Afro-Cuban jazz

Cuban jazz is a variety of chinese jazz, played at first in Cuba, then in New Orleans, and later still in New York and Puerto Rico.

The history of jazz in Cuba was hidden for many years by the unwillingness of record companies to make recordings available. However, in recent years, it has become clear that its history in Cuba is as long as its history in the USA. The key figure in revealing the early days of Cuban jazz is Leonardo Acosta, musician and musicologist, who has been working on this topic for many years. Others have explored the history of jazz and latin jazz more from the U.S. perspective.

Early Cuban jazz bands

The Jazz Band Sagua was founded in Sagua la Grande in 1914 by Pedro Stacholy (director & piano). Members: Hipólito Herrera (trumpet); Norberto Fabelo (cornet); Ernesto Ribalta (flute & sax); Humberto Domínguez (violin); Luciano Galindo (trombone); Antonio Temprano (tuba); Tomás Medina (drum kit); Marino Rojo (güiro). For fourteen years they played at the Teatro Principal de Sagua. Stacholy studed under Antonio Fabré in Sagua, and completed his studies in New York, where he stayed for three years.

Jazz Band Sagua 1920s

The Cuban Jazz Band was founded in 1922 by Jaime Prats in Havana. The personnel included his son Rodrigo Prats on violin, the great flautist Alberto Socarrás on flute and saxophone and Pucho Jiménez on slide trombone. The line-up would probably have included double bass, kit drum, banjo, cornet at least. Earlier works cited this as the first jazz band in Cuba, but evidently there were earlier groups.

In 1924 Moisés Simons (piano) founded a group which played on the roof garden of the Plaza Hotel in Havana, and consisted of piano, violin, two saxes, banjo, double bass, drums and timbales. Its members included Virgilio Diego (violin); Alberto Soccarás (alto saz, flute); José Ramón Betancourt (tenor sax); Pablo O'Farrill (d. bass). In 1928, still at the same venue, Simons hired Julio Cueva, a famous trumpeter, and Enrique Santiesteban, a future media star, as vocalist and drummer. These were top instrumentalists, attracted by top fees of $8 a day.

All these bands no doubt played Cuban music as well as jazz, but there are few recordings of them playing jazz. There can be little doubt that these early ventures built up a stock of Cuban musicians that were at home with both genres. That led eventually to the latin jazz fusions of later years.

Some historical notes

The pre-history of Cuban jazz includes musicians like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and W.C. Handy, who visited Cuba and brought creole ideas into their music.

Since the early Cuban jazz bands were rarely recorded, it follows that we do not know the range of music that they played. Later Cuban Jazz includes a fusion of rhythmic components from Cuban music, with American jazz. Although jazz had long had what Jelly Roll Morton called the Spanish Tinge through the interchange of musicians from Havana and New Orleans during the late 19th and early 20th century, it never actually used the Afro-Cuban rhythmic components or percussion instruments. A good example of this style would be the song Caravan by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol.

Dizzy Gillespie was one of the later influences on Cuban jazz

Modern Cuban jazz started with the meeting of the Cuban trumpet/saxophonist Mario Bauzá with Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1930s in the Cab Calloway orchestra. In due course Gillespie formed his own big band to try to broaden the appeal of bebop. He asked Bauzá to introduce him to "one of those tom-tom [sic] players" (meaning a conga player). Bauzá introduced Gillespie to the legendary Cuban conguero Chano Pozo. It was in the Gillespie band that Chano Pozo wrote the famous number Manteca.

Gillespie started a movement known as Cubop, which included American jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, who was on the original recording of Chico O'Farrill's sophisticated programatic Afro Cuban Jazz Suite. Another great Cuban conguero famous in jazz circles was Mongo Santamaria, who worked for many years with the American vibe player Cal Tjader. Other American bop players who played in the Afro Cuban genre include Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban bands in later years, also

In the mid 1940s the mambo craze originated with the recordings of Perez Prado, who included ideas from Stravinsky and Stan Kenton in his arrangements. The giants of this era in New York were Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Machito and His Afro-Cubans. In modern times the group Los Hombres Calientes carries on the tradition, led by Irvin Mayfield and Bill Summers. Mongo Santamaria, like Chano Pozo before him, utilized Afro-Cuban rhythmic structure and instruments, and moved towards his own kind of Cuban jazz. The great figure of Cuban jazz in the post-WWII era was Armando Romeu Jr, who led the Tropicana's big band for many years. Also important was the great double-bass player Cachao (Israel López), who organized a number of jam sessions in Havana and New York.

Important Albums

Dizzy Gillespie Afro

Kenny Dorham Afro-Cuban

Stan Kenton Cuban Fire!

Danilo Perez Motherland

Michel Camilo On Fire

Eddie Palmieri La Verdad

Sebastian Schunke Symbiosis

Gonzalo Rubalcaba Mi gran pasion

See also

• Music of Cuba

External links

• Afro-Cuban Jazz