For almost as long as I have been a jazz fan, I have been a fan of “Latin” music. But I have much less knowledge about the category than I do about jazz. That’s probably because I have read much less about it.
Some things I do think I know about Latin Music are:
Spain, Portugal and Africa are the main sources of influence on the Latin American musical scene, but most of what’s really “Latin” has developed as much independently of those sources as Jazz and Blues have in the USA.
Many of the subgenres of Latin music are identifiable by the dance step(s) involved, and therefore from the basic rhythmic pattern(s) involved. Some of those would be:
Tango
Bossa Nova
Samba
Rhumba
Mambo
Cha Cha Cha
Meringue
Baion
Bolero
Beguine
One of the key ingredients in Latin music is the “montuno” or repeated chord sequence that usually forms a two-bar repeating riff.
Can you help educate me on more definitive aspects of the subgenres of Latin Music?
You didn’t mention Salsa. That’s New York style latin dance music. Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Eddie Palmieri, El Gran Combo— these guys exemplify Salsa.
The defining aspect of Salsa, I think, is that it must be dance-able. Salsa dancing is sort of like the Hustle. These bands also play a lot of merengue.
I’m only familiar with the name “salsa” and not the sound. It’s been a while since I’ve done any exploration of the “current scene” of Latin. Our DMX channels have several (like 8-10) separate Latin channels, but I don’t listen to them all that much.
What else can you say about salsa to distinguish it? How long has it been popular? What are its roots?
Zeldar… salsa has been popular since the 70’s. I think the beat is characteristic, at least in early salsa… Whereas merengue is 2 or 4 beats, salsa has 3 (ie, 1, 2, 3 step counting as opposed to 1, 2 or 1, 2, 3, 4 step counting in merengue).
Try checking out music from the singers of Fania All Stars, for example Tito Puentes, Hector Lavoe, Rubén Blades, and Celia Cruz.
If you want to listen to more modern (but still pretty good) salsa songs, check out Marcn Anthony’sContra la corriente, or any of his Spanish albums (mostly salsa).
There are also sub-genres within salsa. Rubén Blades sings many political songs, while Marc Anthony has a romantic repertoire.
Oh… and I don’t like calling them sub-genres… many styles that you mention are a genre by itself. Salsa, merengue, rumba, cumbia, tango, samba, bossa nova (if anything, that’s closer to being a Jazz sub-genre)… Each a definite genre. Plus bomba, plena, guaguancó, danza, danzón, seis, etc.
Very well. I was pretty sure that “Latin” was too broad to use for the whole category. And it was the names of the other categories that I was after. You’ve helped with the ones you’ve provided. Thanks.
There is also nortena music, which is Mexican, and features a lot of accordions and bands dressed kinda like cowboys, and Mexican mariachi music, with the familiar trumpet sound.
Banda is sort of brass band music. A lot of Mexican music is quite different (and not quite as popular away from Mexico) from what most call “Latin Music”.
It has a strong German and French influence, from 19th century French soldiers and German/Czech settlers in Texas. Thats where the brass instruments, accordion, and ‘polka’, waltz, and march rhythms come from.
I forget the name of the style/category but there’s a book I read recently on American Roots Music, which covers many styles that don’t fit into the Jazz and Rock bags. Things formerly called Folk plus Zydeco, Bluegrass, Gospel, what they call Old Time (which translates to pre-Grand Ole Opry Country), and other such regional musics. The Tex-Mex variety features polka-based accordion much like y’all have described as Banda and Nortena, but I seem to remember another label. Any ideas there?
One of the albums I really enjoyed in the Bossa Nova period (mid-60’s) was by Cal Tjader and was called Plays The Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil and there were other similar albums by Laurindo Almeida, Bud Shank, Clare Fischer, which weren’t so much Bossa Nova as “Latin” with other rhythms and sounds. From what I’ve read about it, the movie Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negru) was the first big exposure outside Brazil of what became Bossa Nova, and that the creators of that music drew heavily on the “cool jazz” or “West Coast” styles of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, etc.
I also know that Dizzy Gillespie was a pioneer in jazz for the Afro-Cuban rhythms using Chano Pozo and others on conga to set the beat. One of my earliest musical memories is of the George Shearing Quintet playing Latin-flavored tunes.
And the music of Ernesto Lecuona (Malaguna, The Breeze And I, and others) was also something that affected me early on.
Do any of you have some insight into the gypsy connection with Flamenco and its influences on Tango? That’s another style that has always appealed to me.
What I mean by “must be dance-able” is describe much better this article. There are other interesting articles on this site, but your eyes will bleed looking at the layout. The designers of this page should be taken out and shot.
There’s an entire universe of Latin music. It includes the Tango, Andean pan-pipes & the universe within a universe that is Brazilian music. The Afro-Caribbean influence is strong in most of the “dance” genres you mentioned, as you well know.
Check out the Wikipedia article on Latin American Music & follow the links. It ought to keep you busy for a while:
The view from Texas includes Conjuntos–small groups featuring accordion & bajo sexto. The first were instrumental only but some sang corridos–story-songs found on both sides of the border. Tejano & Norteno evolved from conjunto music–with the Columbian cumbia an additional influence, along with the polkas brought to Texas & Northern Mexico by Central Europeans.
Banda music is brass band music with vocals added. In recent years it’s become very popular in Mexico & wherever Mexican immigrants can be found.
Mariachi music is still a source of great pride for Mexicans & Mexican Americans–hearing a really first-rate group play can be quite stirring. I’m also quite fond of the romantic Trios.
One problem with the Latin Grammies is that they neglect the “Mexican” genres that, in fact, have more listeners in this country than the Miami mafia. Another problem is that they try to keep out the real Cubans, who make Gloria Estefan & her ilk pale by comparison.