On the subject of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Damaso Perez Prado, the True Mambo King

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2007 by Sergio Santana

After examining the multiple existing versions about his alleged date of birth, it appears that the Latín music world celebrated, in recent days, the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of the authentic and indisputable mambo king, baptized by Benny Moré as "Sealface Shorty" (Chaparrito con cara de foca). He did not come to this world crying like the other newborns, but instead shouted what would become his orchestral trademark: "Aaaaah ... ugh!" to the surprise of those who witnessed his birth during a warm afternoon at his family home in the seaport of Matanzas, none of whom suspected that he had arrived to revolutionize the Latin music world, to inject a different brass direction into the orchestrations of Cuban genres, and to make the entire universe dance with new acrobatic steps, synchronized to the rhythmic hips of the visually stunning "vedettes" that inundated the black and white Mexican cinema of the stormy 1950s. This article aims to evoke his artistic prominence, as documented by his musical and commercial vision and his discographic epic.

Dámaso Pérez Prado was born in Matanzas, Cuba, on December 11, 1917 (according to the information provided in the Mexican passport issued under his name, after he became a naturalized citizen of Mexico), the son of Pablo, a reporter of the Havanese daily "Heraldo Comercial," and Sara, a teacher of the Public School No. 17 (located in the neighborhood called El Naranjal). His parents wanted him to pursue a medical career, but he showed a musical inclination, under the guidance of his uncle Fulgencio. He studied classical piano, theory and solfeggio with Rafael Somavilla (at Matanzas' Escuela Principal) and with the professor María Angulo, from whose academy he graduated as piano instructor when he was barely an adolescent. In fact, by the age of 16, he was already leading his own orchestra--a charanga comprised of two violins, piano, flute, timbal, contrabass, and vocalist. This band provided musical entertainment for dancing events conducted in Limonar, Cárdenas, Colón and other towns of Matanzas Province. In addition, he played piano with a local radio station, as well as in various clubs and movie theatres. Sooner than later, he felt the need to widen his musical horizons, and this is why he moved to Havana in 1940.

Dámaso made his Havanese debut as pianist of the house band of Marianao Beach's Cabaret Pennsylvania. Attracted by a better monetary offer, he later joined Arturo Mesa's orchestra at El Kursaal, right next to the wharf: "Arturo Mesa had to put up with me for three years. Just imagine, I used to fall sleep with my fingers on the keys!" He was also the pianist featured by the band led by Paulina Alvarez, as well

as Enrique Torriente Pilderot's Orquesta Cubaney (of the radio station CMQ). But Dámaso had an additional line of business: He wrote arrangements. As an arranger, he was recommended to Editora Peer's Ernesto Roca, and gained great recognition among the main bands of Cuba and Mexico. He provided certain arrangements for Havana's Casino de la Playa, a very renowned orchestra that featured the vocals of Orlando "Cascarita" Guerra. Cascarita was so pleased with Pérez Prado's arrangements that the bandleader, Liduviuo Pereira, asked him to join the ranks of Casino de la Playa as pianist and arranger, thus enabling the young musician from Matanzas to gain greater prestige and monetary compensation.

During his tenure with Casino de la Playa, Dámaso began to implement his own projects: "I was previously composing danzones and bolero-style melodies, but I was obsessed by the mambo concept, and without making it known, I was preparing things with the nuevo ritmo boiling in my head ... In the arrangements that I penned for Casino de la Playa, I wrote in the margin, on top, some nuevo ritmo times, next to the word 'mambo.'" The music sheets were copied and printed, facilitating the recognition of said term (mambo) and the name of its Matanzas-born arranger abroad (in México, mainly) before making its debut in Cuba. Nevertheless, this was not the end of the matter. In his recordings, the strange dissonance and syncopated rhythms orchestrated by Pérez Prado generated the origin of the rhythm: In the amusing composition titled Coge la cola, Cascarita shouts, within his vocal improvisation: "Oye el mambo, el mambo esta' botao!" (Listen to the mambo, the mambo is out!), and later on, "¡Oye cómo está, cómo está el mambo!" (Hear how it is, how the mambo is doing!). That is when an entire controversy was created about the mambo's paternity.

Composed by Orestes López in 1938, the danzón de nuevo ritmo titled Mambo is the genesis of the polemic. Performed by Arcaño y Sus Maravillas, said composition initiated a new danzón style that included the syncopated rhythm associated with the son-playing treseros, utilizing a change of instrumental planes with the bass (also syncopated), as well as employing the tumbadora for particular accents. Around the same time, Arsenio Rodríguez was experimenting, in the tune titled So caballo, with a rhythm that he called "diablo" or "mambo."