Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo,
Latin R&B) is a
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of
Latin music
Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...
and dance which was popular in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
mainly among teenage African Americans and Latinos. The style was a fusion of popular
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
(R&B) and
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
with
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, particular ...
and
son montuno
Son montuno is a subgenre of son cubano developed by Arsenio Rodríguez in the 1940s. Although ''son montuno'' ("mountain sound") had previously referred to the ''sones'' played in the mountains of eastern Cuba, Arsenio repurposed the term to den ...
, with songs in both
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
. The ''
American Bandstand
''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...
'' television program introduced the dance and the music to the mainstream American audience. Pete Rodríguez's "
I Like It like That"
was a famous boogaloo song.
Except for the name, the dance is unrelated to the
Boogaloo
Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage African Americans and Latinos ...
street dance from
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
and the
electric boogaloo, a style of dance which developed decades later under the influence of
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
music and
hip-hop dance
Hip hop dance is a range of street dance styles primarily performed to hip hop music or that have evolved as part of hip hop culture. It is influenced by a wide range of styles that were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in ...
.
History
In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans in the United States listened to various styles of music, including
jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...
,
R&B and
doo-wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
. Latinos in New York City shared these tastes, but they also listened to genres like
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, particular ...
or
cha cha chá. There was a mixing of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and African Americans and others in clubs, whose bands tried to find common musical ground. Boogaloo was a result of this search, a marriage of many styles including Cuban
son montuno
Son montuno is a subgenre of son cubano developed by Arsenio Rodríguez in the 1940s. Although ''son montuno'' ("mountain sound") had previously referred to the ''sones'' played in the mountains of eastern Cuba, Arsenio repurposed the term to den ...
,
guaguancó
Guaguancó () is a subgenre of Cuban rumba, combining percussion, voices, and dance. There are two main styles: Havana and Matanzas.
Percussion
* battery of three conga drummers: the ''tumba'' (lowest), ''tres dos'' (middle, playing a counter-cl ...
,
guajira,
guaracha
The guaracha () is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical thea ...
,
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, particular ...
, and American
R&B and
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
. Styles like doo wop also left a sizable influence, through Tony Pabón (of the
Pete Rodríguez Band), Bobby Marín, King Nando, and Johnny Colón.
Boogaloo has been called by Izzy Sanabria "the greatest potential that Cuban rhythms had to really cross over in terms of music".
Though boogaloo did not become mainstream nationwide until later in the decade, two early Top 20 hits came in 1963:
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 and ...
's cover version of the
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
's "
Watermelon Man" and
Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
's "El Watusi". Inspired by these two successes, a number of bands began imitating their infectious rhythms (which were ''Latinized R&B''), intense
conga
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). ...
rhythms and clever
novelty
Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
lyrics. Boogaloo was the only Cuban-style rhythm which occasionally acquired English lyrics. Established Cuban-influenced orchestras also recorded the occasional boogaloo, including
Tito Rodríguez
Pablo Rodríguez Lozada (January 4, 1923 – February 28, 1973), better known as Tito Rodríguez, was a Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He started his career singing under the tutelage of his brother, Johnny Rodríguez. In the 1940s, both m ...
and
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 c ...
. Most of the other groups were young musicians – some were teenagers – the Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens, the Latinaires,
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers was a Latin jazz, soul jazz and R&B group formed in 1959 by timbales player Henry "Pucho" Brown. Of the many musicians that worked in his group, Chick Corea is among them, Corea leaving prior to Pucho's recording ...
, and
Joe Bataan
Joe Bataan (also spelled Bataán) (born Bataan Nitollano; November 15, 1942) is a Latin soul musician from New York.
Early life
Joe Bataan was born Bataan Nitollano and grew up in the 103rd Street and Lexington Avenue part of East Harlem in New ...
.
Use of the term ''boogaloo'' in referring to a musical style was probably coined in about 1966 by
Richie Ray
Ricardo "Richie" Ray (born February 15, 1945) is a Nuyorican (a New York-born Puerto Rican) virtuoso pianist, singer, music arranger, composer and religious minister known for his success beginning in 1965 as part of the duo Richie Ray & Bobby ...
and
Bobby Cruz
Bobby Cruz (born February 2, 1937), is a salsa singer and religious minister. He was part of the duo Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz. Both Cruz and Ray became religious ministers and as such founded over 70 Christian churches during the time they retired ...
. The biggest boogaloo hit of the 1960s was "Bang Bang" by the
Joe Cuba
Joe Cuba (April 22, 1931 – February 15, 2009), was an American conga drummer of Puerto Rican descent widely regarded as the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".
Early years
Joe Cuba (birth name: Gilberto Miguel Calderón) was born in Harlem, New York ...
Sextet, which sold over one million copies in 1966. "El Pito" was another hit by this popular combo. Hits by other groups included Johnny Colón's "Boogaloo Blues", Pete Rodríguez's "
I Like It like That",
and Héctor Rivera's "At the Party".
The same year as Joe Cuba's pop success, 1966, saw the closing of New York City's
Palladium Ballroom
The Palladium Ballroom was a New York City night club. The US mambo craze that started in 1948 began at the Palladium Ballroom. On March 15, 1946, it opened at the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street.''New York Post'', March 14, 1946; p ...
, when the venue, the home of big band mambo for years, lost its liquor license.
[Steward, Sue 1999. ''Salsa: the musical heartbeat of Latin America''. Thames & Hudson, London. p60] The closing marked the end of mainstream mambo, and boogaloo ruled the Latin charts for several years before
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:
A ...
began to take over. At the same time, several other rhythmical inventions came to notice: the dengue, the jala-jala and the shing-a-ling were all offshoots of the mambo and chachachá.
The older generation of Latin musicians have been accused of using their influence to repress the young movement, for commercial reasons. There was certainly pressure on booking agents by the established bands.
[Roberts, John Storm. 1979. ''The Latin Tinge''. Oxford.] The craze was mostly over by 1970, perhaps because of the hostility of established bands and key booking agents; the reason is uncertain. Almost every major and minor Latin dance artist of the time had recorded at least a few boogaloos on their albums. It had been an intense, if brief, musical movement, and the music is still highly regarded today.
The Latin boogaloo bands were mostly led by young, sometimes even teenage musicians from New York's Puerto Rican community. These included, but weren't limited to, Joe Bataan, Joe Cuba,
Bobby Valentín
Roberto "Bobby" Valentín (born June 9, 1941), is a musician and salsa bandleader. He is known as "El Rey del Bajo" (King of the Bass).
Early years
Valentín was born in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. He was taught by his father to play the guitar at ...
, the
Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens,
Johnny Colón
Johnny Colon is an American salsa musician, leader of the Johnny Colon Orchestra and founder of the East Harlem Music School, also known as a major contributor to the boogaloo sound of the 1960s.
Colon was born in New York City to parents of Pue ...
, and the Latinaires. As such, Latin boogaloo can be seen as "the first
Nuyorican
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...
music" (René López), and has been called "the greatest potential that (Latinos) had to really cross over in terms of music" (Izzy Sanabria). However, Latino musicians and composers also made a big contribution to
doo-wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
.
Latin boogaloo also spread throughout the wider Latin music world, especially in Puerto Rico, where top band
El Gran Combo
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican salsa orchestra based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012, it was often considered Puerto Rico's most successful musical group. The ...
released many boogaloos. Latin music scenes in Peru, Colombia, Panama and elsewhere also embraced the boogaloo. Though the dance craze only lasted until 1968/69, Latin boogaloo was popular enough that almost every major and minor Latin dance artist of the time recorded at least a few boogaloos on their albums. That included boogaloos by long-time veteran, mambo-era musicians such as
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 ...
and his "Ay Que Rico" or
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 c ...
's "Hit the Bongo".
The boogaloo faded from popularity by the end of 1969.
[p168 What caused the fairly rapid end of the boogaloo's reign is in dispute. According to several sources, jealous older Latin music artists colluded with record labels (in particular, ]Fania Records
Fania Records is a New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his Brooklyn-born Italian-American ex-New York City Police Officer turned lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its nam ...
), radio DJs, and dance hall promoters to blacklist boogaloo bands from venues and radio. This scenario is explored in the 2016 film ''We Like It Like That'', a documentary on the history of Latin boogaloo. Alternatively, it was a fad that had run out of steam.[p168 Its demise allowed older musicians to make a comeback on the New York scene. The explosive success of salsa in the early 1970s saw former giants like Puente and the Palmieri Brothers return to the top, while most Latin boogaloo bands went out of business (Joe Bataan being a notable exception).
In the 2000s, Latin boogaloo has seen a resurgence in popularity, with artists like Bataan experiencing renewed interest in their Latin boogaloo output, and new groups emerging to form a Latin boogaloo revival.]
In Cali
Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...
, Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, boogaloo, 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:
A ...
and pachanga
Pachanga is a genre of music which is described as a mixture of son montuno and merengue and has an accompanying signature style of dance. This type of music has a festive, lively style and is marked by jocular, mischievous lyrics. Pachanga o ...
are played by disk jockeys
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
in FM and AM radio stations and dance clubs.
References
* Boggs, Vernon W. (1939-1994) ''Salsiology'' (Published by Excelsior Music Pub. Co., 1992)
*Flores, Juan. ''From Bomba to Hip-Hop.'' Columbia University Press, 2000. ISBN 9780231500166
External links
''Salsaroots.com'' article: "Boogalu"
Busca Salsa article
Article in "The Paris Review": "Fania at Fifty: The Rise of a Salsa Empire and the Fall of Boogaloo"
Bobby Sanabria
essay about Latin boogaloo for Ay Que Boogaloo">Bobby Sanabria">Bobby Sanabria
essay about Latin boogaloo for Ay Que Boogaloo*
{{Authority control
20th-century music genres
Hispanic and Latino American culture in New York City
Puerto Rican styles of music
Tropical music
Novelty and fad dances
Rhythm and blues music genres
Soul music genres
1960s in Latin music