Boogaloo
Encyclopedia
Boogaloo or bugalú is a genre of Latin music and dance that was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other groups. The style was a fusion of popular African American
R&B and soul
with mambo and son montuno
. It included the use of English lyrics as well as Spanish. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand
television program. Raffy Hernandez Torres Rivera the star from "Rico son" is also well known as "Bugalú", Raffy resides in Cleveland, OH.
, R&B and doo-wop
. Puerto Ricans in New York City shared in these tastes, but also listened to genres like mambo or chachacha. There was a mixing of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, African Americans and others in clubs, whose bands tried to find common musical ground. Boogaloo was a result of this search, a marriage of many styles including Cuban son montuno
, guaguancó
, guajira
, guaracha
, mambo, and American R&B and soul
.
Boogaloo can be seen as "the first Nuyorican
music" (René López), and has been called "the greatest potential that Cuban rhythms had to really cross over in terms of music" (Izzy Sanabria). Styles like doo wop also left a sizable influence, through Tony Pabón (of Pete Rodríguez
Band), Bobby Marín, King Nando, Johnny Colón and his vocalists Tony Rojas and Tito Ramos.
Though boogaloo did not become mainstream nationwide until later in the decade, two early Top 20 hits came in 1963: Mongo Santamaría
's performance of the Herbie Hancock
piece Watermelon Man and Ray Barretto
's El Watusi. Inspired by these two successes, a number of bands began imitating their infectious rhythms (which were Latinized R&B), intense conga
rhythms and clever novelty
lyrics. Boogaloo was the only Cuban-style rhythm which acquired English lyrics – some of the time. Established Cuban-influenced orchestras also recorded the occasional boogaloo, including Perez Prado
, Tito Rodríguez
and Tito Puente
. Most of the other groups were young musicians—some were teenagers—the Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
, Joe Bataan
and the Latinaires.
The term boogaloo was probably coined in about 1966 by Richie Ray
and Bobby Cruz
. The biggest boogaloo hit of the 60s was "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba
Sextet, which achieved unprecedented success for Latin music in the United States
in 1966 when it sold over one million copies. El Pito was another hit by this popular combo. Hits by other groups included Johnny Colón's "Boogaloo Blues", Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That", and Hector Rivera's "At the Party". Boogaloo also spread to Puerto Rico, where top band El Gran Combo
released some material.
The same year as Joe Cuba's pop success, 1966, saw the closing of New York City's Palladium Ballroom
, when the venue, the home of big band mambo for years, lost its liquor license. The closing marked the end of mainstream mambo, and boogaloo ruled the Latin charts for several years before salsa
began to take over. At the same time several other rhythmical inventions were going the rounds: the dengue, the jala-jala and the shing-a-ling were all offshoots of the mambo and cha-cha-cha.
The older generation of Latin musicians have been accused of using their influence to repress the young movement, for commercial reasons. There was certainly pressure on booking agents by the established bands. The craze was mostly over by 1970, perhaps because of the hostility of established bands and key booking agents; the reason is uncertain. Almost every major and minor Latin dance artist of the time had recorded at least a few boogaloos on their albums. It had been an intense, if brief, musical movement, and the music is still highly regarded today.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
R&B and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
with mambo and son montuno
Son (music)
The Son cubano is a style of music that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. Son combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arará origin...
. It included the use of English lyrics as well as Spanish. Boogaloo entered the mainstream through the American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
television program. Raffy Hernandez Torres Rivera the star from "Rico son" is also well known as "Bugalú", Raffy resides in Cleveland, OH.
History
In the 1950s and 60s, African Americans in the United States listened to various styles of music, including jump bluesJump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
, R&B and doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
. Puerto Ricans in New York City shared in these tastes, but also listened to genres like mambo or chachacha. There was a mixing of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, African Americans and others in clubs, whose bands tried to find common musical ground. Boogaloo was a result of this search, a marriage of many styles including Cuban son montuno
Son montuno
The son montuno is a style of the Cuban son, but exactly what it means is not an easy question to answer. The son itself is the most important genre of Cuban popular music. In addition, it is perhaps the most flexible of all forms of Latin-American music...
, guaguancó
Guaguancó
Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three drums, similar to conga drums: the tumba , llamador , and quinto...
, guajira
Guajira
Guajira may refer to:* Department of La Guajira, a department of Colombia which includes most of the Guajira Peninsula* La Guajira Desert, a desert which covers most of the Guajira Peninsula...
, guaracha
Guaracha
The guaracha is a genre of Cuban popular music, of rapid tempo and with lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical theatres and in low-class dance salons. They became an integral part of Bufo comic...
, mambo, and American R&B and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
.
Boogaloo can be seen as "the first Nuyorican
Nuyorican
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area, or of their descendants...
music" (René López), and has been called "the greatest potential that Cuban rhythms had to really cross over in terms of music" (Izzy Sanabria). Styles like doo wop also left a sizable influence, through Tony Pabón (of Pete Rodríguez
Pete Rodriguez (Boogaloo)
Pete Rodriguez was the leader and pianist of a Puerto Rican Boogaloo band from The Bronx in the mid-1960s, sometimes known as Pete Rodríguez y Su Conjunto....
Band), Bobby Marín, King Nando, Johnny Colón and his vocalists Tony Rojas and Tito Ramos.
Though boogaloo did not become mainstream nationwide until later in the decade, two early Top 20 hits came in 1963: Mongo Santamaría
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
's performance of the Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
piece Watermelon Man and Ray Barretto
Ray Barretto
Ray Barretto was a Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican jazz musician.-Early years:Barretto was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent...
's El Watusi. Inspired by these two successes, a number of bands began imitating their infectious rhythms (which were Latinized R&B), intense conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
rhythms and clever novelty
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
lyrics. Boogaloo was the only Cuban-style rhythm which acquired English lyrics – some of the time. Established Cuban-influenced orchestras also recorded the occasional boogaloo, including Perez Prado
Perez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, musician , and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.His orchestra was the most popular in mambo...
, Tito Rodríguez
Tito Rodriguez
Tito Rodríguez was a popular 1950s and 1960s Puerto Rican singer and bandleader. He is known by many fans as "El Inolvidable" , a moniker based on his most popular interpretation, a song written by composer Julio Gutierrez.-Early years:Rodríguez , born in Santurce, Puerto Rico,...
and Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
. Most of the other groups were young musicians—some were teenagers—the Latin Souls, the Lat-Teens, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers was a Latin jazz, soul jazz and R&B group formed in 1959 by timbales player Henry "Pucho" Brown. Of the many musicians that worked in his group, Chick Corea is among them...
, Joe Bataan
Joe Bataan
Joe Bataan is a Filipino-African American Latin R&B musician from New York.- Early life and career :...
and the Latinaires.
The term boogaloo was probably coined in about 1966 by Richie Ray
Richie Ray
Ricardo "Richie" Ray is a virtuoso pianist, singer, music arranger, composer and religious minister known for his success beginning in 1965 as part of the duo Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz...
and Bobby Cruz
Bobby Cruz
Bobby Cruz is a salsa singer and religious minister. He is well known for his success beginning in 1965 as part of the duo Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz. His seminal professional pairing with Richie Ray is one of the longest-lived partnerships in Latino music, lasting over 45 years...
. The biggest boogaloo hit of the 60s was "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba
Joe Cuba
Joe "Sonny" Cuba was a Puerto Rican musician who was considered to be the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".-Early years:...
Sextet, which achieved unprecedented success for Latin music in the United States
Latin music in the United States
Latin music has long influenced American popular music, jazz, rhythm and blues, and even country music. For an early example , the bridge to "St. Louis Blues"--"Saint Louie woman, with her diamond rings"--has a habanera beat, prompting Jelly Roll Morton to comment, "You've got to have that Spanish...
in 1966 when it sold over one million copies. El Pito was another hit by this popular combo. Hits by other groups included Johnny Colón's "Boogaloo Blues", Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That", and Hector Rivera's "At the Party". Boogaloo also spread to Puerto Rico, where top band El Gran Combo
El Gran Combo
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican Salsa music orchestra. It is Puerto Rico's most successful musical group, and one of the most popular salsa orchestras across Latin America...
released some material.
The same year as Joe Cuba's pop success, 1966, saw the closing of New York City's Palladium Ballroom
Palladium Ballroom
The Palladium Ballroom was a second-floor dancehall on 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City which became famous for its excellent Latin music from 1948 until its closing in 1966.-Opening of Palladium:...
, when the venue, the home of big band mambo for years, lost its liquor license. The closing marked the end of mainstream mambo, and boogaloo ruled the Latin charts for several years before salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
began to take over. At the same time several other rhythmical inventions were going the rounds: the dengue, the jala-jala and the shing-a-ling were all offshoots of the mambo and cha-cha-cha.
The older generation of Latin musicians have been accused of using their influence to repress the young movement, for commercial reasons. There was certainly pressure on booking agents by the established bands. The craze was mostly over by 1970, perhaps because of the hostility of established bands and key booking agents; the reason is uncertain. Almost every major and minor Latin dance artist of the time had recorded at least a few boogaloos on their albums. It had been an intense, if brief, musical movement, and the music is still highly regarded today.
Notable Albums
- Ray BarrettoRay BarrettoRay Barretto was a Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican jazz musician.-Early years:Barretto was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent...
, Viva Watusi! (UA Latino, 1965) - Ricardo Ray, Se soltó (On the loose) (Tico, 1966)
- Ricardo Ray, Jala Jala y BoogalooJala Jala y BoogalooJala Jala y Boogaloo is an album released by the salsa music duet Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz. Released in 1967, the album is influenced not only by Latin rhythms such as the Puerto Rican Jala Jala, but also by Beat music....
(Tico, 1967) - Joe CubaJoe CubaJoe "Sonny" Cuba was a Puerto Rican musician who was considered to be the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".-Early years:...
Sextet, Bang! Bang! & Push, push, push (Tico, 1967) - Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers, The Best of Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers (Ace, 1966–1970)
- Johnny ColonJohnny ColonJohnny Colon is an American salsa musician, leader of the Johnny Colon Orchestra and founder of the East Harlem Music School, also known as a major contributor to the boogaloo sound of the 1960s....
, Boogaloo Blues (Fania, 1967) - Willie ColónWillie ColónWilliam Anthony Colón is a Nuyorican salsa musician. Primarily a trombonist, Colón also sings, writes, produces and acts. He is also involved in municipal politics in New York City.-Early years:...
, El Malo (Fania, 1967) - Joey Pastrana, Let's ball (Cotique, 1967)
- El Gran ComboEl Gran ComboEl Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican Salsa music orchestra. It is Puerto Rico's most successful musical group, and one of the most popular salsa orchestras across Latin America...
, Boogaloos (Gema, 1967) - Bigbadboogaloo: Latin boogaloo from the Big Apple (Harmless HURTLP044). Double album compilation includes the Lebron Brothers, the Tico All Stars, El Gran ComboEl Gran ComboEl Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican Salsa music orchestra. It is Puerto Rico's most successful musical group, and one of the most popular salsa orchestras across Latin America...
, Johnny and Pete Rodriguez. Jack CostanzoJack CostanzoJack Costanzo is an American percussionist.-Biography:A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known as a bongo player, and is nicknamed "Mr. Bongo"...
& Gerry Woo with Cannonball Adderley's Jive Samba (arranger: Hector Rivera) and Dianne and Carole's The Fuzz (written and arranged by Louie RamirezLouie RamirezLouie Ramirez was a boogaloo, salsa and latin jazz percussionist, vibraphonist, band leader and composer. He was born on February 24, 1938 in New York City. He died on June 7, 1993...
) are stand-outs.