Development of Latin music in New York City: lecture at UCLA

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 1997

"The relationships between Cubans and Puerto Ricans appeared to have improved in 1941, months after word spread throughout Spanish Harlem and Brooklyn that a male Cuban married a Puerto Rican woman. It was rumored that the marriage of Cuban bandleader Frank "Machito" Grillo to the Puerto Rican Hilda Torres contributed to the end of the hostilities. The sights of Puerto Rican musicians in the Machito band, of Cubans in the Noro Morales orchestra, of Miguelito Valdés embracing the Puerto Rican Bobby Capó or Daniel Santos, Miguelito Valdés singing songs of Pedro Flores, and Valdés and Machito's sincere praise of Puerto Ricans, were just a few of the good will gestures which ended the Caribbean Hatfield and McCoy feud...the changes in attitude resulted in Puerto Ricans and Cubans marrying each other...many of these families became part of the caravan of moving vans (trucks which transported furniture) which left Spanish Harlem on weekends for Rockaway Beach in Long Island...it was during the mid '40s that a traffic accident on the way to the beach ended the weekend beach trips and compelled barrio natives to patronize Las Villas, the upstate New York resorts which featured Spanish food, live music and a chance to meet an unattached person. Before the '40s ended there were ten resorts which provided Latin music and weekends escapes.

"Latin music began earning its long overdue respect during the early '40s...ever since the mid '20s when Puerto Ricans and Cubans formed musical aggregations, they were employed mostly as relief bands. The Latin relief bands would give the featured American pop band a required 15 minute union break. By the mid '40s Latin bands were no longer relief bands. One reminder of the relief bands era has been perpetuated by El Conjunto Caney. It happened this way...one evening during the late '30s, Caney pianist, Rafael Audinot, invented a signal that would alert musicians the break was over. Audinot composed a piano melody that was soon recognized as the end of the break period. When Audinot began his piano signal, the maraca and bass player remained on stage with him...the remainder of Caney musicians took their instruments and music off stage while featured musicians returned to the bandstand. Rafael Audinot's piano signal became Rumba Rhapsody for a 1940 Decca recording." For one minute and 30 seconds the audience heard Caney's Rumba Rhapsody.

"In April, 1943, Machito was drafted by the U.S. Army during the peak of World War II. While at basic training at Camp Uptown, New Jersey, the Machito orchestra made history without him. On Saturday, May 28, 1943, the Machito orchestra finished playing a tune at La Conga club located at Broadway between 52nd & 53rd Streets. While the musicians were taking a breather and searching for the chart of the next tune, pianist Luis Varona began playing the introduction of Gilberto Valdés' tune El botellero (the bottlemaker). He was joined by bass player Julio Andino. Mario Bauzá looked up at Varona and listened. What Bauzá heard was the key to a formula of an idea he had been nurturing since 1939 while a member of Cab Calloway's band. He had an idea about merging Cuban rhythms with jazz, but did not know how to do it. In 1940 Bauzá's arrangement of Estoy Cansado, in an Afro Cuban lament rhythm for Calloway was an indication he was on the right track. On Monday, May 29, 1943, the Machito band spent its only day off at a Park Palace rehearsal. Bauzá instructed Varona and Andino to play the introduction of The Bottlemaker...Bauzá then instructed the trumpeters and saxophonists to play the sounds he sang out which sounded like broken chords...a few hours later he completed the composition and had the orchestra play it...someone in the audience remarked that the music was as exciting as "Tanga," the African word for Marijuana...thus Tanga was composed and Afro Cuban jazz was created." For one minute and 30 seconds, a live version of Tanga at La Conga club was heard by Dr. Loza's students.