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Orestes López
Orestes López Valdés (August 28, 1908 – January 26, 1991), nicknamed Macho, was a Cuban multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. As a double bassist he was a founding member of the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, and later a member of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. A long-time member of the charanga Arcaño y sus Maravillas, where he played cello and piano, he is considered the co-creator of the mambo, together with his brother Israel "Cachao" López, and one of the most prolific danzón composers of the 20th century. Biography Early life and career Orestes López was born in Old Havana on August 28, 1908, into a family of musicians. As a pre-teenager he studied piano, cello, violin and the five-key ebony flute. In 1924, at age 15, he became double bassist for the newly-founded Havana Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Pedro Sanjuán. A few years later, he was playing bass for Miguel "El Moro" Vázquez's charanga. According to his brother Cachao, in 1926 he wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Havana
Old Havana ( es, link=no, La Habana Vieja) is the city-center (downtown) and one of the 15 municipalities (or boroughs) forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the original city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the modern boundaries of Old Havana. In 1982, Old Havana was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, because of its unique Baroque and neoclassical architecture, its fortifications, and its historical importance as a stop on the route to the New World. A safeguarding campaign was launched a year later to restore the authentic character of the buildings. History Havana was founded by the Spanish November 16, 1519 in the natural harbor of the Bay of Havana. It became a stopping point for the treasure laden Spanish galleons on the crossing between the New World and the Old World. In the 17th century, it was one of the main shipbuilding centers. The city was built in baroque an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Symphony Orchestra Of Cuba
The National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba is the main institution dedicated to the performance of classical music in Cuba History Heir to the tradition of excellency established by its ancestor, the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba was founded on October 7, 1959 by the Concert Masters Enrique González Mántici and Manuel Duchesce Cuzán. The activities of the orchestra include regular season concerts as well as Symphonic-Choral concerts, didactical concerts cycles, national tours and the support to lyrical presentations and ballet. We can also mention the recording of soundtracks, record productions and the participation in national and international events. The orchestra has been conducted by numerous national and international Concert Masters, such as: Francesco Belli, Carmine Coppola, Luis de Pablo, Álvaro Manzano, Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, Tomás Fortín, Yoshikazu Fukumura, Enrique González Mántici, Luis Gorelik, Camargo Guarnieri, Fél ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Descarga
A descarga (literally ''discharge'' in Spanish) is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was developed in Havana during the 1950s. Important figures in the emergence of the genre were Cachao, Julio Gutiérrez, Bebo Valdés, Peruchín and Niño Rivera in Cuba, and Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauzá in New York. Originally, descargas were promoted by record companies such as Panart, Maype and Gema under the label Cuban jam sessions. From the 1960s, the descarga format was usually adapted by large salsa ensembles, most notably the Fania All-Stars. History Origins: son, filin and jazz During the 1940s, the term ''descarga'' was commonly used in the music scenes of Cuba to refer to performances of jazz-influenced boleros in an improvised manner. This was part of the so-called filin (''feeling'') movement spearheaded by arti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oriente Province
Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a small town in this province (Birán). The origins of Oriente lie in the 1607 division of Cuba into a western and eastern administration. The eastern part was governed from Santiago de Cuba and it was subordinate to the national government in Havana. In 1807, Cuba was divided into three ''departamentos'': Occidental, Central and Oriental. This arrangement lasted until 1851, when the central department was merged back into the West. In 1878, Cuba was divided into six provinces. Oriente remained intact but was officially renamed to Santiago de Cuba Province until the name was reverted to Oriente in 1905. This lasted until 1976, when the province was split into five different provinces: Las Tunas Province, Granma Province, Holguín Province, San ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tres (musical Instrument)
The tres (Spanish for ''three'') is a three- course chordophone of Cuban origin. The most widespread variety of the instrument is the original Cuban tres with six strings. Its sound has become a defining characteristic of the Cuban son and it is commonly played in a variety of Afro-Cuban genres. In the 1930s, the instrument was adapted into the Puerto Rican tres, which has nine strings and a body similar to that of the cuatro. The tres developed in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern region of Guantánamo, where it was used to play changüí, a precursor of son cubano. Its exact origins are not known, but it is assumed to have developed from the 19th century Spanish guitar, which it resembles in shape, as well as the laúd and bandola, two instruments used in punto cubano since at least the 18th century. Tres playing revolves around the ''guajeo'', an '' ostinato'' pattern found in many Afro-Cuban music styles. Tres players are commonly known as ''treseros'' (in C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montuno
Montuno has several meanings pertaining to Cuban music and its derivatives. Literally, ''montuno'' means 'comes from the mountain', and so ''son montuno'' may refer to the older type of son played in the mountainous rural areas of Oriente. Another possibility is that the word ''montuno'' comes from the word ''montura'', the Spanish word for "saddle", because the rhythm in son music is like riding a horse. Or it may mean the final section of a song-based composition; in this sense it is simply part of a piece of music. Here it is usually a faster, brasher, semi-improvised instrumental section, sometimes with a repetitive vocal refrain. Finally, the term ''montuno'' is also used for a piano ''guajeo'', the ostinato figure accompanying the montuno section, when it describes a repeated syncopated piano vamp, often with chromatic root movement.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z''. Tumi, Bath. p141 References See also *Son montuno *Call and response (music) *Coro-preg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín ( Candelaria, Pinar del Río, December 25, 1926 - Havana, December 12, 1987) was a Cuban charanga violinist, composer and music director. He is considered the inventor of the '' cha-cha-chá'', a popular style of ballroom music derived from danzón. Biography At an early age, his family moved to the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana, where Jorrín was to live for the rest of his life. At the age of 12, he began to show a particular interest in music and decided to learn the violin. He then pursued musical studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana. He started out as a violinist in the orchestra of Cuba's National Institute of Music, under the direction of González Mántici. In 1941, he became a member of the '' danzonera'' Hermanos Contreras. It was here that he became interested in popular music. Next, he joined the renowned '' charanga'' Antonio Arcaño y sus Maravillas. In the early 1950s, while a member of Ninón Mondéjar's Orquesta América, he cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The cha-cha-cha (also called cha-cha), is a dance of Cuban origin. It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by the Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin in the early 1950s. This rhythm was developed from the danzón-mambo. The name of the dance is an onomatopoeia derived from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet when they dance two consecutive quick steps (correctly, on the fourth count of each measure) that characterize the dance. In the early 1950s, Enrique Jorrín worked as a violinist and composer with the charanga group Orquesta América. The group performed at dance halls in Havana where they played danzón, danzonete, and danzon-mambo for dance-oriented crowds. Jorrín noticed that many of the dancers at these gigs had difficulty with the syncopated rhythms of the danzón-mambo. To make his music more appealing to dancers, Jorrín began composing songs where the melody was marked strongly on the first downbeat and the rhythm was less syncopated. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pérez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado (December 11, 1916 – September 14, 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the Mambo (music), mambo in the 1950s.''On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture'' Louis A. Pérez Jr. - 2012 "The origins of the new Cuban dance were variously attributed to Orestes López, Antonio Arcaño, Arsenio Rodríguez, and Israel “Cachao” López, but it was pianist Dámaso Pérez Prado's arrangements of the mambo, presented in a big, brassy ..." His big band adaptation of the danzón-mambo proved to be a worldwide success with hits such as "Mambo No. 5", earning him the nickname "King of the Mambo". In 1955, Prado and his orchestra topped the charts in the US and UK with a mambo cover of Louiguy's "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)". He frequently made Cameo appearance, brief appearances in films, primarily of the rumberas film, rumberas genre, and his music was featured in films such as ''La Dolce Vita''. Pérez P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danzón-mambo
The danzón-mambo (also known as ''danzón de nuevo ritmo'') is a subgenre of Cuban dance music that marked the transition from the classical danzόn to the mambo and the cha-cha-chá. It was also in the context of the danzón-mambo that the Cuban dance band format called charanga reached its present form. Origins The danzón-mambo was created by the musicians and arrangers of Antonio Arcaño's charanga, Arcaño y sus Maravillas, which was founded in 1937 (Orovio 1981:324). According to Santos (1982), The main forces behind Arcano's mambo were the Lopez brothers, Orestes ... and Israel (the great "Cachao") ..., who did most of the composing and arranging for the group, and played the 'cello and the string bass, respectively. Characteristics Generally speaking, the ''danzón-mambo'' represents a further and stronger incorporation of elements of the ''son'' into the ''danzón''. The first sections, or ''danzones'', did not depart significantly from the traditional ''danz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Arcaño
Antonio Arcaño Betancourt (Atarés, Havana 29 December 1911 – 1994) was a Cuban flautist, bandleader and founder of Arcaño y sus Maravillas, one of Cuba's most successful charangas. He retired from playing in 1945, but continued as director of the group until its dissolution in 1958. Despite his early retirement due to health problems, he is considered one of the most influential flautists in Cuba. After leaving La Maravilla del Siglo, a very popular charanga, Arcaño founded La Maravilla de Arcaño, later known as Arcaño y sus Maravillas. The band featured the López brothers, Israel López "Cachao" and Orestes López, composers and multi-instrumentalists that originated the danzón-mambo, the direct precursor of the mambo, through compositions such as " Rareza de Melitón", "Se va el matancero" and, above all, "Mambo", the piece that lent its name to the genre. Arcaño was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2000. See also * José Faja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
