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Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of
Latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, which ...
. It mixes
Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...
clave-based rhythms with
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban Music, https://worldmusic.net/blogs/guide-to-world-music/cuba-son-and-afro-cuban-music Afro-Cuban jazz emerged in the early 1940s with the Cuban musicians
Mario Bauzá Prudencio Mario Bauzá Cárdenas (April 28, 1911 – July 11, 1993) was an Afro-Cuban jazz, Latin, and jazz musician. He was among the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City ja ...
and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans in New York City. In 1947, the collaborations of
bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and percussionist
Chano Pozo Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. ...
brought Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, such as the
tumbadora The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest) ...
and the bongo, into the East Coast jazz scene. Early combinations of jazz with Cuban music, such as " Manteca" and "Mangó Mangüé", were commonly referred to as "Cubop" for Cuban bebop.{{cite book , last=Fernandez , first=Raul A. , title=From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WO7YevK_18C&pg=PA62, year=2006, publisher=University of California Press , isbn=978-0-520-93944-8 , page=62 During its first decades, the Afro-Cuban jazz movement was stronger in the United States than in Cuba.{{cite book , last1=Acosta , first1=Leonardo , title=Cubano Be, Cubano Bop: One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba , date=2003 , publisher=Smithsonian Books , location=Washington, D.C. , isbn=158834147X{{rp, 59 Kenny Dorham,{{cite web , last1=Nastos , first1=Michael G. , title=Afro-Cuban – Kenny Dorham, url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/afro-cuban-mw0000187932 , website=AllMusic , access-date=24 February 2019 In the early 1970s, the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna and later
Irakere Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest') is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album ''Irakere''. Irakere was a seminal musical laborator ...
brought Afro-Cuban jazz into the Cuban music scene, influencing styles such as songo.


History


"Spanish tinge"—the Cuban influence in early jazz

Although clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-20th century, the Cuban influence was present at the birth of jazz.
African-American music African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slaver ...
began incorporating
Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...
musical motifs in the 19th century when the habanera gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as "congo"{{cite book , last1=Manuel , first1=Peter , title=Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean , date=2009 , publisher=Temple University Press , location=Philadelphia , page=69{{rp, 5 or "tango"){{cite book , last1=Mauleon , first1=Rebeca , title=Salsa Guidebook: For Piano and Ensemble , date=1999 , publisher=Sher Music , location=Petaluma, California , isbn=0-9614701-9-4 , page=4 can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat. {{block indent, \new Staff << \relative c' { \clef percussion \time 2/4 \repeat volta 2 { g8. g16 d'8 g, } } >> Musicians from Havana and New Orleans took the twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera took root.
John Storm Roberts John Storm Roberts (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2009) was a British-born, U.S.-based ethnomusicologist, writer and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of Original Music, a mail-order company that distributed world music bo ...
states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. 20 years before the first rag was published".{{cite book , last=Roberts , first=John Storm, author-link=John Storm Roberts, title=Latin Jazz , url=https://archive.org/details/latinjazzfirstof00robe , url-access=registration , date=1999 , publisher=Schirmer Books , location=New York , pag
12
}
For more than a quarter-century in which the
cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Uni ...
,
ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...
, and
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
were forming, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music.{{rp, 16 Early New Orleans jazz bands had habaneras in their repertoire, and the tresillo/habanera figure was a rhythmic staple of jazz at the turn of the 20th century. Comparing the
music of New Orleans The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans, Louisiana, is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of th ...
with the
music of Cuba The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European (especially Spanish) music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban mu ...
,
Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Award ...
said that the tresillo is the New Orleans clave. "
St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
" (1914) by W. C. Handy has a habanera/tresillo bass line. The first measures are shown below. {{Block indent, { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \relative c'' { \clef treble \key g \major \time 2/2 \partial4. d8 d d 8 4. 2 r8 c cis 4. 1 2 8 } >> \new Staff << \relative c { \clef bass \key g \major \time 2/2 \partial4. r8 r4 g4. g'8 4 g 1 d,4. fis'8 4 fis 4. fis'8 4 fis } >> >> } Handy noted a reaction to the habanera rhythm included in Will H. Tyler's "Maori": "I observed that there was a sudden, proud and graceful reaction to the rhythm...White dancers, as I had observed them, took the number in stride. I began to suspect that there was something Negroid in that beat." After noting a similar reaction to the same rhythm in "La Paloma", Handy included this rhythm in his "St. Louis Blues," the instrumental copy of "Memphis Blues," the chorus of "Beale Street Blues," and other compositions."{{cite book , last1=Handy , first1=W. C. , editor1-last=Bontemps , editor1-first=Arna , title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography , url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0 , date=1941 , publisher=Macmillan , location=New York , page
99–100
}
Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
considered the tresillo/habanera (which he called the Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz.{{cite book, last=Roberts, first=John Storm, author-link=John Storm Roberts, title=The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States, url=https://archive.org/details/latintingeimpact0000robe, url-access=registration, year=1999, publisher=Oxford University Press, isbn=978-0-19-512101-8 Morton stated, "Now in one of my earliest tunes, 'New Orleans Blues', you can notice the Spanish tinge. In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz—Morton (1938: Library of Congress Recording)." An excerpt of "New Orleans Blues" is shown below. In the excerpt, the left hand plays the tresillo rhythm, while the right hand plays variations on cinquillo. {{Block indent, { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \relative c'' { \clef treble \key bes \major \time 2/2 f8 4 r8 4 r8 } >> \new Staff << \relative c { \clef bass \key bes \major \time 2/2 4. 8~ 4 4 4. 8~ 4 4 4. 8~ 4 4 } >> >> } Although the origin of jazz syncopation may never be known, there's evidence that the habanera/tresillo existed at its conception.
Buddy Bolden Charles Joseph "Buddy" Bolden (September 6, 1877 – November 4, 1931) was an African American cornetist who was regarded by contemporaries as a key figure in the development of a New Orleans style of ragtime music, or "jass", which later ca ...
, the first known jazz musician, is credited with creating the big four, a habanera-based pattern. The big four (below) was the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. {{Block indent, \new Staff << \relative c' { \clef percussion \time 4/4 \repeat volta 2 { g8 \xNote a' g, \xNote a' g, \xNote a'16. g,32 g8 } \repeat volta 2 { r8 \xNote a'\noBeam g, \xNote a' g, \xNote a'16. g,32 g8 } } >> In ''Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development'',
Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...
states, {{blockquote, It is probably safe to say that by and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions. Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed. It may also account for the fact that patterns such as resillo have.. remained one of the most useful and common syncopated patterns in jazz.{{cite book, last1=Schuller, first1=Gunther, last2=Morrison, first2=George, title=Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, year=1986, publisher=Oxford University Press, isbn=978-0-19-504043-2, url-access=registration, url=https://archive.org/details/earlyjazzitsroot00schu The Cuban influence is evident in many pre-1940s jazz tunes, but rhythmically they are all based on single-celled motifs such as tresillo, and do not contain an overt two-celled, clave-based structure. " Caravan", written by Juan Tizol and first performed in 1936, is an example of an early pre-Latin jazz composition. It is not clave-based. On the other hand, jazzy renditions of
Don Azpiazú Justo Ángel Azpiazú ( Cienfuegos, 11 February 1893 – Havana, 20 January 1943), better known as Don Azpiazú, was a leading Cuban orchestral director in the 1920s and 1930s. His band introduced authentic Cuban dance music and Cuban music ...
's "
The Peanut Vendor "El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son- pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been record ...
" ("El manicero") by Louis Armstrong (1930), Duke Ellington (1931), and
Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...
(1948), are all firmly in-clave since the 2-3
guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
provides the primary counterpoint to the melody throughout the entire song.


Mario Bauzá and Machito

The consensus among musicians and musicologists is that the first jazz piece to be based in-clave was "Tanga" (1943) composed by Cuban-born
Mario Bauza is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his ...
and recorded by Machito and his Afro-Cubans. "Tanga" began humbly as a spontaneous
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 wa ...
(Cuban jam session) with jazz solos superimposed on top. {{blockquote, The first descarga that made the world take notice is traced to a Machito rehearsal on May 29, 1943, at the Park Palace Ballroom, at 110th Street and 5th Avenue. At this time, Machito was at Fort Dix (New Jersey) in his fourth week of basic training. The day before at La Conga Club, Mario Bauzá, Machito's trumpeter and music director, heard pianist Luis Varona and bassist Julio Andino play El Botellero composition and arrangements of the Cuban-born Gilberto Valdez which would serve as a permanent sign off (end the dance) tune. On this Monday evening, Dr. Bauzá leaned over the piano and instructed Varona to play the same piano
vamp The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars Dynamic Vision for Perc ...
he did the night before. Varona's left hand began the introduction of Gilberto Valdés' El Botellero. Bauzá then instructed Julio Andino what to play; then the saxes; then the trumpets. The broken chord sounds soon began to take shape into an Afro-Cuban jazzed up melody. Gene Johnson's alto sax then emitted oriental-like jazz phrases. Afro-Cuban jazz was invented when Bauzá composed "Tanga" (African word for marijuana) that evening. Thereafter, whenever "Tanga" was played, it sounded different, depending on a soloist's individuality. In August, 1948, when trumpeter
Howard McGhee Howard McGhee (March 6, 1918 – July 17, 1987) was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger beb ...
soloed with Machito's orchestra at the Apollo Theatre, his ad-libs to "Tanga" resulted in "Cu-Bop City," a tune which was recorded by Roost Records months later. The jams which took place at the Royal Roots, Bop City, and Birdland between 1948 and 1949, when Howard McGhee, tenor saxophonist Brew Moore,
Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
and Dizzy Gillespie sat in with the Machito orchestra, were unrehearsed, uninhibited, unheard of before jam sessions which at the time, master of ceremonies Symphony Sid called Afro-Cuban jazz. The Machito orchestra's ten- or fifteen-minute jams were the first in Latin music to break away from the traditional under-four-minute recordings. In February, 1949, the Machito orchestra became the first to set a precedent in Latin music when it featured tenor saxophonist
Flip Phillips Joseph Edward Filippelli (March 26, 1915 – August 17, 2001), known professionally as Flip Phillips, was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic conce ...
in a five-minute recording of "Tanga." The twelve-inch 78 RPM, part of ''The Jazz Scene'' album, sold for $25. , author= Max Salazar (1997).{{cite journal , last1=Salazar , first1=Max , title=The Beginning and Its Best , journal=Latin Beat , date=1997 , volume=7 , issue=1 The right hand of the "Tanga" piano
guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
is in the style known as ponchando, a type of non-arpeggiated guajeo using block chords. The sequence of attack-points is emphasized, rather than a sequence of different pitches. As a form of accompaniment it can be played in a strictly repetitive fashion or as a varied motif akin to jazz comping.{{cite book , last1=Penalosa , first1=David , title=The Clave Matrix: Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins , date=2010 , publisher=Bembe , location=Redway, California , isbn=1-886502-80-3 , page=256 The following example is in the style of a 1949 recording by Machito, with René Hernández on piano.{{cite book , last1=Moore , first1=Kevin , title=Beyond Salsa Piano; The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution v.2 Early Cuban Piano Tumbao , date=2009 , publisher=Moore Music/Timba.com , location=Santa Cruz, California , isbn=144998018X , page=17 {{Block indent, { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \relative c' { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 100 \clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4 4 r r r8 r r4 } >> \new Staff << \relative c { \clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4 \bar "., :" c8 g c,4 bes'8 f bes,4 c'8 g c, bes' r
bes BES or Bes may refer to: * Bes, Egyptian deity * Bes (coin), Roman coin denomination * Bes (Marvel Comics), fictional character loosely based on the Egyptian deity Abbreviations * Bachelor of Environmental Studies, a degree * Banco Espírito ...
bes,4 \bar ":, ." } >> >> }


Ten innovations by Machito's Afro-Cubans

# The first band to make congas, bongo, and timbales the standard percussion in Afro-Cuban based dance music. The use of broken bell patterns by the bongocero in mambo horn sections, the increased rhythmic vocabulary of the conga drum and its function in a band setting, the increased importance of the timbales in setting up figures played by the horns and accenting them as a jazz drummer would do in a big band. e.g. "Nagüe," also the first recorded example of all three percussion instruments playing as a section. # The first band to explore jazz arranging techniques with Afro-Cuban rhythms on a consistent basis, giving it an identifiable sound. Cuban big band arranger Chico O'Farill stated, "This was a new concept in interpreting Cuban music with as much (harmonic) richness as possible. You have to understand how important this was. It made every other band that came after, followers." # The first band to explore modal harmony from a jazz arranging perspective through the recording of "Tanga". Of note is the 'sheet of sound' effect in the arrangement through the use of multiple layering. # The first big band to explore, from an Afro-Cuban rhythmic perspective, large-scale extended compositional works. e.g. "The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite" by Chico O'Farill. # The first band to combine big band arranging techniques within an original composition with jazz oriented soloists using an Afro-Cuban based rhythm section, e.g. Gene Johnson – alto, Brew Moore – tenor, composition – "Tanga" (1943). # The first multi-racial band in the United States. # The first band in the United States to use the term "Afro-Cuban" in its name (Machito & The Afro-Cubans), alluding to the West African roots of their music. This was an overlooked contribution by the orchestra to the burgeoning civil rights movement which compelled the Latin and African-American communities of New York to deal with their West African musical roots. # The first Afro-Cuban dance band to explore clave conterpoint from an arranging standpoint. The ability to weave seamlessly from one side of the clave to the other without breaking its rhythmic integrity within the structure of a musical arrangement. # Music director Mario Bauzá and lead vocalist Machito promoted a standard of excellence for subsequent band leaders, such as José Curbelo,
Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz ...
, Marcelino Guerra, Tito Rodriguez, and Elmo Garcia. Although it could be argued that
Xavier Cugat Xavier Cugat (; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City ...
established such a standard much earlier with his orchestra at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel (1931), the sound emulated by bandleaders in New York City was different from Cugat's. Cugat performed for the high society of New York City, not the Latino community in East Harlem (El Barrio) and the South Bronx. Cugat's music was one they may have heard on the radio, but this community had little access to it. # The Machito Afro-Cubans provided a forum for progressive musical ideas, compositions, and arrangements. They explored the fusion of Afro Cuban music with jazz arranging and jazz-oriented soloists in a multiracial framework. Bauzá developed the 3-2/2-3 clave concept and terminology. A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. When the progression begins on the three-side, the song or song section is said to be in 3-2 clave. When the chord progression begins on the two-side, it is in 2-3 clave.{{rp, 133–137 {{Block indent, \new RhythmicStaff { \clef percussion \time 2/2 \repeat volta 2 { c4.^\markup { "3-2 son clave" } c8 r4 c r c c r } } {{Block indent, \new RhythmicStaff { \clef percussion \time 2/2 \repeat volta 2 { r4^\markup { "2-3 son clave" } c c r c4. c8 r4 c } } In North America, salsa and Latin jazz charts commonly represent clave in two measures of cut-time (2/2); this is most likely the influence of jazz conventions.{{cite book , last1=Mauleon , first1=Rebecca , title=Salsa Guidebook for Piano and Ensemble , date=1993 , publisher=Sher Music , location=Petaluma, California , isbn=0-9614701-9-4 , page=52 When clave is written in two measures (above), changing from one clave sequence to the other is a matter of reversing the order of the measures. Bauzá balanced Latin and jazz musicians in Machito's band to realize his vision of Afro-Cuban jazz. He mastered both types of music, but it took time for him to teach the jazz musicians in Machito's band about clave. When trumpeter
Doc Cheatham Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, better known as Doc Cheatham (June 13, 1905 – June 2, 1997), was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. He is also the Grandfather of musician Theo Croker. Early life Doc Cheatham was born in Nashv ...
joined the band, Machito fired him after two nights because he couldn't cope with clave.{{rp, 78 {{blockquote, When Mario first utilized Edgar Sampson to write the very first drafts of arrangements for the Machito and his Afro-Cubans, he would draw three sticks for Sampson underneath the bar with the three-side and two sticks underneath the bar with the two-side. This way he would always know rhythmically where he was in the chart and supervise Sampson who was unaware of the clave concept in Cuban music. Mario utilized Sampson's harmonic mastery and Mario utilized his rhythmic mastery. Sampson asked Mario, "Why does it have to be this way?" Mario told me that he looked at Sampson and said "This is what makes Cuban music Cuban!"{{rp, 248


Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo

Mario Bauzá Prudencio Mario Bauzá Cárdenas (April 28, 1911 – July 11, 1993) was an Afro-Cuban jazz, Latin, and jazz musician. He was among the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City ja ...
introduced bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie to the Cuban conga drummer, dancer, composer, and choreographer
Chano Pozo Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. ...
. The brief collaboration of Gillespie and Pozo produced some of the most enduring Afro-Cuban jazz standards. " Manteca" (1947), co-written by Gillespie and Pozo, is the first jazz standard to be rhythmically based on clave. According to Gillespie, Pozo composed the layered,
contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
s (Afro-Cuban ostinatos) of the A section and the introduction, while Gillespie wrote the bridge. Gillespie recounted: "If I'd let it go like
hano Hano or HANO may refer to: * Hano, Arizona * Hanö, an island off Listerlandet peninsula, western Blekinge, Sweden *Arizona Tewa, a Tewa Pueblo group * "Hano" (song), a song in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest by Nino Pršeš * Housing Authority o ...
wanted it, it would've been strictly Afro-Cuban, all the way. There wouldn't have been a bridge.... I ... thought I was writing an eight-bar bridge. But after eight bars I hadn't resolved back to B-flat, so I had to keep on going and ended up writing a sixteen-bar bridge."{{rp, 77 It was the bridge that gave "Manteca" a typical jazz harmonic structure, setting the piece apart from Bauzá's modal "Tanga" of a few years earlier. Arrangements with a "Latin" A section and a swung B section, with all choruses swung during solos, became common practice with many "Latin tunes" of the jazz standard repertoire. This approach can be heard on pre-1980 recordings of " Manteca", " A Night in Tunisia", "Tin Tin Deo," and " On Green Dolphin Street." Gillespie's collaboration with Pozo brought African-based rhythms into bebop, a
post-modernist Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
art form. While pushing the boundaries of harmonic improvisation, ''cu-bop'' as it was called, also drew more directly from Africa, rhythmically. Early performances of "Manteca" reveal that despite their enthusiasm for collaborating, Gillespie and Pozo were not very familiar with each other's music. The members of Gillespie's band were unaccustomed to
guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
s, overly swinging and accenting them in an atypical fashion. Thomas Owens observes: "Once the theme ends and the improvisation begins, ... Gillespie and the full band continue the bebop mood, using swing eighths in spite of Pozo's continuing even eighths, until the final A section of the theme returns. Complete assimilation of Afro-Cuban rhythms and improvisations on a harmonic ostinato was still a few years away for the beboppers in 1947."{{rp, 77 On a live 1948 recording of "Manteca," someone is heard playing the 3-2
son clave The clave (; ) is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for meter (music), temporal organization in Afro-Cuban music, Cuban music. In Spanish, ''clave'' literally means key, clef, code, or keystone. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abaku ...
pattern on claves throughout a good portion of this 2-3 song. The rhythm of the melody of the A section is identical to a common mambo
bell pattern A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...
: {{Block indent, { \relative c' { \time 2/2 \key bes \major \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 108 f4 aes aes8 bes r bes->~bes aesf
bes BES or Bes may refer to: * Bes, Egyptian deity * Bes (coin), Roman coin denomination * Bes (Marvel Comics), fictional character loosely based on the Egyptian deity Abbreviations * Bachelor of Environmental Studies, a degree * Banco Espírito ...
r aes->r
bes BES or Bes may refer to: * Bes, Egyptian deity * Bes (coin), Roman coin denomination * Bes (Marvel Comics), fictional character loosely based on the Egyptian deity Abbreviations * Bachelor of Environmental Studies, a degree * Banco Espírito ...
} }


1940s –1970s

In early 1947
Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...
recorded "Machito," written by his collaborator / arranger
Pete Rugolo Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011) was an American jazz composer, arranger and record producer. Life and career Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settle ...
.Roberts (1999: 73).{{incomplete short citation, date=August 2021, reason=There are 2 Roberts 1999. Some consider the piece to be the first Afro-Cuban jazz recording by American jazz musicians. John Storm Roberts observes that the piece "has no Latino instrumentalists on it, a lack of that is obvious; the crisp, fast montuno with which the piece opens is weighed down by not-so-adept drumming from Shelly Mann." Later, on 6 December of the same year, Kenton recorded an arrangement of the son "
The Peanut Vendor "El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son- pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been record ...
" with members of Machito's rhythm section. Kenton continued to work with Afro-Cuban rhythms and musicians for another decade; the 1956 Kenton album '' Cuban Fire!'' was written as an Afro-Cuban suite by
Johnny Richards Johnny Richards (born Juan Manuel Cascales, November 2, 1911 – October 7, 1968) was an American jazz arranger and composer. He was a pivotal arranger for some of the more adventurous performances by Stan Kenton's big band in the 1950s and e ...
. Cuban percussionist
Mongo Santamaría Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (April 7, 1917 – February 1, 2003) was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga an ...
first recorded his composition "
Afro Blue "Afro Blue" is a jazz standard composed by Mongo Santamaría. Santamaria version Mongo Santamaria recorded his composition "Afro Blue" in 1959 when playing with the Cal Tjader Sextet. The first recorded performance was on April 20, 1959, at th ...
" in 1959. "Afro Blue" was the first jazz standard built upon a typical African three-against-two (3:2)
cross-rhythm In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to when the rhythmic conflict found in polyrhythms is th ...
, or
hemiola In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...
.{{rp, 26 The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of {{music, time, 12, 8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato "Afro Blue" bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to "keep time." {{Block indent, \new Staff << \new voice \relative c { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"acoustic bass" \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 105 \time 12/8 \clef bass \stemUp \repeat volta 2 { d4 a'8~ a d4 d,4 a'8~ a d4 } } \new voice \relative c { \override NoteHead.style = #'cross \stemDown \repeat volta 2 { g4. g g g } } >> In the mid-1940s, the
mambo Mambo most often refers to: * Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...
craze originated with the recordings of Perez Prado, who included jazz elements, and ideas from Stravinsky in his arrangements.{{rp, 86
Guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
s (Afro-Cuban ostinato melodies), or guajeo fragments are commonly used motifs in Latin jazz melodies. For example, the A section of "Sabor" is a 2-3 onbeat/offbeat guajeo, minus some notes. The following excerpt is from a performance by
Cal Tjader Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. ( ; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, even as he continued to perform music of Afro-Jazz, ...
. {{Block indent, { \relative c'' { \time 2/2 \key a \major \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 108 b4 cis8 b r fis r b r4. b8 r2 b4 cis8 b r fis r b r4. b8 r2 d4 e8 d r a r d r4. d8 r2 d4 e8 d r a r d r8 d4.-> cis4-> c-> } }


1980s New York City

{{More citations needed section, date=November 2018 Afro-Cuban jazz has been for most of its history a matter of superimposing jazz phrasing over Cuban rhythms. In the 1980s a generation of New York City musicians had come of age playing both
salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...
dance music and jazz. In 1967 brothers Jerry and Andy González at the ages of 15 and 13 formed a Latin jazz quintet inspired by Cal Tjader's group.{{cite book , last1=Boggs , first1=Vernon W. , title=Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City , date=1992 , publisher=Greenwood Press , location=New York , isbn=0313284687 , pages=297–298 with Jerry on congas and Andy on bass. During 1974–1976 they were members of one of
Eddie Palmieri Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive. Early life Pal ...
's experimental salsa groups. Andy González recounts, "We were into improvising... doing that thing
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
was doing—playing themes and just improvising on the themes of songs, and we never stopped playing through the whole set."{{rp, 290 While in Palmieri's band, the González brothers started showing up in the '' DownBeat'' Readers' Poll. In 1974, the González brothers and
Manny Oquendo Manny Oquendo (January 1, 1931 – March 25, 2009) was an American percussionist of Puerto Rican ancestry. His main instruments were the timbales and the bongos. He was a long-time member of Eddie Palmieri's Conjunto La Perfecta, which he le ...
founded the salsa band Libre and experimented with jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Libre recorded Charlie Parker's "
Donna Lee "Donna Lee" is a bebop jazz standard attributed to Charlie Parker, although Miles Davis has also claimed authorship. Written in A-flat, it is based on the chord changes of the jazz standard "(Back Home Again in) Indiana". Beginning with an unusua ...
" as a
danzón Danzón is the official musical genre and dance of Cuba.Urfé, Odilio 1965. ''El danzón''. La Habana. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Written in time, the danzón is a slow, formal partner dance, requiring se ...
, Miles Davis's " Tune Up" as a conga de comparsa, and Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower" as a mambo. In the 1980s, Tito Puente began recording and performing Latin jazz. The González brothers worked with Puente as well as Dizzy Gillespie.
McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Gram ...
hired the brothers when he played Afro-Cuban jazz. Other New York musicians included Bobby Sanabria, Steve Turre, Conrad Herwig,
Hilton Ruiz Hilton Ruiz (May 29, 1952 – June 6, 2006) was an American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player. He was of Puerto Rican descent. Biography Born in New York City, Ruiz began playing piano at the age of ...
,
Chris Washburn Christopher Scott Washburn (born May 13, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. College career A 6'11" center, Washburn was one of the top three high school recruits in the country in 1984, along with John Williams (LSU) ...
, Ralph Irizarry, David Sánchez, and Dave Valentine. Latin jazz musicians in San Francisco included John Santos' Machete Ensemble, Rebeca Mauleón,
Mark Levine Mark Andrew LeVine is an American historian, musician, writer, and professor. He is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Education LeVine received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter ...
, Omar Sosa, and Orestes Vilato. Jan L. Hartong's Nueva Manteca is based in
The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, Netherlands, and Yilian Cañizares in
Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
, Switzerland.{{Cite news , url= http://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/zuercher_kultur/die-gunst-der-goetter-1.18150997 , title=Die Sängerin und Geigerin Yilian Cañizares in Moods , newspaper= Neue Zürcher Zeitung , date=16 September 2013 , access-date=12 June 2015


The Cuban branch

"Jazz bands" began forming in Cuba as early as the 1920s. These bands often included both Cuban popular music and popular North American jazz, and show tunes in their repertoires. Despite this musical versatility, the movement of blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz was not strong in Cuba itself for decades. As Leonardo Acosta observes: "Afro-Cuban jazz developed simultaneously in New York and Havana, with the difference that in Cuba it was a silent and almost natural process, practically imperceptible".{{rp, 59Cuba's contribution to the genre came relatively late, beginning with the band
Irakere Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest') is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album ''Irakere''. Irakere was a seminal musical laborator ...
. {{blockquote, With Irakere, a new era in Cuban jazz begins in 1973, one that will extend all the way to the present. At the same time, this period represents the culmination of a series of individual and collective efforts from our so-called transition period, which will end with the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. Irakere was in part a product of the Moderna, as its founding members completed their musical training in that orchestra and also played jazz in the different quartets and quintets that were created with the OCMM. Among the founders of Irakere were pianist Chucho Valdéz, its director since the beginning, ndsaxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who acted as assistant director".{{rp, 211 "Chékere-son" (1976) introduced a style of "Cubanized" bebop-flavored horn lines, that departed from the more "angular"
guajeo A guajeo (Anglicized pronunciation: ''wa-hey-yo'') is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Some musicians only use the term ''guajeo'' for ostinato patterns played specifically by a ...
-based lines typical of Cuban popular music. {{blockquote, "Chékere-son" is an extremely interesting one. It's based on a legendary 1945 Charlie Parker bebop composition called "Billie's Bounce." Almost every phrase of the Parker song can be found in "Chékere-son" but it's all jumbled together in a very clever and compelling way. David Peñalosa sees the track as a pivotal one – perhaps the first really satisfying fusion of clave and bebop horn lines".{{cite web , title=History and Discography of Irakere – 1976 – Areíto 3660 & 3926 , url=http://www.timba.com/encyclopedia_pages/1976-are-to-3660-3926 , website=timba.com , access-date=24 March 2019 , date=23 March 2011 The horn line style introduced in "Chékere-son" is heard today in Afro-Cuban jazz, and the contemporary popular dance genre known as
timba Timba is a Cuban genre of music based on Cuban ''son'' with ''salsa'', American Funk/R&B and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music. Timba rhythm sections differ from their salsa counterparts, because timba emphasizes the bass dru ...
. Another important Irakere contribution is their use of batá and other Afro-Cuban folkloric drums. "Bacalao con pan" is the first song recorded by Irakere to use batá. The tune combines the folkloric drums, jazzy dance music, and distorted electric guitar with
wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...
. According to Raúl A. Fernández, the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna members would not have been allowed by the orquesta to record the unconventional song. The musicians travelled to Santiago to record it. "Somehow the tune made it from Santiago to radio stations in Havana where it became a hit; Irakere was formally organized a little bit later". Several of the founding members did not always appreciate Irakere's fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban elements. They saw the Cuban folk elements as a type of nationalistic "fig leaf", cover for their true love—jazz. They were obsessed with jazz. Cuba's Ministry of Culture is said to have viewed jazz as the music of "imperialist America." Pablo Menéndez, founder of Mezcla, recalls: "Irakere were jazz musicians who played stuff like 'Bacalao con pan' with a bit of a tongue in cheek attitude—'for the masses.' I remember Paquito d'Rivera thought it was pretty funny stuff (as opposed to 'serious' stuff)" (2011: web). In spite of the ambivalence by some members towards Irakere's Afro-Cuban folkloric/jazz fusion, their experiments changed Cuban popular music, Latin jazz, and salsa. Another important Cuban jazz musician is pianist
Gonzalo Rubalcaba Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963) is an Afro-Cuban jazz pianist and composer. Early life Rubalcaba was born Gonzalo Julio González Fonseca in Havana, Cuba into a musical family. He adopted his great grandmother's name for professional use, ...
, whose innovative jazz guajeos revolutionized Cuban-style piano in the 1980s. Like the musicians of his generation who founded the timba era, Rubalcaba is a product of the Cuban music education system. He studied both piano and drums. Rubalcaba began his classical musical training at Manuel Saumell Conservatory at age 9, where he had to choose piano; he moved up to "middle-school" at Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, and finally earned his degree in music composition from Havana's Institute of Fine Arts in 1983. By that time he was already playing in clubs and music halls in Havana. Many Cuban jazz bands, such as the saxophonist Tony Martinez's group, perform at a level few non-Cubans can match rhythmically. The clave matrix offers infinite possibilities for rhythmic textures in jazz. The Cuban-born drummer Dafnis Prieto in particular, has been a trailblazer in expanding the parameters of clave experimentation. Afro-Cuban singer Daymé Arocena has been described as a "cross between Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin".{{cite web , url=https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458447213/npr-musics-50-favorite-albums-of-2015 , title=NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums Of 2015 , website=NPR , access-date=2017-04-28


Clave license

More than a half century ago, Mario Bauzá developed arranging in-clave to an art. Another name for clave is guide-pattern, and that is how Bauzá related to it. He taught Tito Puente, and Puente's arrangers learned from him.{{rp, 248 The techniques were passed down from one generation to the next. Many educated Cuban musicians reject the idea of 3-2/2-3 clave. Dafnis Prieto and Alain Pérez reject the concept.{{rp, 249 Many younger musicians reject the concept of "clave rules". Pérez states, "I just don't treat the clave as a study or a profound analysis conceived around where it overlaps and where it comes in. I didn't learn it in that way".{{cite web , last1=Martínez , first1=Pepe , title=Entrevista – Alain Pérez – 2002 – Madrid – Alain Pérez Interview Part 2 , url=http://www.timba.com/artist_pages/alain-p-rez-interview-part-2 , website=timba.com , access-date=24 March 2019 , language=es Bobby Sanabria laments the pervasiveness of this attitude in Cuba. "The lack of clave consciousness in Cuba is starting to be felt more and more where the rhythmic equilibrium established by the clave direction is being sacrificed due to lack of knowledge in how to work with it from an arranging standpoint by young arrangers especially in the timba movement"{{rp, 251 Perhaps
Juan Formell Juan Climaco Formell Cortina (August 2, 1942 – May 1, 2014) was a Cuban bassist, composer, and arranger, best known as the director of Los Van Van. He was a creator of popular danceable music and credited with bringing electronic instrumentatio ...
, founder of
Los Van Van Los Van Van is one of the leading musical groups of post-revolutionary Cuba. It was founded in 1969 by bassist Juan Formell, who directed the band until his death in 2014. Formell and former band members Changuito and Pupy are some of the most im ...
, summed up this contemporary Cuban clave attitude best. "We Cubans like to think we have 'clave license'...and we don't feel obsessed about the clave as many others do".{{cite book , last1=Mauleon , first1=Rebeca , title=101 Montunos , date=1999 , publisher=Sher , location=Petaluma, California , page=16


References

{{Reflist {{Jazz {{DEFAULTSORT:Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban culture Cuban styles of music Jazz genres