Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music
Page 40
Machito (1908–1984) was a Cuban bandleader, baritone singer, and mara-
quero famous for his lead role in the infl uential Latin jazz band The Afro-
Cubans. The Afro-Cubans fused the melodic and improvisatory aspects of
jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms. Machito left Cuba in 1937 for New York
where The Afro-Cubans were founded by his brother-in-law Mario Bauzá.
By 1940 The Afro-Cubans consisted of Machito singing with an ensemble
of two trumpets, two saxophones, piano, bass, timbals , bongos , and conga .
Bauzá’s interest in bebop along with Machito’s grounding in clave formed
the Latin Jazz style cubop. “Tanga” became The Afro-Cubans’s theme song
and is an example of jazz improvisation featured over a clave rhythm. Chords
played for an extended duration, common with The Afro-Cubans, would in-
fl uence the modal jazz movement of the 1950s. Machito collaborated with
bandleader Stan Kenton, with whom he recorded a version of “El Manicero”
(“The Peanut Vendor”), a Cuban staple. He also recorded “Mango Mangué”
with Charlie Parker, and collaborated with Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz.
Machito infl uenced many Latin jazz and salsa artists including Tito Rodriguez
and Larry Harlow.
Further Reading
Austerlitz, Paul. Jazz Consciousness: Music, Race, and Humanity. Middletown,
CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005.
Raymond Epstein
One characteristic of Latin jazz in the 1960s was the importance of Brazilian
sources to the style (it is worth noting that some scholars object to the inclusion of
Brazilian-influenced music under the label Latin jazz as well as the overly general
nature of the label itself). Jazz musicians touring Brazil discovered the bossa nova
and the samba ; one of these was guitarist Charlie Byrd, who recorded Antonio
Carlos Jobim’s “Desafinado” with saxophonist Stan Getz in 1962. This recording
contributed significantly to the rise of Brazilian-influenced Latin jazz. Gerry Mul-
ligan, Herbie Mann, and Mongo Santamaria (an important figure in many types of
Latin jazz) were among the other musicians to play in the style.
Fusion with other styles of music, especially rock and funk, was a significant
trend in Latin jazz (and jazz in general) in the 1970s. Rock guitarist Carlos Santana’s
version of Puente’s “Oye Como Va” is a notable example, but the most important
226 | Latin Rock
group of the era in this respect was Irakere, formed by pianist Chucho Valdes and
including trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. The Fort
Apache Band was one of the most prominent Latin jazz ensembles of the 1980s;
their album Rumba para Monk reinterprets the music of Thelonious Monk from an
Afro-Cuban perspective. Among the highly regarded Latin jazz artists to emerge
since the 1980s are pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, pianist Danilo Perez, and saxophon-
ist David Sanchez.
Further Reading
Fernandez, Raul. Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination. San Francisco: Chronicle Books,
2002.
Kernfeld, Barry. “Latin Jazz.” In Grove Music Online, edited by Laura Macy. www.
grovemusic.com.
Roberts, John Storm. Latin Jazz: The First of the Fusions, 1880s to Today. New York:
Schirmer Books, 1999.
Santoro, Gene. “Latin Jazz.” In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, edited by Bill Kirchner,
522–33. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Washburn, Christopher. “Latin Jazz: The Other Jazz.” Current Musicology 71–73
(Spring 2001– Spring 2002): 409–26.
Lars Helgert
Latin Rock
The term Latin rock refers to a Latin American-infused style of rock that was devel-
oped during the 1960s and 1970s. The genre incorporates Latin American rhythms
and structures into a rock style and songs are often sung in Spanish. Prior to the
emergence of rock ‘n’ roll, Latin rock was influenced by different music styles in
an indirect way with cultural connections such as clothing, slang words in Span-
ish, and Latin American musical styles such as son , mambo , mariachi , rumba ,
tango , tejano, and norteño . While Elvis Presley represents the most iconic artist of the rock ‘n’ roll era, the Chicano rocker Ritchie Valens became an early figure for
Latin rock with his recording of the Mexican song “La Bamba,” as his most well-
known song. During the 1960s, attempts at integrating Mexican Americans into
political, social, and cultural aspects of the United States, as well as the intention
of preserving their own ethnicity, identity, and language, helped to create a strong
Latin Rock presence in popular music, with artists such as Carlos Santana, Tierra,
Malo, El Chicano, War, and Los Lobos among others.
Latin rock is a mixture of both North American and Latin American influences
that have developed over time. The wave of Mexican immigrants to the United
Latin
Rock
|
227
States from the 1920s to 1940s created fertile ground for musical confluences
between North America and Latin America. As early as the 1930s, for example,
Mexican Americans from Texas and California combined the boogie-woogie with
Cuban son in an effort to assimilate to the American lifestyle while still preserving
their Mexican traditions. In the 1950s rock ‘n’ roll helped to intensify the interac-
tions of ethnic groups from Latin America and the United States to create the be-
ginnings of the Latin Rock music scene. This intercultural exchange had diverse
influences including blues, country, jazz, and swing, as well as the rhythms of
Latin America such as Tex-Mex , tejano, norteño, samba , and tango. By combining a myriad of different sources, Latin rock expanded the possibilities of compo-
sition with Latin American rhythms and syncopation including sesquiáltera (two
against three) and Cuban clave , the latter borrowed from son and rumba.
One of the most well-known musicians during the late 1950s and 1960s was
Mexican guitarist Javier Bátiz, who became a mentor figure for Carlos Santana.
Santana, who became famous at Woodstock, brought Latin Rock into the main-
stream by combining African American and Latin American with rock ‘n’ roll. It
was with the exposure of Santana’s music that Latino-American bands gained in-
creased popularity in the 1970s. Bands such as Malo, El Chicano, and Redbone all
had top-selling songs including “Suavecito,” “Tell Her She’s Lovely,” and “Come
and Get Your Love.” The success of these groups was due to their biculturalism,
multilingualism, and intercultural competence, which became standard aspects of
performers in the genre. Most notable among these groups from the 1970s was Los
Lobos, who became successful by balancing their sound between rhythm and blues,
rock ‘n’ roll, and Latin-infused rock. In the 1980s, groups such as Cruzados and
Los Illegals strengthened the Latin American market within the broader context of
American rock.
Further Reading
Avant-Mier, Roberto. Rock the Nation: Latin/o Identities and the Latin Rock . New York:
the Continuum, 2010.
McCarthy, Jim and Sansoe, Ron. Voices of Latin Rock: The People and Events That
Shaped the Sound . Milwaukee, WI: Hal
Leonard Corporation, 2004.
McFarland, Pancho. Chicano Rap: Gender and Violence in the Postindustrial Barrio .
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.
Pacini Hernández, Deborah. Oye como va!: Hybridity and Identity in Latin Popular
Music . Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.
Reyes, David and Waldman, Tom. Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll
from Southern California . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009.
Strom Roberts, John. The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the
United States . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Tatiana Flórez-Pérez
228 | Laúd
Laúd
The laúd or lute is a pear-shaped body plucked chordophone of variable number
of strings. It is a direct descent of the Arabic ‘ ud, a fretless chordophone with a
bigger resonance box than its European counterpart. It generally has four double
courses and one lower bass string. It is used in both classical and popular music
throughout the Arabic countries as well as in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Armenia,
and Greece.
The old version of the Spanish laúd was commonly used in Spain between
the 14th and the 18th centuries. This instrument experienced a rebirth with a ren-
ovated interest for Renaissance and Baroque music around 1930 and throughout
the 20th century. Presently, the Spanish laúd used in folkloric traditions consists
of a pear-shaped body with 12 metallic strings arranged in six double courses.
Traditionally it is played in the estudiantina ensembles, which are comprised of
laúdes, bandurrias, and guitars. Both the bandurria —smaller than the laúd —and the laúd are tuned in fourths (a-e-b-f#-c#-g#), the latter being an octave lower
a-e-b-f#-c#-g#.
The Cuban laúd is very similar to the Spanish one, although the tuning is differ-
ent, the Cuban being d-a-e-b-f#-c#. It has a pear-shaped body and a fretted finger-
board. Like the Spanish laúd, the instrument is plucked with a plectrum. It is played
in musical styles such as son cubano, where it plays composed and improvised
melodies. This instrument was brought to Cuba by Spanish immigrants during the
colonial period and in the early 20th century.
Further Reading
Cano Tamayo, Manuel. La guitarra: historia, estudios y aportaciones al arte flamenco .
Granada: Ediciones ANEL, 1986.
Sublette, Ned. Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chi-
cago Review Press, 2004.
Raquel Paraíso
Lundu
The lundu is a Brazilian music and dance genre that arose in the early 18th century
from the music of Bantu slaves. As it developed in Brazil, it became the earliest
Brazilian popular music genre to combine African rhythm with European harmony,
melody, and instrumentation. Over time, lundu came to signify three separate phe-
nomena: a dance, a song type, and an instrumental genre.
The lundu dance shares its roots with samba ; in its earliest form it was a dance accompanied exclusively by drums and voices. It was a courtship dance involving
Lundu | 229
a man and a woman, with movements suggesting advance and retreat, and in-
cluded stamping and snapping of the fingers above the head, gestures common in
the Spanish-influenced fandango. Accounts by foreigners traveling in Brazil in the
19th century describe the dance as lascivious, citing undulating body movements
and sexually suggestive gestures such as the umbigada, the touching of one danc-
er’s navel to another’s. The lundu dance was at first popular among blacks and
mulattos in Salvador (Northeast Brazil) and Rio de Janeiro. The lundu was soon
adopted first by the poorest among the white population and then moved steadily
and quite rapidly up the social scale, so that by the early 19th century, foreign visi-
tors regarded it as the national dance of Brazil. The longevity of the dance is strik-
ing; long after the vocal and instrumental forms had disappeared, the lundu dance
continued to be cultivated throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. Although
not very popular today, lundu still has a presence in Brazil’s musical scene.
The vocal lundu took on two forms: one popular among the lower classes, and the
other suitable for the salon of the upper and middle classes. The popular lower-class
lundu song was generally accompanied by the guitar, at times with the addition of a
melodic instrument such as a flute. These vocal lundu shared many style character-
istics with other Brazilian genres, including the use of African-derived rhythm and
syncopation. One account described these songs as “bantering, disorderly, stunning,
as often as not with a sting of coarse irony.” These songs were rarely published, but
rather were transmitted orally among practitioners and as a result few examples of
this version of the lundu survive. Domingos Caldas Barbosa, the Brazilian mulatto
singer who introduced the Brazilian songs to the court at Lisbon in the late 1770s,
was known for singing the lundu-canção, or lundu song, and was responsible for
elevating this popular song to the concert stage. When the lundu song reached Por-
tugal, it became a respected salon genre known as the doce lundu chorado. Through-
out the early part of the 19th century, the lundu sung with piano accompaniment
enjoyed increasing popularity among the upper classes of Rio de Janeiro. The exotic
origins of the lundu song came to interest composers and theater musicians, and by
the 1820s it had become popular in the theaters of Rio de Janeiro. Upper-class vocal
lundus began to be published as sheet music in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
By the late 19th century, this version of the lundu had lost rhythmic complexity,
and the acceptance of the lundu by the upper classes was an important step in the
assimilation of black music into colonial and imperial society.
In addition to the dance and song forms, there was an instrumental form of lundu
popular in the late 19th century. It was most often a rendition of a popular lundu
song with the melody played by a flute or clarinet accompanied by a small, five-
course guitar called the viola and later by the larger, six-string guitar. Although it
did not demonstrate the melodic tendencies of a true instrumental genre, the instru-
mental lundu was a precursor of other representative popular instrumental genres
of the 20th century, including the maxixe and choro .
230 | Lundu
Further Reading
Araújo, Mozart de. A modinha e o lundu no século XVIII: uma pesquisa histórica e bib-
liográfica. São Paulo: Ricordi Brasileira, 1963.
Béhague, Gerard. “Popular Musical Currents in the Art Music of the Early Nationalistic
period in Brazil, Circa 1870–1920.” Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1966.
Garcia, Thomas George Caracas. “The Brazilian Choro: Music, Politics and Perfor-
mance.” Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1997.
Kiefer, Bruno. A Modinha e o Lundu: Duas Raizes da Música Popular Brasileira . Porto
Alegre: Editora Movimento, 1977.
Livingston-Isenhour, Tamara Elena, and Thomas George Caracas Garcia. Choro: A So-
cial History of a Brazilian Popular Music . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Thomas George Caracas Garcia
Lute. See Laúd.
M
Mambo
Mambo is an Afro-Cuban -derived song and dance genre that enjoyed widespread
popularity among both Latino and mainstream audiences in the United States dur-
ing the 1950s. Mambo emerged from the genres danzón and Cuban son and is typified by a musical texture that features several melodic lines layered on top of
one another and a formal structure that often consists of multiple variations on a
single, repeated section. As with many Latin American genres, mambo’s origins
are somewhat disputed and subject to a certain amount of speculation, which can
be seen in discussions of the word’s etymology. While alternately said to be of
Kongo, Bantu, or Yoruba derivation, it is universally acknowledged to be West
African in origin and to have been used by Afro-Cubans to refer to musical prac-
tices associated with religious events and further defined as conversation, message,
or chant. More recently, the term has been used to refer to a repeated instrumental
line in the improvisation-based montuno section of Cuban genres such as son and
danzón. Mambo was also the title of a 1938 danzón composed by cellist Orestes
López, who along with his brother, bassist and arranger Israel, “Cachao,” were
members of flutist Antonio Arcaño’s charanga Orquesta Arcaño y sus Maravil-
las, in which the montuno was extended and featured melodic and harmonic osti-
natos. This innovation, along with the enhancement of the charanga’s percussion
section, led to the new style being called danzones de nuevo ritmo ( danzones in a
new rhythm). It is not clear, however, that the López brothers invented this practice.
Others had been conducting similar experiments in expanding the son ensemble—
as well as the genre’s structure, harmonic texture, and use of driving syncopation—
simultaneously. The new ensemble and the musical sound resulting from these
changes both came to be called conjunto . These innovations have generally been
attributed to tres player, arranger, and composer Arsenio Rodríguez, based on his group’s popularity in the 1940s.
In New York, musicians with backgrounds in both Cuban genres and jazz, such
as Frank “ Machito ” Grillo and his musical director and lead trumpet player Mario