but recordings of improvised pieces can be found with the emergence of Latin
146 | Descarga
jazz in New York in the early 1940s. On May 29, 1943, in the Park Palace Ball-
room, Machito and his orchestra played “Tanga,” a piano vamp based on broken
chords. His players would take turns soloing using jazz phrasings resulting in a
different version of the song at each show. Later in the decade, descargas ap-
peared at famous New York clubs like Royal-Roots, Bop City, and Birdland.
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker’s pieces with the Machito Orchestra in 1948
and 1949 produced tracks that were 10 to 15 minutes long, unheard of at the time.
Tito Puente’s live sets featured extended jazz improvisations, one famous tune
being “Picadillo.”
The first organized descarga in Cuba was witnessed by jazz sponsor Norman
Grantz in 1952. His amazement led to the cross-fertilization of Cuban improvi-
sation. Pianist Bebo Valdés’s 1952 seven-minute guajeo piece titled “Con Poco
Poco” would become successful not only in Cuba, but in the United States upon
its 1953 release. “Con Poco Poco” featured Gustavo Mas on tenor saxophone, con-
guero Rolando Alfonso, and bassist Quique Hernández. Valdés and Mas would
influence Les Brown and tenor saxophonist Dave Pell whose orchestra in 1953
played “Montoona Clipper” at the Palladium Ballroom in Hollywood, based on
“Con Poco Poco.” In 1955, Valdés and Mas produced Cuba’s second descarga en-
titled “Mambo Caliente.” In 1956 the word descarga was first used to describe the
music with vocalist Francisco Fellove’s 17-minute “Descarga Caliente.” Fellove
innovated Afro-Cuban scat singing in the same session with the track “Cimmar-
ron.” Both were released in 1957 worldwide under Panart Records, selling over one
million copies. Chico O’Farill organized descargas as well, notably “Descarga 1”
and “Descarga 2,” the latter of which featured trombone, conga, timbals, and bass
solos, yet only three minutes of it was recorded.
Bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez became famous for his Cuban descarga. Cuban
Jam Sessions in Miniature was recorded after gigs were over in the early hours
of the morning. Released by Panart in 1957, this record established Cachao as
a premiere Afro-Cuban bassist. In 1961 and 1962 he recorded Descarga Con
Cacbao and Jam Session with a Feeling respectively for Maype Records. New
York radio DJ Dick “Ricardo” Sugar aired Cachao’s 1957 LP furthering his
international status and influencing many New York musicians such as Hec-
tor Rivera and Ray Baretto with their respective hits “Tumba Que Tumba” and
“Cocinando Sauce.”
The descarga tradition continued into the 1960s and into the salsa era. The Alegre All Stars released their first LP in 1963 featuring descarga influenced by
Valdés and Cachao. Tito Rodriguez’s 1968 descarga was also dedicated to Cachao.
Fania Records recorded descargas featuring Johnny Pacheco in 1965 with the des-
carga “Azucare.” In 1972, Fania produced the movie Our Latin Thing, the first
picture featuring the Cuban descarga. Two years later, the Tico-Alegre All Stars
Dominica
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147
played the descarga “La Cosa Alegre” at Carnegie Hall. Ricardo Ray, Joe Cuba,
Ray Mantilla, Charlie Palmieri, and Paquito D’Rivera are just a few of the Latin
jazz musicians that have recorded their descargas.
Further Reading
Salazar, Max. “La descarga cubana: The History of Afro-Cuban Music and Improvisa-
tion.” Latin Beat Magazine, February 1997.
Raymond Epstein
Dominica
Dominica is an island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean
that is about halfway between Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. As a result
of being occupied by both France and England, people in Dominica speak both En-
glish and French Creole. Despite the fact that a majority of its population (86.8%)
is black, for more than two centuries Dominicans were taught to believe that their
African-derived traditions were uncultured and evil. It was not until the late 1950s
that efforts began to be made to promote an authentically Dominican culture and,
as a result, sense of pride in the music of Dominica.
Historically, the principal musical genres in Dominica included bélé and the
quadrille. Bélé is a traditional Dominican type of song and dance accompanied by
a drum, triangle, and maracas that is performed on major holidays and is often as-
sociated with the working class. The quadrille is a more formal style of music and
dance that, like many other popular genres in the Caribbean, was adopted from
Europe.
Dominica first developed a modern popular music scene with the introduction of
calypso in the 1960s, which became integrated into the Dominican Carnival cel-
ebration. In the 1970s, a new musical form developed in Dominica derived from
calypso known as cadence-lypso. But, in the 1980s, musics from neighboring is-
lands such as zouk from Martinique and soca from Trinidad eclipsed the popularity of cadence-lypso.
Today Dominica, like many other countries in the Caribbean, enjoys a wide
range of popular music that draws on its unique historical roots as well as styles
introduced from other nations such as jazz, reggae , soul, and rhythm and blues.
Further Reading
Guilbault, Jocelyne. “Dominica.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, edited
by Dale A. Olsen and Daniel E. Sheehy, 840–44. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998.
Tracy McFarlan
148 | Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispan-
iola with Haiti. The two major genres of Dominican popular music are bachata
and merengue . A third distinctively Dominican genre, although it enjoys less
mass-mediated popularity, is Afro-Dominican fusion music. Current Domini-
can artists are also producing popular music within genres such as rock, nueva
canción, Protest Song in Latin America, reggaetón, son , pop, salsa , and, primarily in the New York Dominican community, rap and rhythm and blues. As
early as 1936, merengue was declared the national music of the Dominican Re-
public, and until the mid-1990s, orquesta merengue was the most popular main-
stream genre; however, since the 1990s, bachata has surpassed it in popularity.
During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, these two musical genres articulated the
class struggles that characterized Dominican society, each representing the in-
terests and values of distinct social and economic groups. Bachata was primarily
working class music, especially for migrants from the countryside, and it con-
trasted with the images of glamour and sophistication associated with orquesta
merengue and the upper classes. Afro-Dominican fusion music, although mar-
ginalized for most of its existence, emerged in the 1970s and is currently at the
peak of its popularity.
Early merengue, dating back to the 1850s, can be described as a pan-Caribbean
ballroom dance that evolved from the European contradanza and was infused with
Afro-Caribbean rhythmic inflections. While there are still forms of merengue per-
f
ormed in Haiti, Venezuela, and Colombia, it was in the Dominican Republic that
a particular type of Dominican merengue — merengue típico cibaeño —achieved
the status of national music. Merengue típico is a genre of music that flourished
in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic, a region known for its lighter
skinned population. It was commonly performed by an ensemble of accordion,
güira (metal scraper), double-headed tambora drum, and a bass instrument called
marimba . Later in the 20th century, saxophones were added, and the marimba was
replaced by an electric bass. Because of its association with a lighter skinned and
more European population, merengue played an important role in the formation
of Dominican national identity and exaltation of Spanish values during the dicta-
torship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (1930–1961), when an orchestrated version of
merengue típico cibaeño, played by a big-band-like ensemble featuring trumpets
and saxophones, became the national symbol of the Dominican Republic. Yet, even
after Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, merengue remained the music that repre-
sented Dominicanness, as 31 years of imposition had been internalized by many
Dominicans. This orchestrated version of merengue, popular in the Dominican Re-
public and abroad, stands in contrast to the more folk-derived and rural merengue
Dominican
Republic
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149
típico, which was often considered backwards. However, merengue típico was not
replaced entirely as it continued to exist in rural communities in the Dominican
Republic. In urban areas of the Cibao region, a merengue típico moderno devel-
oped through the adding of conga drums and electric bass to the traditional in-
strumentation. In recent decades, merengue típico has been mixed with hip-hop,
creating a new urban style. Orquesta merengue, while enjoying extreme local and
international popularity up to the 1990s, is also changing, often drawing from Afro-
Dominican music to remain fresh and popular.
Bachata is a vocal popular music that has become one of the most popular genres
of Latin American music today. This popularity is a relatively recent development
since bachata began as a highly marginalized genre and was practically unknown
internationally until the early 1990s. Despite the prominence of guitar accompa-
niment, bachata is essentially a vocal genre with a highly emotional vocal style
appropriate for the character of its lyrics, which articulate issues of a hard working-
class life. The instrumentation of bachata consists of one or two guitars, maracas
or güiras (shaker or metal scraper), and bongó drums. The word bachata originally meant a rural party or get-together that included music, drink, and food. The term
then came to be applied to the music itself, since guitar music was the preferred
music of choice for these kinds of gatherings. The music was named not by bachata
musicians, fans, or industry entrepreneurs, but by the country’s urban middle and
upper classes, who intended to stigmatize and trivialize these kinds of low-class
gatherings as backward and vulgar.
Bachata was born in the 1960s during a period of rural to urban migration; rural
migrants lived in the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods of the capital
city, often without water, electricity, or any kind of public amenities. Between the
years 1960 and 1970, the population of the capital city of the Dominican Republic,
Santo Domingo, nearly doubled, and early bachata, whose roots were quintessen-
tially romantic, began to reflect the hardships of the urban life as experienced es-
pecially by rural migrants. Bachata also reflected and helped articulate the shifting
experiences of male-female relationships in this new environment. Many bachatas
composed during this period consisted of macho bawdy lyrics; a male singer bitterly
denouncing women as treacherous and faithless, reflecting the strains and tensions
which urbanization imposed on family life. By the 1990s, bachata lost some of its
significance as an urban folk genre while, at the same time, it now appeals to a wider
and more diverse audience. It is also being mixed with rhythm and blues, reggaetón,
and hip-hop.
Afro-Dominican fusion music ( Música de fusión ) is a genre that combines tra-
ditional Dominican music—especially historically marginalized Afro-Dominican
music—with accepted forms of global popular music largely as an expression of
racial pride and consciousness. Starting in the 1970s, a movement emerged among
150 | Dominican Republic
progressive intellectuals, folklorists, and performers to recognize and promote the
African heritage of the Dominican Republic, a movement that led to the promotion
and creation of forms of Afro-Dominican-influenced music.
Many forms of sacred drumming traditions from the Dominican Republic
have found their way into Afro-Dominican fusion and merengues as well as
other forms of popular music. All originally ritualistic, these forms have been
increasingly showing up in music and dance clubs. Until the 1970s, these genres
were left out from historical accounts of Dominican music due to the racist
policies of the Trujillo regime. These genres include congo, sarandunga, palo,
and gagá. Congo and sarandunga are associated with specific Afro-Dominican
brotherhoods or cofradías, which are traditional Afro-Caribbean societies cre-
ated as mutual aid and ritualistic social structures among disenfranchised pop-
ulations. Palo is the most widespread music and dance of the country. Many
current scholars claim that it should have been, instead of merengue, the na-
tional music of the Dominican Republic; however, because of its African fea-
tures and religious association, it has been repressed. Palos are one-headed
drums, although there is no standardized type throughout the country. There are
also different types of ensemble sizes and rhythmic patterns. Palo, like congo
and sarandunga, is also associated with Afro-Dominican religious brotherhoods
as well as used in rituals of Dominican Vodou. Gagá is a Haitian-Dominican
magic-based carnavalesque society of the Lenten season, introduced into the
many Dominican sugarcane settlements in recent decades by Haitian seasonal
workers. In recent decades, gagá has been Dominicanized by second- and third-
generation Haitian-Dominicans, as songs are being sung in Spanish in addition
to those in Haitian Creole. The name itself is a Dominican transliteration of rara,
the name it receives in Haiti. Despite its carnavalesque appearance, there is a
ritualistic aspect to gagá as well.
Dominican forms of popular music, which could previously be defined as ei-
ther rural or urban, are now experiencing a rich period of cross fertilization and
influence. Although Dominican popular music began in an effort to claim Spanish
tradition through orquesta merengue, current movements point away from Europe
toward Africa. These African-influenced genres have steadily increased in visibil-
ity and popularity in the early 21st century.
Further Reading
Austerlitz, Paul. “The Jazz Tinge in Dominican Music: A Black Atlantic Perspective.”
Black Music Journal 18 (1998): 1�
��19.
Hernandez, Deborah Pacini. “’La lucha sonora’: Dominican Popular Music in the Post-
Trujillo Era.” Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamerican 12 (1991)
2: 105–23.
Angelina Tallaj
Dúo | 151
Dúo
A dúo is an ensemble of two play-
ers, either vocal or purely instru-
mental, and usually accompanied
by guitars or some other type of
plucked strings. The
dúo
is the
simplest of ensembles in Latin
America, and for that reason it is
seen throughout Latin America
with each country or region having
its own type of dúos. In Cuba, the
dúo may consist of one or two gui-
tars and a tres , with the two instru-
mentalists singing a harmony, the
first or top voice known as prim-
ero and the second or bottom voice
known as segundo. The celebrated
singer from Buena Vista Social
Club, Compay Segundo, got his
name for his ability and reputation Cuban artists Omara Portuondo (left) and
to provide this lower harmony. The Compay Segundo perform a dúo in Mexico City,
repertoire for the Cuban dúo con- 2002. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)
sists mainly of boleros and cancio-
nes trovadorescas, claves , criollas and guajiras . In Mexico, a similar dúo might consist of guitar and requinto romantico , as in the repertoire for sones istmeños
from Oaxaca. In Colombia, the dúo banbuquero performs music for two voices
accompanied by a guitar and a tiple. A typical dúo performance will have an instrumental introduction where one of the players performs a melodic lead, either
memorized or improvised, to an accompanying harmony from the other instru-
ment. In between the verses, there may be an extended solo by the lead instru-
ment, and the melodic instrument may also play instrumental tags at the ends of
vocal phrases. The vocalists will usually sing a parallel harmony together or they
may sing a simple alternation, or call and response. Sometimes an urban dúo is
accompanied by a rhythm section, but in spite of the addition of the percussion
instrumentalists, the identity of the ensemble remains a dúo.
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 28