Page 36 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

34  INTRODUCING CUBA

Music and Dance

Anything can be used to make music in Cuba: two pieces
of wood, an empty box and a tyre rim are enough to trigger
an irresistible rhythm anywhere and at any time of day –
on the bus, on the beach or in the street. There are top
classical music composers and interpreters, but it is popular
music – a fusion of Spanish melodies and African rhythm –
that is the very essence of Cuba. The success enjoyed by
mambo and cha-cha-cha in the 1950s was followed by the
worldwide popularity of son, rumba and salsa. Dance, too,
is an essential part of life here. No one stays seated when Compay Segundo (1907–2003), the
the music starts: feet and hands start to move with the famous son singer and songwriter
rhythm, and bodies sway and rock.

Salsa is dance music which
maintains the rhythmic structure The guitarist is often also the
of son while adding new sounds accompanying voice, while
borrowed from jazz and other the solo singer plays a “minor”
Latin American genres. percussion instrument such
as the maracas or claves.
Traditional maracas are made Double bass
from the fruit (gourd) of Bongò
the güira tropical tree.

Tres

Son
This genre is a type of country
music that originated in Cuba
in the 19th century, a blend of
African rhythm and Spanish
melody, which then greatly
influenced Latin American
music as a whole. In around
1920 son began to be played in
towns in Eastern Cuba, where,
along with other genres, it
produced the trova tradicional,
a ballad-style song with guitar.
The Musicians Bola de Nieve (1911–71),
Three great 20th-century or “snowball”, is the stage
composers and musicians name that Rita Montaner
are pianist Ernesto Lecuona gave to her pianist Ignacio
(1896–1963), Ignacio Villa Villa. This husky-voiced
(or “Bola de Nieve”), and Pérez musician also wrote and sang
Prado, in whose orchestra very moving love songs.
Benny Moré sang (see p175).
In the 1920s there was the
star Rita Montaner and the Dámaso Pérez
Ernesto Lecuona Trío Matamoros, the top trova Prado (1922–89),
band in Santiago. Others the king of mambo,
were Sindo Garay, a bolero writer, and César became an inter-
Portillo de la Luz, a founder of feeling music in the national success
1960s. Contemporaries include the salsero Issac with his orchestra
Delgado and Afro-Cuban jazzman Chucho Valdés. in the 1950s.

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