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Tata Güines
Federico Arístides Soto Alejo (June 30, 1930 – February 4, 2008), better known as Tata Güines, was a Cuban percussionist, bandleader and arranger. He was widely regarded as a master of the conga drum, and alongside Carlos "Patato" Valdés, influential in the development of contemporary Afro-Cuban music, including Afro-Cuban jazz. He specialized in a form of improvisation known as descarga, a format in which he recorded numerous albums throughout the years with Cachao, Frank Emilio Flynn, Estrellas de Areito, Alfredo Rodríguez and Jane Bunnett, among others. In the 1990s he released two critically acclaimed albums as a leader: ''Pasaporte'' and ''Aniversario''. His composition "Pa' gozar" has become a standard (music), standard of the descarga genre. Life and career Early years Arístides Soto was born in Güines, a town east of Havana in the former province of Havana in Cuba, on June 30, 1930. He grew up with his parents and his seven siblings, leaving school after year 4 to ...
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Güines
Güines is a municipality and town in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba. It is located southeast of Havana, next to the Mayabeque River. It is the most populated town, but not the capital, of its province. History The city was founded in 1737 by the Spanish. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, what is now Güines was part of a region ruled by the Indian chief Habaguanex. One of the earliest mentions of the word Güines is in 1598, when Don Diego de Rivera or Ribera was awarded a land grant for ''Los Güines Corral''. Güines can be considered one of the primary points of Cuba's transformation into a sugar-producing slave society in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. Its demographics radically changed as a result. As the historian Ada Ferrer explains, "people classified as white had accounted for about three-quarters of the population in 1775" but "by the 1820s, they constituted less than 38 percent." In 1837, a railway was opened from Havana - the first in Cuba and Spain, a ...
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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 ...
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Conjunto Casino
The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño'' and ''tejano'', Cuban ''conjuntos'' specialize in the ''son'', as well as its derivations such as ''salsa''. Mexican Mexican conjunto music, also known as ''conjunto tejano'', was born in south Texas at the end of the 19th century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The ''bajo sexto'' has come to accompany the button accordion and is integral to the ''conjunto'' sound. Many ''conjuntos'' are concentrated in the Southwestern portion of the United States, primarily in Texas and California. In Mexico, the term ''conjunto'' is associated with '' norteño'' and ''tejano'' music. Since ''tejano'' was bred out of ''norteño'' music originally, this association is not entirely false. However, due to various cultural and soc ...
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José Fajardo (musician)
José Antonio Fajardo Ramos (October 18, 1919 – December 11, 2001) was a Cuban Charanga (Cuba), charanga bandleader and flautist, who played the traditional Five-key flute, five-keyed wooden flute. Born in Guane, Pinar del Río Province, Fajardo learned the flute from his father, before moving to Havana in the 1930s. He played with the band of Antonio María Romeu and formed his own charanga band in 1949. He defected to the United States in 1961 while touring Japan and reformed his band in New York City with new musicians. Fajardo died on December 11, 2001, in New York, at the age of 82. References

1919 births 2001 deaths Cha-cha-cha musicians Cuban bandleaders Cuban charanga musicians Cuban male musicians Cuban flautists Cuban composers Cuban male composers Danzón musicians Fania Records artists Mambo musicians People from Pinar del Río 20th-century flautists {{Cuba-musician-stub ...
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Sonora Matancera
La Sonora Matancera is a Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music. Founded in 1924 and led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Rogelio Martínez, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music. Notable singers to have sung and recorded with the band include Bienvenido Granda,''FIU Libraries. Florida International University/The Díaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music, Sección 04 M.'' Chronology of personnel changes and recordings based on the two-volume book ''Historia de la Sonora Matancera'' by Dr. Héctor Ramírez Bedoya. Discography compiled with the assistance of Ramírez Bedoya, Carlos Deiby Velásquez, Humberto Corredor, and Osvaldo Oganes. Data assembled by Dr. Cristóbal Díaz Ayala.Ramírez Bedoya, http://sonoramatancera.com/s-m/artistas-grabaron-con-la-sm.html.Ramírez Bedoya, http://sonoramatancera.com/s-m/historia.html. Daniel Santos, Myrta S ...
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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 the age of 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. He co-wrote some of Dizzy Gillespie's Latin-flavored compositions, such as " Manteca" and " Tin Tin Deo", and was the first Latin percussionist in Gillespie's band. According to Rebeca Mauleón, "Few percussionists have played as integral a role in shaping Latin music as Luciano 'Chano' Pozo González". Early life Luciano "Chano" Pozo González was born in Havana to Cecelio González and Carnación Pozo. Chano grew up with three sisters and a brother, as well as his older half brother, Félix Chappottín, who would later become one of the great Cuban '' soneros''. The family struggled with poverty throughout his youth. His mother died when Chano was aged 11, and Cecelio took his family to live with his long-time mistress, Natalia, ...
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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). Congas were originally used in Afro-Cuban music genres such as conga (hence their name) and rumba, where each drummer would play a single drum. Following numerous innovations in conga drumming and construction during the mid-20th century, as well as its internationalization, it became increasingly common for drummers to play two or three drums. Congas have become a popular instrument in many forms of Latin music such as son (when played by conjuntos), descarga, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, songo, merengue and Latin rock. Although the exact origins of the conga drum are unknown, researchers agree that it was developed by Cuban people of African descent during the late 19th century or early 20th century. Its direct ancestors are thou ...
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Arsenio Rodríguez
Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; August 31, 1911 – December 30, 1970)Giro, Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba''. La Habana, v. 4, p. 45 et seq. was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the Tres (musical instrument), tres, as well as the tumbadora, and he specialized in Son cubano, son, Cuban rumba, rumba and other Afro-Cuban music styles. In the 1940s and 1950s Rodríguez established the ''Conjunto#Cuban conjunto, conjunto'' format and contributed to the development of the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa (music), salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the Mambo (music), mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs. Despite being blind since the age of seven, Rodríguez quickly managed to become one of Cuba's foremost ''treseros''. His first hit, "Bruca maniguá" by Orquesta Casino de la Playa, came as a songwriter in 1937. For the f ...
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Tres (instrument)
The tres (Spanish language, Spanish for ''three'') is a three-Course (music), 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 son cubano, 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 Puerto Rican cuatro, cuatro. The tres developed in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern region of Guantánamo Province, 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 Classical guitar, 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 ...
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Sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sucrose, which accumulates in the Plant stem, stalk internodes. Sugarcanes belong to the grass family, Poaceae, an economically important flowering plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops. It is native to New Guinea. Sugarcane was an ancient crop of the Austronesian people, Austronesian and Indigenous people of New Guinea, Papuan people. The best evidence available today points to the New Guinea area as the site of the original domestication of ''Saccharum officinarum''. It was introduced to Polynesia, Island Melanesia, and Madagascar in prehistoric times via Austronesian sailors. It was also introduced by Austronesian sailors to India and then to Southern China by 500 ...
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Paperboy
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th century, this was often a young person's first job, perhaps undertaken before or after school. This contrasts with the newsboy or newspaper hawker, now extremely rare in Western nations, who would sell newspapers to passersby on the street, often with very vocal promotion. They were common when multiple daily papers in every cityas many as 50 in New York City alonecompeted. History The paperboy occupies a prominent place in the popular memory of many countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Japan. This is because it has long been the first paying job available to young boys. Newspaper industry lore suggests that the first paperboy, hired in 1833, was 10-year-old Barney Flaherty who ...
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Shoeshiner
Shoeshiner or boot polisher is an occupation in which a person cleans and buffs shoes and then applies shoe polish, a waxy paste to give a shiny appearance and a protective coating. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job was traditionally done by a male child. Other synonyms are bootblack and shoeblack. While the role is denigrated in much of Western culture, Western civilization, shining shoes is an important source of income for many children and families throughout the world. Some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoemaking, shoe repairs and general tailoring. Some well-known people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents. History Very large households in Victorian England sometimes included a young male servant called the Boot Boy, specializing in the care of footwear. Hotel staff for this function were commonly called The Boots. (A Boots was one of the crew in The Hunting of the Snark.) Branded shoe polish ...
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