New Year's Resolutions and the Mambo

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Popular culture would have us believe that on January 1, 1950, everyone in America under 30 awakened to discover rocket-inspired tailfins having sprouted on their cars, sheath dresses in their closets, and ‘rock and roll’ records on every turntable.  Well, um… No.  Remember, both the “Jets” and the “Sharks” were equally adept at dancing Mambo, the weapon of choice for their teen dance floor duel in the Broadway musical “West Side Story,” set in mid-1950’s New York City (watch it at the end of this article).  This vision of the 1950’s is every bit as valid as the one portrayed in the Milwaukee of “Happy Days” - and musica Latina was fully part of the scene.

Today’s listeners often mis-categorize Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, Pachanga and other Latin music genres as having been music for ‘older folks’, merely because they were ‘vintage’ by the time we came along.  But while they did have a cross-generational appeal, when they were new there was nothing more modern or hip.  Even looking at the old record covers is deceiving.  We now perceive the models in evening gowns and elaborate make-up as being 'older', forgetting that the style of the day was for women to look purposely mature and sophisticated (not the natural, perpetual-waif look prized today).  The 18 year old WWII Army sergeant of 1945 was a still ‘young’ 27 year old in 1954 - the year of the Mambo’s maximum impact on U.S. popular culture.  That individual, weaned on Swing, was far more likely to be inclined towards the sound of jazz-inflected, big band Mambo than rock and roll.  My father, a ‘Class of 1948’ Bebopper, played saxophone throughout northern New Jersey in the first band of Charlie Persip (later Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer).  For a young, urban man of the late-1940’s, R&B and rock & roll were alright - for children and ‘hicks’(!)  “Cool” was all about ‘Bird’, ‘Diz’ and “The Divine One,” Sarah Vaughn…, AND Tito Puente, Machito and Graciela! 

This New Year’s Eve, I wouldn’t imagine that many of you will throw away your iPhone or X-Box because “it’s so 2011.”  Life and culture aren’t that ‘cut and dry.’  Time tends to create exaggerated line of demarcation between decades that, then as now, flowed seamlessly from one to another with change coming incrementally.  The mass-market “American Graffiti” and “Grease” vision of the 1950’s shows the decade from only one point of view, with the cultural touchstones of an entire decade tied into a single, convenient bow of nostalgia.  But untie that bow, and that same ribbon – stretched full and straight - allows us to see the continuity between tradition and the future.  That’s real cause for celebration!

Happy Holidays and a Bountiful New Year from Mambo-phoniC!

Embracing Your Inner Boogaloo

40 years after its heyday, the boogaloo era remains one of the more controversial pieces of the popular Latin dance music puzzle.  Derided by purists, yet beloved by legions of  aficionados, the genre’s blend of Afro-Cuban rhythmic propulsion and funky R&B horn riffs were not only a bridge between the eras of Mambo and Salsa, but were also, for millions of non-Latinos, an initial portal into the wide world of Latin music.  Upon reflection, most every advance in popular 20^th Century Latin dance music was initially labeled the ‘death of the genre’ as it was then known. 

In the late 1930’s, Orestes and Israel ('Cachao') Lopez’ initial mambo innovations were considered near blasphemy against the hallowed Cuban 3-part structure.  Arsenio Rodriguez’ incorporation of the conga drum into popular Cuban music was to many a cultural revolution not unlike the Africanization of North American pop by r&b some 15 years later.  So controversial were Damaso Perez Prado’s jazz-infused arrangements for Cuba’s popular Orquesta Casino De La Playa that the pianist had to relocate to Mexico City.  There, with an audience more impressed by his swinging innovations rather than with dogged adherence to accepted Cuban musical structure, Prado became a superstar.  In segregated 1947 New York, the unprecedented interracial appeal of Afro-Cuban jazz pioneers such as Machito and his Afro-Cubans was such that riot police were sent to the barrier-breaking ‘Tico Tico’ dances at Manhattan Center, anticipating that the multi-racial crowd of 5,000 would certainly break into a riot (the only ‘riot’ was on the dance floor)!  Lo and behold, “La Musica” has survived all of these perceived ‘calamities’.

Occasionally, I'll hear my younger African-American brothers and sisters dismiss the venerable ‘standards’ mid 20^th Century American pop as “white music" (expressing a perception that such music has and/or had  little to do with them or their history).  But this view, skewed from our contemporary vantage point, is to totally discount the profound early influence of black music on U.S. pop culture.  After all, the ubiquitous Foxtrot was a staple of  black popular dance for a decade before the likes of ballroom dancers Vernon and Irene Castle made it ‘acceptable’ to the majority culture.  George Gershwin would be the first to admit that he borrowed liberally from the black vernacular to create his finest and most respected works.  Indeed, the foundation of U.S. popular music from the Roaring 20's through the Swing era was fueled and informed by African-American gospel, ragtime, jazz and blues.

Similarly, largely through the broad impact of boogaloo, Latin percussion became firmly a part of the American popular music landscape to such an extent that today, one is hard-pressed to find a rhythm section for any popular style – from rock and roll to country and western – that doesn’t incorporate congas, and/or shekere, and/or a cowbell.  To ‘reject’ mass popular off-shoots out-of-hand, is also to squander the Latino community’s claim to the sweeping impact of the genre on wider popular culture.  Given to the world willingly, it is nonetheless a gift that we should acknowledge giving.  Here's the legendary JOE CUBA SEXTET featuring Cheo Feliciano performing the 1965 classic, "Bang Bang"!