1. Chapter 11 ‘See How She Moves’:
Musics of Latin America and the “Oye Como Va” Phenomenon

2. 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

3. 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

4. Key Musical Recordings, “Oye Como Va”
Tito Puente (original, 1963)
Santana (1970)
Tito Puente Jr. (2004 [1996])

5. 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)

6. 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

7. A Select Survey
South America, Mexico, Caribbean

8. Brazil
Samba
Bossa Nova
Tropicália

9. Samba
Umbrella term describing many genres, all with African origins and characteristics
Polyrhythmic textures, call-and-response, improvisational elements
Samba-enredo is associated with Rio’s enormously popular Carnival celebration, which occurs the five days before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent)
CD 3-19 = Evolucau de Samba, performed by the Jacaré Brazil ensemble in Gainesville, Florida

10. 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.
CD 1-27, Paul Desmond’s recording of “Wave” is a great Bossa Nova example.

11. 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”
cd1-1, Os Mutantes “A Minha Menina”

12. Trinidad
Carnival

13. 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
Trinidad Carnival 2011 Panorama Finals - performance by the All Stars -

14. Argentina and Uruguay
Tango

15. 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

16. Andean Music Folk and folkloric traditions of: Bolivia Peru
Cosmopolitan/inter- national market

17. 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”
CD4-2: a field recording of men performing on julajula pipes in Machu during a corn beer making ritual

18. Mexico
Mariachi

19. 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.

20. Cuba, Creolization, and Roots of Latin Dance Music

21. 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”

22. 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)
Guaguancó video :

23. 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.

24. The Danzón-Mambo

25. 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

26. Enrique Jorrin
and the Cuban Cha Cha Chá

27. 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

28. Enrique Jorrin
Originally played by a charanga, a sweet sounding ensemble featuring flute as solo instrument, violins, and no brass.
Basic rhythm: cha-cha-cha.
Dancers dancing cha cha cha to “El Bodeguero” (The Grover), traditional style and instrumentation except for synthesizer in place of violins

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

30. Mambo
(Big Band Mambo)

31. 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

32. 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
CD3-4: “Sambia” by Machito and the Afro-Cubans, a good illustration of this big band mambo style.
Historic Machito:

33. Tito Puente, the Newyorican Connection, and Latino/American Music Culture in NYC

34. 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)

35. Insights and Perspectives
Machito and the Afro-Cubans in the History of Latin Dance Music, 251
CD ex. # 4-6

36. Machito and the Afro-Cubans was an important Latin dance band
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.

37. Insights and Perspectives
The Palladium Ballroom

38. The Palladium ballroom was home to musical battles between groups like Puente’s and Machito’s. 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.

39. “Oye Como Va” Tito Puente, 1963 (El Rey Bravo) CD ex. #4-7
Guided Listening Experience
and Quick Summary,

40. New Sounds, New Times: “Oye Como Va,” the Santana Version

41. 1968 - Formation of the band Santana
Latin rock
Santana (first album)
Abraxas released with two major hits (“Oye Como Va,” “Black Magic Woman”)

42. “Oye Como Va” Santana, 1970 (Abraxas) CD ex. #4-8
Guided Listening Experience
and Quick Summary,

43. “Oye Como Va”
and Pan-Latino Identity

44. Santana’s “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

45. “Oye Como Va”: The Next Generation
Tito Puente Jr., 2004* (Tito Puente Jr.: Greatest Club Remixes) [*remix of 1996 original]
Guided Listening Experience,
CD ex. #4-10

46. 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

47. Tito Puente Jr: Into the Future, Back to the Past
En Los Pasos de Mi Padre (In My Father’s Shoes), 2004
Big 3 Palladium Orchestra
(TP Jr. featured on timbales in “Oye”, Live at the Apollo show [short])
(TP Jr. and his band play “Ran Kan Kan” on the soap opera “One Life to Live”)
(TP Jr. promo video, various clips)