Los pioneros de la salsa - música latina - TT: The Pioneers of SALSA - TA: latin music

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Max Salazar

The history of the popular dance music known as "SALSA" is deeply rooted to the African drum in Africa. It began when the African found a means of how to communicate ideas by way of drumbeats. It was right after Christopher Columbus mapped the routes on how to reach the Caribbean in the late 14th century that powerful African tribal leaders sold less powerful tribes to white slave traders. Thousands of Africans from several hundred tribes were transported to the Caribbean by Portuguese, Dutch, English and French traders. With the captive slaves went their religions and cultural elements. Each European nation supplied its colonies with slaves from tribes it had bought or plundered. English traders sold slaves to anyone that would buy. Spain bought slaves from anyone that would sell. Brazil bought Senegalese Africans from the Portuguese. English traders wanted Ashantis, the French liked Dahomeans while the Spanish preferred Yorubas.

The European colonies instilled the cultures of the mother country and the slave became exposed to different music, religions and attitudes. North African Moors conquered Spain during the seventh century. Spanish music, with its new Moorish elements of improvisation and complex rhythms, gave Spanish music more rhythmic life. The merging of the Spanish and African cultures, which subsequently led to the creation of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, occurred during the 15th century in Cuba, when the drums of the Yoruba, Carabali, Arara and Mandinga were heard in the secret societies known as cabildos playing the African rhythms of Palo, Columbia, Yambú and Guaguancó.

The movement toward the creation of Afro-Cuban music occurred during the 16th century when the rhythm of "son" was created.

The son began to evolve in 1791 after hundreds of Haitians relocated to Cuba. It was with the French Haitian slaves that the son first became popular. With the white French and Haitians who fled to Cuba went their flute and violin groups who played the minuet and French danse.

At this time, racism divided Cuba. Black Cubans preferred rhythms and dances deeply rooted in Africa. White Cubans preferred European-based music. With the passing of time, an Afro-Cuban innovation of the French and Spanish contradanza resulted in the Cuban danzón. It happened during the 1860s, when the European music lovers of Havana congregated daily at "El Liceo," a social center in Matanzas to enjoy the French and Spanish contradanzas.

In 1877, Miguel Failde's innovation was the beginning of "el danzón Cubano." It was critically acclaimed as "An Agitated Rhythm." Failde lived in the borough of Simpson, province of Matanzas, on top of a mountain overlooking Simpson. It was the breathtaking sight of Matanzas below him that prompted him to compose Las Alturas de Simpson (The Heights of Simpson).

On January 1, 1879, the eight-piece orchestra Típica Miguel Failde introduced another version of Las Alturas de Simpson at the José White Home of Culture in Matanzas. On this historic occasion, twenty elegantly dressed couples danced to the first Cuban danzón (played by Failde's orchestra) that consisted of tuba, trombone, two violins, two tympani drums and Failde on cornet playing the lead parts. Thus, Failde's danzón became the National Dance of Cuba.

For the latter part of the century, the Cuban government forbade the playing of the son because all of its lyrics protested the inhuman slavery conditions, thus causing riots. Soldiers from as far away as Havana were sent to Oriente to quell these riots. When the soldiers left Oriente, those who were musicians took the son with them and the son soon found its way throughout Cuba.

In 1920, during a carnival in Havana, Guillermo Castillo's Grupo Típica Oriental played the son, and its lyrics didn't offend anyone. After the carnival was over, the group changed its name to Sexteto Habanero Godinez and the era of the trumpet conjunto and the popular son rhythm began.

Other groups who have contributed to the worldwide popularity of the son are La Sonora Matancera, El Trio Matamoros, and Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro.

On January 12, 1924, in barrio Ojo de Agua, Matanzas, Cuba, tres guitarist Valentín Cane and bassist Pablo Vásquez founded the group Tuna Liberal. Shortly after, the name was changed to Estudiantina Matancera. During the late '20s, it became La Sonora Matancera, that today holds the distinction of being a popular dance band after 77 years of activity. Guitarist-composer Miguel Matamoros, who in 1925 organized a trio that included Siro Rodríguez and Rafael Cueto, founded el Trio Matamoros. Matamoros' recordings, such as Son de La Loma, Lagrimas Negras and El Que Siembre su Maiz, are just a few sones that have been heard in remote parts of the world. Another pioneer of the son was Ignacio Piñeiro's Septeto Nacional, whose rise to international fame began in 1927. Nacional's music was heard in the 1929 Worlds Fair in Spain and during the 1932 Chicago Worlds Fair. Piñeiro, bassist and composer of the sones Echale Salsita, Se me Fue, No Jueges con Los Santos, La Cachimba de San Juan and Suavecito, died on March 12, 1969.