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The Mambo:
Despite recent attempts of many to describe Mambo, ones has to look deeper into the diversity within the Island of Cuba
. Why ? It is the diversity itslef - which suggests the development of the Mambo came from several sources and
regions within the Island itself. In this many have tried to create links to Son, Danzon, and so on. However,
those of us with experiience and was form the Caribbean basin knows differently, especially when you are older, adn grew up
in the 50s.
The real story is that when the money was following in to the Island of Cuba at its tourist mecca, Havana, it developed
an socioeconomic foundation to create an entire Professional arts and entertainers cultural column. Thus by the 1930s,
and gambling was way on its way, as well as other seedier trades, the mixture of those coming in from the rural regions into
this city had a cultural dramatic affect. Cretivity was everywhere, and the Cuban people started to reinvent themselves.
It was the jaming between emerging Cuban musician, and African American musician'sBlak Jazz - imported by the
Cleveland based Mob, which laid the foundations to the Mambo Musica. Both the African American Jazzier elements mixed
in with the Clave, against the backdroup ( Only ) of the traditional music played for the Danzon and Son which predated this
time.
Then at several Cuba Clubs, which mainly native Cuban attended ( an to get away from the tourist and American mobsters
), their since of youth and wanting something new gave dance expression to the new mood music being created, By
the time of the 40s rolled arounf, many Cuban youth had the really peppy and physical commitment dance really going.
Then the tempos were much faster then.
All the while other newer expression in music amd experimentation in the use of the clave was at its height around 1947
- 1949. About the time of my own birth - 1947. Some variations gave rise to slower tempos, and quite by accident,
the more senior of the Cuban took the opportunity in adding a tripple chasse and this gave rise to the Cha Cha Cha aorund
1952.
A whole lot was going on. And several, not just one or two, but many more who have missed the recording book and
reporters note books, added the finishing touches in the Mambo through grand staged productions, especially by the syndicte
owned gambling casino near the waterfornt area of Havana's harbor.
Traditional steps were already well established in Cuban culture, and in the end this culture became dispersed as a result
of Castro coming to power, and the outflux of many talented Cuban artists among others as a result of Castro oppressive regime,
and the embrgo the US place aginst this Island.
The history of modern mambo begins in 1938, when a danzon called "Mambo" was written by Orestes and Cachao López. The song was a danzon, descended from European ballroom dances like the English country dance, French contredanse and Spanish contradanza, but it used rhythms derived from African folk music. The contradanza had arrived in Cuba in the 18th century, where it became known as danza and grew very popular. The arrival of black Haitians later that century changed the face of contradanza, adding a syncopation called cinquillo (which is also found in another contradanza-derivative, Argentine tango).
By the end of the 19th century, contradanza had grown lively and energetic, unlike its European counterpart, and was then known as danzon. The 1877 song "Las alturas de Simpson" was one of many tunes that created a wave of popularity for danzon. One part of the
danzon was a coda which became improvised overtime. The bands then were brass (orquestra tipica), but was followed by smaller groups
called charangas.
The most influential charanga was that of Antonio Arcano, who flourished in the late 1930s. It was Arcano's cellist, Orestes Lopez, whose "Mambo" was the first modern song of the genre. His brother, bassist and composer
Cachao López, is often described as "the inventor of the mambo".
In the late 1940s, a musician named Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, and then New York
City. Along the way, his style became increasingly homogenized in order to appeal to mainstream American listeners.
Following in the footsteps of Prado came a wave of mambo musicians, such as Enrique Jorrin. Some experimented with new techniques, such as faster beats and the use of side steps in the dance; this latter innovation
formed the foundation of chachachá, and was the result of Jorrin's experimentation. Chachachá was very pop-oriented, especially after Arthur Murray further simplified the dance. Mambo remained popular throughout the United States and Cuba until the 1960s, when a combination
of boogaloo and pachanga (both modified forms of mambo) were created.
Some of New York's biggest mambo dancers and bands of the 50s included Augie & Margo Rodriguez, Mambo Aces, Killer Joe Piro, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina, Pedro Aguilar ("Cuban Pete"), Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Jose Curbelo.
By the mid-1950's mambo mania had reached fever pitch. In New York the mambo was played in a high-strung, sophisticated
way that had the Palladium Ballroom, the famous Broadway dance-hall, jumping. The Ballroom soon proclaimed itself the "temple
of mambo," for the city's best dancers--the Mambo Aces, "Killer Joe" Piro, Augie and Margo Rodriguez, Paulito and Lilon, Louie
Maquina and Cuban Pete--gave mambo demonstrations there and made a reputation for their expressive use of arms, legs, head
and hands. Augie and Margo became the highest paid dance duo in the world and still dance in Las Vegas 50 years later (2006).
There was fierce rivalry between bands. The bands of Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Jose Curbelo delighted habitues
such as Duke Ellington, Bob Hope, Marlon Brando, Lena Horne and Dizzy Gillespie, not to mention Afro-Americans, Puerto Ricans,
Cubans, Upper East-Side WASPs and Jews and Italians from Brooklyn. Class and color melted away in the incandescent rhythm
of the music. Even jazz musicians such as Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt fell under the mambo's
charm, as can be heard on the many Latin recordings they made in the 1950's.
In 1954 the cha-cha-cha, a kind of mambo created by the Cuban violinist Enriqué Jorrin, a member of the Orquesta America Charanga, swept through Havana and New York. Easier to dance than the mambo, with a squarish beat and a characteristic hiccup on the
third beat, it spread to Europe, before being dethroned in the early 1960's by the pachanga and then the boogaloo.
Mambo returned to prominence in the 1995 when Guinness used Perez Prado's track Guaglione in an advertising campaign featuring the dancing of Dublin actor Joe McKinney. The song was released as a single and reached number 2 in the UK charts. In 1999, Lou Bega released a remix of Mambo No. 5, another Prado original, which became a hit across Europe.
Latina Danza 2000 Mambo Dance Class Ithaca [ WebPage ]
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