DANZON

An instrumental genre created by Miguel Failde in 1879, in Matanzas, The first danzon was entitled Las Alturas de Simpson. Its particular rondo structure allows improvisation by every instrument. Rhythmic elements are preponderant, especially the cinquillo, a Cuban rhythmic cell, and syncopation. Future Cuban rhythms like danzonete, cha cha and danzon mambo – the forefather of mambo – derive from danzon. From the 1930s to the 1970s, Barbarito Diez was the most popular danzon singer in Cuba.

CHA CHA CHA

Enrique Jorrin wrote La Engañadora, the first cha cha ever, in the 1950s. Stemming from danzon, it is a new structure based on an introduction, a chorus by three singers, and a closing with a rumbita – a relative of rumba. This genre was made popular by charanga orchestras like Orquesta Sensacion, Enrique Jorrin y su Orquesta,Orquesta Sublime and, especially, Orquesta Aragon.

MAMBO

Created by Orestes ‘Cachao’ Lopez, leader of Orquesta Charanga Tipica, in the tune Danzon Mambo, in 1939. This tune ends with a syncopated rhythmic cell, the cowbell on tempo. This is the birth of mambo. In the 5Os, Damaso Perez Prado brings this rhythm to his jazz band and releases ‘Mambo, que rico mambo’, making this rhythm internationally famous.

GUARACHA

It is born within the Cuban Comedy Theatre in the Nineteenth Century. The first guaracha ever was entitled Que Negro Bueno. Guaracha shows a very simple structure and a binary time. Satire and picaresque are its main features. Formats range from duo to trio, sextet, septet and full band. Ñico Saquito in history and Pedro Luis Ferrer at present are the most outstanding composers and performers of charanga.

TIMBA

Contemporary performing style of Cuban dance music. A fusion of son and salsa.The piano or bass play tumbaos – off the beat notes on the tonic and the dominant – to enhance the melody while percussion plays multiple polyrhythms and songo – a style created by Changuito, the Van Van band former percussionist.

RUMBA

Rumba is a musical and choreographic complex that feeds from African and Spanish elements. It is the most outstanding genre, by many now rather considered a form, of Cuban folklore. It is born in the solares – slums – of Matanzas and Havana early in the nineteenth century. It involves a soloist and a chorus and shows an influence of flamenco. Rumba has four styles: yambu – slow tempo, guaguanco – fast tempo – columbia – faster tempo – and giribilla – much faster tempo. The main instruments are the cajon – wooden box, clave, congas, including quinto, the caja china – the Chinese box, bottles, spoons, just anything percussive, and voices. Rumba styles are diverse: Havana’s, Matanzas’s, the – rural – Ñongo style, the long standing ensemble Muñequitos de Matanzas’s style and the Santiago de Cuba’s style. Barrios also show off their own rumba styles. Retos – rumba competitions among barrios, i.e. – were common until the early 1960s.

SON

It is born in the eastern mountains of Cuba in the Nineteenth century. Agricultural workers, of both African, Spanish and Cuban descent, in their breaks, used their taburetes – wooden and goat leather chairs, metal spoons and cups, and a bottle, to create their own music, the so called nengon, the father of Son. The first known dance to Son is ‘el baile de la Carolina’, the Carolina dance. Carolina is a mountain concave petal white and yellow flower that workers would place head down on the taburete, to have it dance to their beat, and would shake, but not fall. Son brings together Spanish music – guitar and tres – and African percussion. It has 2x 2 and 4 x 4 binary metrics. Its structur ealternates verse and chorus. All instruments involved in a son may improvise solos, specially the tres, the bongos, the timbales and the trumpet. A deep bass sound repeats the metric accent. Rhythm, 3 x 2, is clearly marked by the Cuban clave. Formats vary from trios to quartets, sextets, septets and full bands. Son styles include Nengon, Son Montuno – eastern rural areas – Changui, Sucu Sucu, and Urban Son – an outstanding feature of this sophisticated style is the dialogue among instruments, or instruments and voice, and the tumbao – off the beat notes on the tonic and the dominant to enhance the melody. Among the most historically known performers of Son are Trio Matamoros, Benny More, Miguelito Valdes, Chapotin, Arsenio Rodriguez, Abelardo Barroso and, among the most internationally known, from the Vieja Trova Santiaguera, the Buena Vista Social Club, the AfroCuban All Stars and Soneros de Verdad, are Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Reynaldo Creagh, Maracaibo and Luis Frank.

CHANGUIA

Syncopated rhythm created by Haitian, Jamaican and Cuban coffee pickers up inthe mountains of Yateras, Guantanamo, east of Cuba, back in the 19th century. Early instruments used were the tres, the botija –or conch, the guiro and the bongoes. A mix of tumba francesa and nengón. Elio Revé made it popular in 1954. Odelkis Revé, Elio's brother, the most outstanding changui player in the world today, added batá drums to this rhythm in the 1970s.

TROVA

Like so much Cuban music, the story of Trova begins in the east where Santiago, the old capital, played its important role. Up to the 19th Century, what was referred to as cancion-urban song was based on a mixture of whatever was predominant in Europe – opera arias, napolitan songs and French romances –but the development of Cuban cancion coincided with the growth in numbers of the itinerant singer-songwriters at that time. They were known as cantadores, later becoming known as trovadores, and their music as trova. Like the troubadores of medieval France, they travelled the countryside, accompanying their songs on stringed instruments, usually guitars or tres. Unlike the old troubadores, the trovadores of oriente were not educated; they were poor and self-taught. Often they worked at humble jobs and sang in their spare time or in the evenings in bars or in the streets. Even when they achieved fame, financial success rarely followed.  

BOLERO

The first major synthesis of Cuban vocal and instrumental music, bolero was born late in the eighteenth century. It became widely popular a century later with LaVieja Trova Santiaguera from Santiago de Cuba. The traditional bolero is a fusion of Spanish and AfroCuban elements where the percussion sound accent of cinquillo, a Cuban rhythmic cell, overlaps the lyrics in a two-four binary tempo. Traditional bolero further evolves from an instrumentalor vocal form into, also, a dancing genre. It has spread widely into the whole Hispanic world.