Tag Archives | Cuba

Conga and Carnival in Santiago de Cuba

Cuban conga music developed from rhythmic street parade performances by groups of musicians called comparsas which play music and dance in Cuban streets during festivals like Carnival.

The genre in the Western Cuban city of Havana is different from that of the Eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, which features a “Chinese horn.” SantiagoDeCubaCity.org says it like this: “I believe that there is not to have born for not feeling the contagious rhythm of La Conga, because still being dead, Oriental conga or Conga Santiaguera makes you resuscitate.”

¡Cubanismo! makes Mambo Even More Cool

¡Cubanismo! is a modern Cuban orchestra that celebrates Cuba’s deepest musical traditions, proudly performing compositions in Cuban genres like, “son,” rumba and chachachá.

They also play the ever-popular Mambo. In the 1930s, Cuban big band musicians added some elements of “son” to danzón to form a new up-tempo dance music. The mambo is based on the 3-2 clave and uses a 4/4 beat,with a dancer counting “quick quick slow,” moving his/her feet on the second beat of the four beat phrase, shifting weight to the other foot on the third, and returning to the original foot on the fourth. In other words,  1-2-3, 5-6-7. Mambo became most popular not in Cuba, but in Cuban refugee communities in New York and Mexico City. This video of a ¡Cubanismo! performance from the UK shows us that everyone can love it.

Cuba’s Quintessential Orquesta

Orquesta Aragon, the iconic Cuban orchestra, formed in the late 1930s when double bass player Orestes Aragon Cantero gathered a charanga group that he intended to be both a great dancehall band and a family-like musical collective.

Over the last sixty years Orquesta Aragon has weathered many line-up changes — oh, and the Cuban Revolution — to become a true national institution, performing danzón, cha-cha-cha, onda-cha, pachanga, son and probably every other Cuban musical style. Enjoy this classic Orquesta video.

Is Cuba Still Cuba Without Fidel Castro? YES!

All Around This World map of the Caribbean featuring Cuba

Castro.  Castro.  Castro Castro Castro.  Americans who know nothing about Cuba but the fact that it’s an island somewhere off the coast of Cuba all know Castro.  The life and deeds of Fidel Castro have defined Cuba’s relationship to the world since he and a small band of revolutionaries overthrew the island’s U.S.-supported government in 1958.  But of course there’s more to Cuba than even the most iconic leader. This week in our online class for kids we dabbled in Cuban music, culture and even learn about a globally fused African-inspired religion. Let’s spend the rest of the week learning more.

The Spirits Meet the Saints in Cuba

One of the most fascinating “fusions” in the Caribbean is the fusion of West African religion and Catholicism, which is what you’ll find in Cuban, with Santeria. A small part of the Cuban population practices Santeria, which has its roots in Yoruban/Nigerian religion, and is often analogized to African/Haitian/American voudon (“voodoo”) — and, most intriguing to us in our mission to teach kids about music worldwide, uses African-inspired rhythms in so much of the music that forms the heart of its practices.  In the religion there are many spirits (orishas) with whom one must communicate in many ways, most famously through intricate rituals involving animal sacrifice. The culture of those who practice Santeria in Cuba started with Yoruba/Nigerian enslaved Africans several hundred years ago and morphed over generations into something uniquely Cuban.

Now is the Time!

“Ahora es Cuando es” is a Cuban carnival song arranged in the style of a conga from Santiago de Cuba. You can hear a bit of percussion from original from the Smithsonian Folkways album “Carnaval in Cuba.” In Havana, Cuba’s capital, musical performances during “carnaval” are most often presented to the community as a formal performance, while in Santiago de Cuba the Carnival parade is composed of members of the community–the audience and the parade are one.

Arturo Sandoval’s Cuban Jazz

Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is an internationally-acclaimed master of Latin Jazz.

Based on a firm foundation of Dizzy Gillespie-era American big band jazz, Latin jazz sizzles with syncopated rhythms and cool Caribbean instruments such as congas, bongos, claves and timbales, blending music and cultures of the U.S., the Caribbean and, underlying all, Africa. Arturo Sandoval spent the first two decades of his career performing in jazz and jazz-rock bands in Cuba, traveling internationally with the permission of the Castro government. In 1990 when he was on tour in Europe he and his family defected and settled in Florida. He has toured continually since then, and, as he does in this video, brings Cuba from the islands to the world.

Batá Blends Africa and Cuba

Cuban batá music is synonymous with batá drums, Cuban instruments that provide its driving beats.

Cuban batá drumming is part of a religious tradition that has firm ties to Yoruba (Nigerian/Beninese) religion and culture. Religious batá drumming is meant to inspire the orishas, the spirits, to inhabit the bodies of dancing priests. In the 1930s batá started to appear in folkloric situations and, as you can envision from watching the drummers in this video, the art of batá drumming has developed an appeal worldwide.

Queen Celia of Salsa

The beloved “Queen of Salsa,” Celia Cruz, was one of 14 siblings born in a small village near Havana, Cuba.
In her childhood she sang for tourists, in school and community productions, and for her younger siblings to help them go to sleep. She attended Cuba’s Conservatory of Music and rose in prominence as a vocalist who sang with bigger and bigger Latin bands, especially those who performed salsa. She eventually rose above the bands and became an international superstar of her own. In this video we see Celia Cruz at the top of her game.