Son cubano
If Benny More developed salsa & yet salsa was born in New York, when was Benny in New York?
| Son | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Changui, a mixture of Spanish guitar and canción, mixed with Bantu and Arara percussion |
| Cultural origins | Late 19th century Oriente and Island Espanola |
| Typical instruments | Guitar or tres, marímbula or double bass, trumpet, bongo, clave and maracas |
| Subgenres | |
| mambo, rumba | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Son montuno - Guajira-son - Bolero-son - Guaracha-son - Salsa music | |
| Other topics | |
| Music of Cuba - Anticipated bass - Clave | |
With roots on the island of Hispaniola, Son is a style of music that became popular in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern province of Oriente. The earliest known son dates from the late 1500s (the oldest known son is "Son de la Má Teodora", from about the 1570s in Santiago de Cuba). It combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arara origin.
Development
The sisters Teodora and Micaela Ginez from Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, were black slaves who emigrated to Cuba and brought with them the new rhythm. "El Son de la Ma. Teodora" marks the birth of Son which Cubans have made their own and which also contributed to the development of modern Salsa.
Son is derived from Haitian, African, Spanish and native musical influences, arising first in the Oriente province, reaching Havana around the 1880s. The most influential group from this period was the Trio Oriental, who stabilized the sextet format that soon came to dominate son bands. In 1912, recording began with groups like Sexteto Habanero (a re-named Trio Oriental) and Sexteto Boloña, and popularization began in earnest with the arrival of radio broadcasting in 1922, which came at the same time as Havana's reputation as an attraction for Americans evading Prohibition laws and the city became a haven for the Mafia, prostitution and gambling, and also became a second home for trendy and influential bands from New York City. A few years later, in the late 1920s, son sextets became septets and son's popularity continued to grow with artists like Septeto Nacional and its leader, Ignacio Piñeiro. Piñeiro experimented with fusing son with other genres of music, forming guajira-son, bolero-son and guaracha-son. In 1928, Rita Montaner's "El Manicero" became the first Cuban song to be a major hit in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. In 1930, the Havana Orchestra took the song to the United States, where it also became a big hit.
Son montuno
Main article: Son montuno
In the 1940s Arsenio Rodríguez became the most influential player of son, creating the modern Afro-Cuban sound, the son montuno. Later Beny Moré and others helped develop salsa music. Arsenio Rodríguez was especially influential, incorporating improvised solos, toques, congas and extra trumpets, percussion and pianos. Beny Moré (known as the "Barbarian of Rhythm" (El Barbaro del Ritmo)) further evolved the genre, adding guaracha, bolero and mambo influences, helping make him extraordinarily popular. He is now cited as perhaps the greatest sonero.
Rumba
Main article: Rumba
With the arrival of pop chachachá and mambo in the United States, son also became extremely popular but was usually called rumba, which more properly refers to a specific genre of music. Son, mambo and rumba, along with other forms of Latin music contributed to the development of salsa music, which quickly became perhaps the most popular form of Latin music ever.