ax Salazar at the University of L.A.

Development of Latin music in New York City: lecture at UCLA - Max Salazar; University of California en Los Angeles; extractos - TA: Max Salazar; University of California in Los Angeles; excerpts - Transcript

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 1997

On August 21, 1995,A Professor Stevena of the Department of Ethnomusicology, and author of Barrio Rhythms, Mexican American Music in Los Angeles, was in New York. We met to discuss the information he marshalled for his book about the life and music of Tito Puente. It was at this time that Dr. Loza invited me to lecture to his class about the development of Latin music in New York. Right after the February 14, 1995 confirmation, I began researching the topic.

On March 7, 1996, at UCLA's Popper Theatre at Schoenburg Hall, Dr. Loza introduced me to over 100 students who listened attentively for the hour and 15 minute lecture. On eight occasions I stopped speaking so the class could listen to the original recordings I had referred to. I began with the year 1626 when Dutch immigrants purchased the island of Manhattan for trinkets which amounted to $24.00. The following are excerpts from my speech and my remarks.

"Ever since then, with each passing century, immigrants from all over the world have settled in New York, spoken 75 different languages and read one of the 70 foreign newspapers sold at newsstands. On March 17, 1917, the United States Congress made Puerto Rico an organized but unincorporated U.S. territory, with American citizenship granted to all Puerto Ricans who wanted it. Immediately thereafter the Puerto Rican exodus from the island to the continental United States began. The Puerto Rican learned English, learned to love the hot dog, and accepted the custom of wearing an overcoat and gloves during those frigid winter months. By the turn of the 20th century, Harlem was predominately a wealthy Jewish community. Rafael Hernández, Puerto Rico's most famous song composer and his sister Victoria, were among the first Puerto Ricans who settled at Manhattan's 99th Street and 2nd Avenue. As the Jewish population decreased, the Puerto Rican's increased. Rafael Hernández was the first Latin musician to sound a Latin music note in 1919 when he sang and played guitar at a 99th Street house party. In 1926, Cuban trumpeter-bandleader Vicente Sigler became the first to play Latin music with a big band in New York City. In April, 1927, one of Cuba's most gifted musicians, Alberto Socarras, relocated to New York. The year 1930 marked the birth of New York's Latin music industry. Two events were responsible. The first was a dance held at the Park Palace Jewish Caterers at 110th Street & 5th Avenue, which resulted in the opening of dance halls, after-hour clubs, Spanish-speaking movie theatres and music stores. The second event was in April, 1930, when the Cuban-imported band of Don Aspiazu overwhelmed the audience during its two week appearances with an arousing version of El manisero (The Peanut Vendor)... from the moment vocalist Antonio Machin walked out of a wing throwing peanuts to the audience and uttering Mani...Mani." I stopped speaking so the class could hear 1 minute and 30 seconds of the original recording.

"Latin music was more than entertainment, it was a reminder of the two beautiful islands in the Caribbean and its folkways. Music was also a means to earn a few more dollars to supplement the primary income. Almost every Puerto Rican and Cuban family had at least one musician, a self taught vocalist, maraquero or guitarist. Poor families who could not rent a hall for a wedding, a baptismal or a birthday party, held it in their apartment. During the '30s a house party in El Barrio was a happy event. The apartment and hallways reeked with the spicy aromas of garlic and oregano which emanated from the fresh hams in the oven. Trios or quartets which consisted of a lead vocalist, a maraca player who doubled as a second voice, a guitarist, a pianist (if the apartment had one), and a trumpeter, provided the live music in the living room." For one minute and 30 seconds Conjunto Matamoros' Echale candela was played to give the students an idea on how music of the '30s sounded.

"During the decade of the thirties, the Puerto Rican and Cuban relationships were strained. The cause was the competition for housing, employment and political identity. The musical battle, a war between Cuba and Puerto Rico, was promoted at El Campo Amor Theatre, then located at 116th Street and 5th Avenue. It happened during the spring of 1935 when a message flashed across the screen: 'FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!' then: 'WAR! WAR! WAR! between Cuba and Puerto Rico...at the Park Palace between the orchestras of Alberto Socarras of Cuba and Augusto Coen of Puerto Rico.' The magnet attracting the dancers was the dislike the two groups had for each other at the time...Puerto Ricans, citizens by a 1919 Congressional proclamation, traveled to and from Puerto Rico without problems. Cuban tourists, unlike Puerto Ricans, could not remain in the United States after 29 days for fear of being arrested and deported. The small percentage of Cubans who were citizens had confrontations competing for New York City's menial jobs, housing and ethnic control of El Barrio. The music wars urged dancers to support their countrymen... the enthusiasm resulted in fist fights and riots and the battle gimmick was abandoned in the early forties.

"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.

"One of the eyewitnesses to the birth of Afro Cuban jazz was trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie who was aroused by Tanga. Gillespie wanted to learn this new sound of jazz and urged Bauzá to get him a Cuban who could play the 'tom tom.' In May, 1946, Afro Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo arrived in New York City. Bauzá telephoned Gillespie and told him, 'I got what you've been looking for.' Bauzá introduced Gillespie to Pozo at Pozo's Harlem apartment. Pozo joined the Gillespie orchestra and in doing so is responsible for introducing the conga drum in American jazz. In 1946 Gillespie utilized the conga drum in five recordings for the Musicraft label without attracting attention. In 1947 seven more Gillespie recordings which included the conga drum were recorded for RCA and not one writer wrote about the new sound. Then, months after Manteca was recorded on December 30, 1947, music reporters began writing about the 'Cubop' (Cuban jazz) sound of Gillespie, the same sound the Machito orchestra had been playing since the 1943 introduction of Tanga. During the summer of 1991, Boston's TV station WGBH was filming 'Notes From The Mambo Inn: The Story of Mario Bauzá.' In it Dizzy Gillespie admits Mario Bauzá was the first to play Latin jazz and was Gillespie's mentor." For one minute and 30 seconds the original Manteca was heard.

"In 1947, the dime a dance ballrooms in which a man paid ten cents for a dance with a hostess, were closing in that they could not compete with the Roseland and Arcadia ballrooms. In an attempt to save money, the Palladium Ballroom, which featured a pop and Latin band, hired the Machito orchestra to play swing, pop and Latin music. When business did not improve, Mario Bauzá suggested that a Latin night be tried. Six of New York's Latin bands proved to be a monetary windfall and enabled Latin bands steady work along with an American pop band. In 1949 Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado's RCA recording Mambo #5 kicked off the mambo era. At the beginning of 1950, Max Hyman took over the Palladium's management and closed the ballroom for renovations. When it reopened on March 17, 1950, it was strictly a Latin music ballroom. On this historic evening the featured bands were those of Julio Andino and Tito Puente...by the beginning of the 1950s the number of Latin music orchestras had doubled from the decade before...Symphony Sid's midnight jazz show aired a few Latin recordings like Machito's Cubop City, Tanga and Asia Minor, Pérez Prado's Caballo Negro & Latino, and Yma Sumac's Earthquake. The Spanish music programs aired Tito Puente's Picadilly Boys recordings of El mambo de Broadway, Enchanted Cuban, Abaniquito, Ran Kan Kan and Barbarabatiri." For one minute and 30 seconds Abaniquito was heard.

"In 1954 the Cuban cha cha cha arrived in New York. It lacked the excitement of the mambo...by 1955 the mambo was danced in over 50 New York City locations which had a dance floor along with the upstate Catskill and Las Villas resorts. During the same year Bebo Valdes' Decca label recording Holiday In Havana, created interest in Cuban Jam Sessions which added La Descarga Cubana to the list of popular Afro Cuban rhythms. In 1957 Rafael Cortijo's Puerto Rican bombas and plenas became the favorite of Palladium dancers and enabled Puerto Rican musicians Cesar Concepción, Joe Valle, Ismael Rivera, Mon Rivera and Moncho Leña to share the spotlight of recognition...the cream of Latin bands were seen on the popular television shows of Jackie Gleason, Paul Whiteman and Steve Allen's Tonight Show. Charlie Palmieri's quartet which was based in Chicago, witnessed the charanga of Orquesta Nuevo Ritmo in the same city. During 1958 the best selling albums were Tito Puente's RCA LP Dance Mania Vol. I, Benny Moré's RCA LP The Most From Bene More, Rolando La Serie's Gema LP Sabor, and Jose Fajardo's Panart LP Ritmo de pollo. Afro Cuban jazz was alive and well with Cal Tjader's Fantasy LP Mas ritmo caliente, the Everest LP Woody Herman's Heat and Tito Puente's Beat, Machito's Roulette LP Kenya, Shorty Roger's RCA LP Afro Cuban Influence and the Latin jazz discs of Eddie Cano, Tony Martínez, Jack Costanzo, Herbie Mann and Les Baxter...the decade closed with the Tito Puente orchestra being Latin music's hottest attraction...pianist-bandleader Jose Curbelo disbanded in 1959 and became Latin music's most powerful broker when he formed the Alpha Artists Music Agency...Mr. Curbelo had all of the top bands under contract...no band worked the top spots unless José Curbelo approved it.

"At the beginning of the '60s, Charlie Palmieri and Dominican born Johnny Pacheco became the new kings of Latin music with their charanga sounds thanks to the foresight and innovativeness of Al Santiago who founded the Alegre label in the late '50s. As proprietor of Casalegre music in the Bronx, Mr. Santiago discovered and recorded Johnny Pacheco, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Rosario, Willie Colón and the Alegre All Stars. By 1962 the flute and violin sounds of Johnny Pacheco, Charlie Palmieri, Orquesta Broadway, Lou Pérez, La Novel, Ray Barretto and Mongo Santamaría, were the new stars of the New York music world...In 1963, Gerald Masucci, an attorney, along with Johnny Pacheco, founded the Fania Record company...Mr. Masucci bought air time of the most popular radio programs in heavily Hispanic populated cities...within ten years he made the Fania Record company Latin New York's most popular label and its artists stars.

"In 1965 the course of Latin music changed when a new rhythm was created at the Afro American dances held at the Palm Gardens in midtown Manhattan. The dancers were overwhelmed by the music of Pocho (Brown) and the Latin Soul Brothers whose band performed son montunos, mambos and soul music with a Latin tinge. The dancers also encouraged the bands of Eddie Palmieri, Pete Rodriguez, Ricardo Ray and Joe Cuba to add soul to their salsa. Tony Pabon, a trumpeter-composer-arranger, was the first to add the Latin tinge to the Afro American Bugalu when he composed Pete's Boogaloo for Pete Rodríguez.

Between 1966 and 1970, the boogaloo orchestras of Joe Cuba, Johnny Colón, Ricardo Ray, Joe Bataan, King Nando, Joey Pastrana, the Lebron Brothers, the Hi-Latins and Pete Terrace, were the bands in demand...The Boogaloo era ended in 1970. The popular music became the New York modern guaguancó sound provided by the Fania recording artists Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Ricardo Ray, La Sonora Ponceña and the Fania All Stars. Throughout the '50s. the Fania company's motion pictures, concerts, and its recordings dominated the Latin music scene. The only groups it could not topple were those of Eddie Palmieri and Orquesta Broadway, two outstanding aggregations who had their own following...The experimental sounds of Latin Hustle, Latin Disco and Latin Soul were short lives however made the world notice two brilliant composers, Bobby Marin and Louie Ramírez.

"For the last 40 years the new trends came and went, and nothing has replaced the mambo. During the '50s. the popular mambo sound was not heard on Spanish speaking commercial radio in an effort to bury it in favor of merengues and ballads. Despite the denials of Spanish speaking radio of payola, the mambo survived and is alive today as 'Salsa.'...At the moment, the sound of popular uptempo Latin music is being heard around the world in Japan, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Curacao, Germany and Great Britain. It was the Afro Cuban jazz sounds of the Machito orchestra which opened the doors and permitted Salsa to walk in behind it. The Latin music world is full of glamour, excitement and beautiful people...three reasons which has swayed thousands of people during the last 50 years. For those of you who are contemplating a career in music, learn from the many musicians who ended up without pensions because they knew nothing else but music. I encourage you to become musicians...learn to read music...learn to sing...learn to play an instrument...but earn your college degree in another field in the event your music career is cut short."

Dr. Loza's students gave me a standing ovation. The speech ended with the five minute recording of Pucho Brown's Ritmo Nueva York.