito Puente, the Newyorican Connection, and
Latino/American Music Culture in NYC
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• Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Newyorican musicians and
  bandleaders
• Post-WWII massive migration, Puerto Rico and
  Cuba to USA
• Pérez Prado - Mambo 5 (1949)
• Palladium Ballroom (1949)
• Mambo craze (1950s)

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Insights and Perspectives

• Machito and the Afro-Cubans in the History of
  Latin Dance Music, 251
• CD ex. 4-6

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• Machito and the Afro-Cubans was an important
  Latin dance band. They formed the link between
  Cuban dance music in Cuba and Cuban-derived dance
  music in New York.
• They formed in 1940 and were enormously
  successful, appearing in ballrooms, Hollywood
  films, and more.
• They forged an innovative musical approach that
  combined classic son with jazz big band and
  improvisers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie
  Parker.

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Insights and Perspectives

• The Palladium Ballroom

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• The Palladium ballroom was home to musical
  battles between groups like Puentes and
  Machitos. It was a hotbed of multicultural
  interaction.
• Latin music historian Max Salazar described the
  Palladium an agent of profound social change in
  American society, as many cultural groups joined
  together to dance.

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Oye Como Va

• Tito Puente, 1963 (El Rey Bravo)
• CD ex. 4-7
• Guided Listening Experience
• and Quick Summary, 252-255

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New Sounds, New Times Oye Como Va, the
Santana Version
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• 1968 - Formation of the band Santana
• Latin rock
• 1969 - Santana (first album)
• 1970 - Abraxas released with two major hits (Oye
  Como Va, Black Magic Woman)

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Oye Como Va

• Santana, 1970 (Abraxas)
• CD ex. 4-8
• Guided Listening Experience
• and Quick Summary, 258-260

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Oye Como Va

• and Pan-Latino Identity

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Santanas Oye Impact and Tito Puente

• Put Latin music into the rock/pop music
  mainstream
• Revitalized the career of Tito Puente
• Led to broad awareness of Latin music that
  stimulated growth of salsa and Latin jazz (1970s)
• Symbol and marker of new pan-Latino
  identity/social consciousness
• Puente and Santana cultural icons, pan-Latino
  symbols of pride

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Oye Como Va The Next Generation

• Tito Puente Jr., 2004 (Tito Puente Jr. Greatest
  Club Remixes) remix of 1996 original
• Guided Listening Experience, 267-269
• CD ex. 4-10

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• Born in 1971, he studied percussion, piano,
  arranging and producing with his father
• Moved to Miami as a young adult
• 1996 Guarachando, with Latin Dance style at its
  core. Hit single was his Latin Dance cover of
  Oye Como Va, which won a Latin Music Award
• Puente Jr. prefers the 2004 remix

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Tito Puente Jr Into the Future, Back to the Past

• En Los Pasos de Mi Padre (In My Fathers Shoes),
  2004
• Big 3 Palladium Orchestra