Mambo
Encyclopedia
Mambo is a musical form and dance style that developed originally in Cuba and then later in Mexico. The word "mambo" means "conversation with the gods" in Kikongo, the language spoken by Central Africa
n slaves taken to Cuba
.
and Cachao López
. The song was a danzón
, a dance form descended from European social dance
s like the English country dance
, French contredanse, and Spanish contradanza
. It was backed by rhythms derived from African folk music.
arrived in Cuba in the 18th century, where it became known as danza
and grew very popular. The arrival of black Haiti
ans later that century changed the face of contradanza, adding a syncopation
called cinquillo
(which is also found in another contradanza-derivative, Argentine tango
).
By the end of the 19th century, contradanza had grown lively and energetic, unlike its European counterpart, and was then known as danzón
. The 1877 song "Las alturas de Simpson" was one of many tunes that created a wave of popularity for danzón. One part of the danzón was a coda
which became improvised overtime. The bands then were brass (orquestra tipica), but was followed by smaller groups called charanga
s.
The most influential charanga was that of Antonio Arcano, who flourished in the late 1930s. Arcano's group, Arcano y Sus Maravillas, was the first to call a part of a popular Cuban dance a mambo. His group was already saying vamos a mambear, which translates to "let's mambo", in the mid to late '30s. It was Arcano's cellist, Orestes Lopez
, whose "Mambo" was the first modern song of the genre. However, the first mambo that was actually recorded was called "Rarezas" by his brother, bassist
and composer Cachao López
, who is often described as "the inventor of mambo."
moved to Mexico City
and started his own band, where he composed and recorded most of mambos. Perez Prado, dedicated primarily to Mambo, started being called El Rey del Mambo, and he appeared in several Mexican Films. He composed and played several songs inspired by the life style of Mexico City, like "Dengue Universitario" and "Mambo Universitario" dedicated to the UNAM
; "Guada Guadalupe", "Lupita" and "Norma la de Guadalajara" inspired by Mexican
women; and "Mambo del Ruletero", where he names different neighborhoods of the city. He also covered Mexican songs, like "Maria Bonita
", "Besame Mucho
", "La Raspa
", Angelitos Negros, and "Granada (song)
". Later in the 50s Perez Prado acquired the Mexican Citizenship, moved to New York for some years, and then returned to Mexico City, where he died on September 14, 1989, aged 72.
Beny Moré lived in Mexico City in the 50's, it was there where people started calling him Beny or Benny instead of Bartolo ; he composed and recorded some Mambos in Mexico, with Mexican orchestras, specially with the one directed by Rafael de Paz; they recorded Yiri yiri bon, La Culebra, Mata siguaraya, Solamente una vez and "Bonito y Sabroso", a song where he praises the dancing skills of the Mexicans, and claims that Mexico City
and La Habana are sister cities.
Also in Mexico, Benny and Perez Prado recorded several mambos including "La mucura", "Rabo y oreja", and "Pachito e che" .
In this time Benny also recorded with the orchestra of Jesús "Chucho" Rodríguez. El "Chucho" was so impressed with Benny's musical ability that he referred to him as "El Barbaro del Ritmo".
Prado's recordings were meant for the Latin American and U.S. Latino markets, but some of his most celebrated mambos, such as "Mambo No. 5" and "Que Rico el Mambo", quickly crossed over to the United States.
, the famous Broadway dance-hall, jumping. The Ballroom soon proclaimed itself the "temple of mambo", for the city's best dancers—the Mambo Aces, "Killer Joe" Piro
, Augie and Margo Rodriguez, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina and Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar—gave mambo demonstrations there and made a reputation for their expressive use of arms, legs, head and hands. Augie and Margo became the highest paid dance duo in the world and still dance in Las Vegas
50 years later (2006).
Some of New York's biggest mambo dancers and bands of the 1950s included:
Augie & Margo, Michael Terrace & Elita, Carmen Cruz & Gene Ortiz, Larry Selon Vera Rodriguez, Mambo Aces(Anibal Vasquez y samson Batalla), Killer Joe Piro
, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina, Pedro Aguilar
("Cuban Pete
"), Machito
, Tito Rodríguez
, Jose Curbelo, Akohh, and Noro Morales
.
, a kind of mambo, swept through Havana. Cha-cha-cha was created by the Cuban violinist Enrique Jorrín
, a member of the Orquesta América
. Easier to dance than the mambo, with a squarish beat and a characteristic hiccup on the fourth beat, it spread to Europe.
introduced the dance for mambo music, the mambo dance
. He introduced it at La Tropicana
night-club in Havana
in 1943. He also became the first person to market his music as Mambo. After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance were adopted. The original mambo dance
was characterized by freedom and complicated foot-steps. Some Mexican entertainers became well known dancers like Tongolele, Adalberto Martínez, Rosa Carmina
, Tin tan and Lilia Prado
. Most of these accompanied Prado in live presentations or were seen in Mexican films.
While mambo became more recognized in the United States, the Cuban dance wasn't accepted by many professional dance teachers. Cuban dancers would describe mambo as "feeling the music" in which sound and movement were merged through the body. Professional dance teachers in the US saw this approach to dancing as "extreme", "undisciplined", and thus, deemed it necessary to standardize the dance to present it as a sell-able commodity for the social or ballroom market Thus, compared to the mambo in Cuba, mambo had a different movement sequence in the United States and elsewhere, as it was popularized internationally. The popularized "mambo" in the United States would be viewed as a variant of son or salsa among Cuban dance and music specialists, and would later evolve into a mixture of salsa and rumba that is expressed in clubs and social settings worldwide.
Following in the footsteps of Prado came a wave of mambo musicians, such as Enrique Jorrín
. Some experimented with new techniques, such as faster beats and the use of side steps in the dance; this latter innovation formed the foundation of cha-cha-cha
, and was the result of Jorrin's experimentation.
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
n slaves taken to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
History
Modern mambo began with a song called "Mambo" written in 1938 by brothers OrestesOrestes López
Orestes López was a Cuban musician and bandleader, often credited with popularizing the musical form Mambo, together with his brother Israel "Cachao" Lopez....
and Cachao López
Cachao López
Israel "Cachao" López , often known as Cachao, was a Cuban musician and composer who helped popularize mambo in the United States in the early 1950s....
. The song was a danzón
Danzón
Danzón is the official dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is still beloved in Puerto Rico where Verdeluz, a modern danzón by Puerto Rican composer Antonio Cabán Vale is considered the unofficial national anthem...
, a dance form descended from European social dance
Social dance
Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...
s like the English country dance
English Country Dance
English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of...
, French contredanse, and Spanish contradanza
Contradanza
The Cuban contradanza was a popular dance music genre of the 19th century.- Origins and Early Development:...
. It was backed by rhythms derived from African folk music.
Origins (Contradanza and charanga)
ContradanzaContradanza
The Cuban contradanza was a popular dance music genre of the 19th century.- Origins and Early Development:...
arrived in Cuba in the 18th century, where it became known as danza
Danza
Danza is a musical genre that originated in Ponce, a city in southern Puerto Rico. It is a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century ballroom dance genre slightly similar to the waltz. Both the danza and its cousin the contradanza are sequence dances, performed to a pattern, usually of squares, to...
and grew very popular. The arrival of black Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
ans later that century changed the face of contradanza, adding a syncopation
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
called cinquillo
Cinquillo
A cinquillo is a typical Cuban/Caribbean rhythmic cell, derived from the contradanza and the danzón. It consists of an eighth, a sixteenth, an eighth, a sixteenth, and an eighth note. Placing this rhythm in a 2/4 measure, it obtains a strongly syncopated character from the sustained note which...
(which is also found in another contradanza-derivative, Argentine tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
).
By the end of the 19th century, contradanza had grown lively and energetic, unlike its European counterpart, and was then known as danzón
Danzón
Danzón is the official dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is still beloved in Puerto Rico where Verdeluz, a modern danzón by Puerto Rican composer Antonio Cabán Vale is considered the unofficial national anthem...
. The 1877 song "Las alturas de Simpson" was one of many tunes that created a wave of popularity for danzón. One part of the danzón was a coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
which became improvised overtime. The bands then were brass (orquestra tipica), but was followed by smaller groups called charanga
Charanga
Charanga is a term given to traditional ensembles of Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra....
s.
The most influential charanga was that of Antonio Arcano, who flourished in the late 1930s. Arcano's group, Arcano y Sus Maravillas, was the first to call a part of a popular Cuban dance a mambo. His group was already saying vamos a mambear, which translates to "let's mambo", in the mid to late '30s. It was Arcano's cellist, Orestes Lopez
Orestes López
Orestes López was a Cuban musician and bandleader, often credited with popularizing the musical form Mambo, together with his brother Israel "Cachao" Lopez....
, whose "Mambo" was the first modern song of the genre. However, the first mambo that was actually recorded was called "Rarezas" by his brother, bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
and composer Cachao López
Cachao López
Israel "Cachao" López , often known as Cachao, was a Cuban musician and composer who helped popularize mambo in the United States in the early 1950s....
, who is often described as "the inventor of mambo."
Mexico
In 1948, hoping to gain more success, Perez PradoPerez 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...
moved to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and started his own band, where he composed and recorded most of mambos. Perez Prado, dedicated primarily to Mambo, started being called El Rey del Mambo, and he appeared in several Mexican Films. He composed and played several songs inspired by the life style of Mexico City, like "Dengue Universitario" and "Mambo Universitario" dedicated to the UNAM
Unam
UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...
; "Guada Guadalupe", "Lupita" and "Norma la de Guadalajara" inspired by Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
women; and "Mambo del Ruletero", where he names different neighborhoods of the city. He also covered Mexican songs, like "Maria Bonita
Maria Bonita
Maria Bonita is a romance novel, one of a trilogy, based on the story of Maria, the wife of João Lopes da Costa Pinho. João Lopes da Costa Pinho emigrated to Brazil from Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. Some say he arrived barefoot but he went on to be immensely wealthy, owning some 32 cattle and...
", "Besame Mucho
Bésame Mucho
"Bésame Mucho" is a Spanish language song written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez.-Inspiration:According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin.She was inspired by the piano...
", "La Raspa
La Raspa
La Raspa originated in Veracruz and is a dance often performed during celebrations and at dance schools.The Mexican Hat Dance is a combination of two tunes:Jarabe Tapatío and La Raspa....
", Angelitos Negros, and "Granada (song)
Granada (song)
"Granada" is a Mexican song written in 1932 by Agustín Lara. The song is about the Spanish city of Granada and has become a "standard" in music repertoire....
". Later in the 50s Perez Prado acquired the Mexican Citizenship, moved to New York for some years, and then returned to Mexico City, where he died on September 14, 1989, aged 72.
Beny Moré lived in Mexico City in the 50's, it was there where people started calling him Beny or Benny instead of Bartolo ; he composed and recorded some Mambos in Mexico, with Mexican orchestras, specially with the one directed by Rafael de Paz; they recorded Yiri yiri bon, La Culebra, Mata siguaraya, Solamente una vez and "Bonito y Sabroso", a song where he praises the dancing skills of the Mexicans, and claims that Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and La Habana are sister cities.
Also in Mexico, Benny and Perez Prado recorded several mambos including "La mucura", "Rabo y oreja", and "Pachito e che" .
In this time Benny also recorded with the orchestra of Jesús "Chucho" Rodríguez. El "Chucho" was so impressed with Benny's musical ability that he referred to him as "El Barbaro del Ritmo".
Prado's recordings were meant for the Latin American and U.S. Latino markets, but some of his most celebrated mambos, such as "Mambo No. 5" and "Que Rico el Mambo", quickly crossed over to the United States.
New York City
In the 50's New York City began to publish articles on an emerging "mambo revolution" in music and dance. Recording companies began to use mambo to label their records and advertisements for mambo dance lessons were in local newspapers. New York City had made mambo a transnational popular cultural phenomenon. By the mid-1950s mambo mania had reached fever pitch. In New York the mambo was played in a high-strung, sophisticated way that had the Palladium BallroomPalladium 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:...
, the famous Broadway dance-hall, jumping. The Ballroom soon proclaimed itself the "temple of mambo", for the city's best dancers—the Mambo Aces, "Killer Joe" Piro
Killer Joe Piro
Frank "Killer Joe" Piro was a dance instructor to high society and popularized steps of the discotheque era of the 1960s and 1970s.- Early life :...
, Augie and Margo Rodriguez, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina and Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar—gave mambo demonstrations there and made a reputation for their expressive use of arms, legs, head and hands. Augie and Margo became the highest paid dance duo in the world and still dance in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
50 years later (2006).
Some of New York's biggest mambo dancers and bands of the 1950s included:
Augie & Margo, Michael Terrace & Elita, Carmen Cruz & Gene Ortiz, Larry Selon Vera Rodriguez, Mambo Aces(Anibal Vasquez y samson Batalla), Killer Joe Piro
Killer Joe Piro
Frank "Killer Joe" Piro was a dance instructor to high society and popularized steps of the discotheque era of the 1960s and 1970s.- Early life :...
, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina, Pedro Aguilar
Pedro Aguilar
Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar was a Puerto Rican dancer, referred to as "the greatest Mambo dancer ever" by Life magazine and Tito Puente...
("Cuban Pete
Cuban Pete
Cuban Pete may refer to one of the following:*Cuban Pete , a 1946 film starring Desi Arnaz and The King Sisters.*Cuban Pete, the nickname of the Mambo dancer Pedro Aguilar...
"), Machito
Machito
Machito , born as Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, was an influential Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music...
, 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,...
, Jose Curbelo, Akohh, and Noro Morales
Noro Morales
Norosbaldo Morales was a Puerto Rican pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Morales learned several instruments as a child. He played in Venezuela from 1924 to 1930, then returned to Puerto Rico to play with Rafaél Muñoz. He emigrated to New York City in 1935, and played there with Alberto Socarras...
.
Cha-cha-chá
In 1954, the cha-cha-cháCha-cha-cha (music)
The Cha-cha-chá is a style of Cuban music. It is popular dance music which developed from the danzón in the early 1950s.- Origin :As a dance music genre, cha-cha-chá is unusual in that its creation can be attributed to a single composer, Enrique Jorrín, then violinist and songwriter with the...
, a kind of mambo, swept through Havana. Cha-cha-cha was created by the Cuban violinist Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín was a Cuban composer, violinist and band director. He is famous as the inventor of a style of Cuban dance music called cha-cha-chá.-Biography:...
, a member of the Orquesta América
Orquesta América
Orquesta América is a Cuban then later Californian latin band or charanga orchestra.The band was founded in 1942 by singer Ninón Mondéjar with Alex Sosa , Enrique Jorrín, Antonio Sánchez, and Félix Guerra , Juan Ramos and others. Mondéjar and Sosa went to Mexico, then later revived Orquesta...
. Easier to dance than the mambo, with a squarish beat and a characteristic hiccup on the fourth beat, it spread to Europe.
Dance
In 1943, a musician named Perez PradoPerez 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...
introduced the dance for mambo music, the mambo dance
Mambo (dance)
Mambo .In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance was adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and...
. He introduced it at La Tropicana
Tropicana Club
Tropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 at Villa Mina, a six-acre suburban estate with lush tropical gardens in Havana's Marianao neighborhood.-Influence:...
night-club in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in 1943. He also became the first person to market his music as Mambo. After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance were adopted. The original mambo dance
Mambo (dance)
Mambo .In the late 1940s, Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo music and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, where his music and the dance was adopted. The original mambo dance was characterized by freedom and...
was characterized by freedom and complicated foot-steps. Some Mexican entertainers became well known dancers like Tongolele, Adalberto Martínez, Rosa Carmina
Rosa Carmina
Rosa Carmina is a Mexican-Cuban film actress and dancer of the Golden age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. She is considered one of the icons of the "Rumberas film".-Career:...
, Tin tan and Lilia Prado
Lilia Prado
Lilia Prado was a Mexican actress. After winning a beauty contest she started working in the Mexican cinematographic industry, first as an extra, and later on in leading roles....
. Most of these accompanied Prado in live presentations or were seen in Mexican films.
While mambo became more recognized in the United States, the Cuban dance wasn't accepted by many professional dance teachers. Cuban dancers would describe mambo as "feeling the music" in which sound and movement were merged through the body. Professional dance teachers in the US saw this approach to dancing as "extreme", "undisciplined", and thus, deemed it necessary to standardize the dance to present it as a sell-able commodity for the social or ballroom market Thus, compared to the mambo in Cuba, mambo had a different movement sequence in the United States and elsewhere, as it was popularized internationally. The popularized "mambo" in the United States would be viewed as a variant of son or salsa among Cuban dance and music specialists, and would later evolve into a mixture of salsa and rumba that is expressed in clubs and social settings worldwide.
Following in the footsteps of Prado came a wave of mambo musicians, such as Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín was a Cuban composer, violinist and band director. He is famous as the inventor of a style of Cuban dance music called cha-cha-chá.-Biography:...
. Some experimented with new techniques, such as faster beats and the use of side steps in the dance; this latter innovation formed the foundation of cha-cha-cha
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The Cha-cha-cha is the name of a dance of Cuban origin.It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953...
, and was the result of Jorrin's experimentation.
Mambo musicians
- Pupi Campo
- Enrique JorrínEnrique JorrínEnrique Jorrín was a Cuban composer, violinist and band director. He is famous as the inventor of a style of Cuban dance music called cha-cha-chá.-Biography:...
- Orestes LópezOrestes LópezOrestes López was a Cuban musician and bandleader, often credited with popularizing the musical form Mambo, together with his brother Israel "Cachao" Lopez....
- Israel "Cachao" Lopez
- Benny MoréBenny MoréBenny Moré , or Beny, was a Cuban singer. He is often thought of as the greatest Cuban popular singer of all time. He was gifted with an innate musicality and fluid tenor voice which he colored and phrased with great expressivity...
- Pérez Prado
- Tito PuenteTito PuenteTito 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"...
- Arsenio RodríguezArsenio RodríguezArsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician who played the tres , reorganized the conjunto and developed the son montuno, and other Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1940s and 50s...
- Xavier CugatXavier CugatXavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...
(a big bandBig bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
)