The Danzonete: the creation of a style and the rise of the featured vocalist

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2004 by Francisco J. Ojeda

One of the most important musical developments of the 1930s in Cuba was the rise of the featured singer and his eventual transformation into a principal figure of the popular music scene. Beginning in the summer of 1929, Cuban radio--which had been introduced seven years before---featured the voices of singers such as Fernando Collazo, Joseíto Nuñez, Abelardo Barroso, Alberto Aroche, and Paulina Alvarez, who enjoyed immense popularity and were, in fact, the stars of the orchestras that accompanied them. The attention that popular vocalists were then attracting was truly unprecedented.

Before 1930, the most widely acclaimed musical style on the island was the danzón, a form that had never in its history featured a vocalist. The trova tradition, of course, had its vocalists, but they never enjoyed the exclusive status that band singers of Inter periods were able to enjoy. The early son, as played by groups sucia as Sexteto Habanero and others of the type, made extensive use of choral group singing and required only limited participation from a solo vocalist. The featured vocalist--the singer as star of the show--was really a product of the 1930s and no bandleader who wanted to fill dance halls, of be heard over radio during this period, dared present his orchestra without the inclusion of one. The times simply required it. But where did this tradition begin? At what point did the vocalist become a star in his own right?

The Danzón Faces a Challenge

The release in November of 1925 of the first recordings by Sexteto Habanero was not the event that acrually introduced the son in the Cuban capital, but it was, without doubt, the one that made the style widely available for the first time. At the time, the most popular musical style on the island was the danzón, a form that bad reigned virtually uucontested since its creation in 1879. With the arrival of the son, however, musicians who made their living playing the danzón were suddenly forced to accept the fact that, for the first time in its history, their music faced formidable competition.

Only months after the initial appearance on record of music by Sexteto Habanero, other groups imitating the ensemble's format and music began recording and playing for increasingly enthusiastic audiences. Dance promoters responded to the sudden demand by including sextetos on the bill along with the most popular danzón orchestras of the time. Soon the popularity of the son became overwhelming. Consequently, the period between November of 1925 and June of 1929 turned out to be the first golden age of the son and saw the successful release of the first commercial recordings by groups such as Sexteto Boloña, Sexteto Occidente, Sexteto Nacional, Sexteto Maehín, Sexteto Matancero, Sexteto Cuba, and the immensely popular Trío Matamoros. Musicians who made their living playing the danzón were painfully aware of the fact that in order for their musical bread and butter to survive, something new and exciting had to be developed. Something new and exciting was developed indeed.

On June 8, 1929, in Matanzas, the city that 50 years before had given the country the danzón, a young clarinetist named Aniceto Díaz (1887-1964) introduced audiences to a new sryle and form that effecrively blended the main musical characteristics of the son with those of the danzón. Diaz called his creation the danzonete.

The Creation of the Danzonete

From a commercial point of view, the 1929 creation of the danzonete can be viewed as a simple defensive response to the tremendous onslaught and success of the son. From a musical point of view, however, the creation of this innovative style represents something much more profound. In fact, if the arrival in Havana of the son is--as we indeed suggest that it is--the great catalyst in the history of 20th century Cuban popular music, then the creation of the danzonete is its first truly important corresponding response.

The huge popularity of the son caused a division of the Cuban dancing public into two competing factions: sonetos and danzoneros. Aniceto Díaz, a young clarinetist deeply troubled by the situation, set out to create a style that would lure back lost audiences, or at least satisfy both sides of the divided dancing public. To do so, he decided to blend key elements of the son into the basic form of the danzón. By doing so, he created a style that was innovative as well as immediately successful.

The elements of the son that were used by Díaz for his creation were the sounds of the claves and maracas, the estribillo, and--most important of all--the featured vocalist. The clave and maracas, instruments that are essential to the son ensemble, had never been used within a danzón orchestra. The estribillo, which is the vocalized melodic strain repeated by the chorus during the last section of the son, had never been part of the danzón. The use of a vocalist as a principal figure of the danzón ensemble, finally, was nothing short of revolutionary.

The Danzonete Defined