Ch. 11 - Latin Music

Front 1

timbales

Back 1

Latin "drum set" featuring two or more relatively high-pitched metal-sided drums (the timbales), plus cowbells, woodblock, cymbal(s), and sometimes additional drums and other percussion instruments.

Front 2

salsa

Back 2

Major form of Latin music that emerged in New York in the 1970s. Strongly rooted in Cuban son.

Front 3

riffs

Back 3

Short, recurring patterns (ostinatos) that are repeated over and over, often with variations, and layered one atop the other. Important feature of arrangements in mambo, salsa, and other Latin music styles.

Front 4

cha cha chá

Back 4

A Cuban dance-music genre characterized by relatively simple dance rhythms and singing; originated with Enrique Jorrin around 1950 and eventually gained international popularity. In the hands of Tito Puente and other New York bandleaders, it took on a new musical identity, leading to the style of arrangements like Puente's original recorded version of "Oye Como Va" (1963).

Front 5

samba

Back 5

Umbrella term for a wide range of musical traditions of Brazil that share in common Afro-Brazilian musical and cultural ancestry; energetic percussion, call-and-response singing, improvisation, and grand spectacle including dance and dramatic presentations characterize many samba performance styles.

Front 6

bossa nova

Back 6

Brazilian genre that emerged in the 1950s and achieved great popularity both in Brazil and internationally in the 1960s; combined elements of samba and jazz in a cool, laid-back style.

Front 7

tropicália

Back 7

Radical and innovative movement in Brazilian arts, culture, and social activism of the late 1960s that privileged an aesthetic of so-called cannibalism, the selective devouring of elements of foreign cultures for absorption and transformation into Brazilian cultural products; in music, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil were central figures of the tropicália phenomenon.

Front 8

tango

Back 8

Sensuous dance-music style of Argentina (also Uruguay) that achieved great international popularity in the 1920s-1930s and was developed and transformed in later years by the innovations of modern masters such as Astor Piazzola.

Front 9

mariachi

Back 9

Popular music of Mexico that developed mainly in Mexico City through the synthesis of regional forms from rural areas (such as the son forms of Jalisco) and an eclectic range of Mexican and international musical styles.

Front 10

rumba

Back 10

Traditional Afro-Cuban secular dance music featuring singing and music played on conga drums and other instruments.

Front 11

Latin rock

Back 11

Hybrid of Latin music styles and rock. Term is most closely identified with the music of Santana.

Front 12

Newyorican

Back 12

New York resident of Puerto Rican descent; includes both New York natives and Puerto Rican immigrants to New York.

Front 13

bandoneón

Back 13

Box-shaped accordion of Germany ancestry that typically serves as the lead instrument in an Argentine or Uruguayan tango band; Astor Piazzolla was a master of this instrument.

Front 14

ayllu

Back 14

Indigenous term for "native community" of the South American Andes. Shared family lineages, locations of residence and ancestry, and cultural practices (including musical and religious practices) define ayllu membership.

Front 15

julajula

Back 15

Andean panpipe instruments that are played in pairs within ensembles; interlocking parts between pairs of julajula generate the music's melodies.

Front 16

Andean folk music

Back 16

Modern, urban, cosmopolitan transformation of the musical traditions of rural, indigenous Andean peoples. Features instruments like the kena, siku, charango, and bombo in stylized and polished arrangements that promote a kind of constructed, folklorized form of Andean authenticity.

Front 17

batá

Back 17

Sacred drums used in rituals of the Santería religion.

Front 18

clave (rhythm)

Back 18

Fundamental rhythm of Latin music; comes in four different varieties; often played on claves, but even if not actually played its presence is always implied.

Front 19

big band mambo

Back 19

The highly syncretic mambo style of the 1950s identified with New York-based bandleaders such as the mambo kings. Incorporated more Afro-Cuban and American jazz and popular music elements than did the earlier Cuban mambo style.

Front 20

mambo kings

Back 20

The leaders of the top Latin dance bands of New York in the 1950s, who were responsible for the "mambo craze" of that era: Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez.

Front 21

Latin Dance

Back 21

Dance-music genre that is a hybrid of diverse contemporary music styles, Latin and American. Identified specifically with Tito Puente Jr. in this text.

Front 22

son (Cuban)

Back 22

Afro-Cuban dance-music style that gained popularity from the 1920s onward, influencing related styles and prefiguring later developments. Also historically important as a symbol of Cuban nationalism.

Front 23

bongó

Back 23

Pair of small, single-headed drums used in percussion sections of many types of Latin bands. Held between the knees and played with the fingers.

Front 24

Tito Puente

Back 24

Donned the "King of Latin Jazz," was a pioneering force in Latin music, known for fusing styles and putting a big-band spin on traditional Latin music. Wrote and performed "Oye Como Va."

Front 25

Tito Puente Jr.

Back 25

Son of Tito Puente. Creator of Latin Dance genre.

Front 26

Carlos Santana

Back 26

Leader of Santana, a band whose music blends Latin-infused rock, jazz, blues, salsa and African rhythms.

Front 27

Palladium Theatre

Back 27

A concert hall, and later a nightclub, in New York. In 1960s was the epicenter of the mambo craze, headlining the mambo kings.