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

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Max Salazar

Listening to Latin music during the 1920s in New York was indeed a treat. The only Spanish topic heard on radio was news about Latin American countries and spoken in English, which only interested political exiles. Orchestras such as Pancho and his orchestra, and Vincent López and his Hotel Pennsylvania Orchestra were performing and recording, but never played or recorded a Latin tune, at least until 1938.

Pleasing the New York Latin music aficionado was Cuban-trumpeter-bandleader Vicente Sigler and Cuban pianist Nilo Menéndez, whose variety of popular Latin rhythms packed dance halls. The situation slightly improved in the '30s. Spain's Enrique Madriguerra's recording debut on March 20, 1931 of Adios and Siboney were the only Latin tunes he recorded until 1939, when the popularity of the tango and conga persuaded him to change. Contributing to the "dinner music" sound was another Spaniard, Xavier Cugat, whose recording debut with RCA on August 15, 1933 was geared for dancers who believed they were dancing to authentic Latin music. The authentic Latin dance music appeared during the last half of 1934, when Hispanic New Yorkers were treated nightly to the live Afro-Cuban music of flutist-bandleader Alberto Socarras, over radio station WMCA from El Kubanacan night club, located on the corner of 114th St. and Lenox Avenue. Socarras was the first Latin musician in New York whose orchestra played Cuban music in Latin nightclubs and jazz at clubs such as the Cotton Club.

In Cuba during the late '30s, Afro-Cuban rhythms were developing with new innovations. Orestes López, a revered musician/composer/arranger/pianist and cellist for Antonio Arcaño's charanga, invented the danzón mambo rhythm in 1938. The mambo became the standard third part of the danzón and added an overwhelming excitement that has yet to be improved upon. A year later, Cuba's Casino de La Playa's vocalist, Miguelito Valdés, popularized the Havana street carnival rhythm, and the conga immediately became the rage. Even North American jazz bands recorded congas, since it was fun and easy to dance to. Despite the new conga and mambo rhythms, Afro Cubans were still ignored. One musician penetrated the color barrier with his exciting vocal innovations. Vocalist Miguelito Valdés took Afro-Cuban music from the street into Cuba's popular nightclubs and resorts. He selected and recorded tunes of black Cuban composers and made listeners aware of the Afro-Cuban experience. Listen to his recordings of Tierra Va Tembla, where he sings that a black man does not run away from danger...that the black man stands up to death. Or listen to his Sangre Son Colorao, Angelitos Negros, Cabildo, Drume Negrita, Negro, and Bruca Manigua. After the release of Babalú in 1939, Miguelito Valdés belonged to the world. Long before civil rights movements became popular, Miguelito Valdés was fighting racial discrimination by way of the lyrics in his songs.

By the beginning of 1942, Latin music was still restricted to Spanish-speaking communities. At this time, the broadcasting business had grown to a multimillion-dollar industry. ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) asked for a fair return in royalties and was ignored. ASCAP then succeeded in calling a national strike by music composers against radio networks. No music was heard because the networks owned most of ASCAP's music. The public wanted to hear any kind of music instead of the different versions of Stephen Foster's I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair and Down Upon the Swanee River, two of the many Foster tunes that were in public domain. Latin music was finally freed of boundary restrictions. Publishing company Music Corporation of Artists (MCA), sold its music to the networks.