Today’s LJC entry comes from well-known West Coast percussionist and band leader Bobby Matos. His work with the Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble has repeatedly displayed his deep knowledge of the genre’s inner workings – for proof, check out their latest release Unity. Now, Matos takes us into his expertise and gives us a primer on the development of Latin Jazz in New York. Along the way, he makes a great argument for Latin Jazz as an authentic American music. Enjoy!

Many well informed historians and critics have stated that they believe Jazz is America’s only art form, or its most important art form. Obviously, to music scholars and experts, most American (and much world) pop music derives from Jazz, including R & B, Rock, hip-hop, and much of pop music’s sub genres.

One of Jazz music’s most important styles, however, is often ignored, or not acknowledged to be a part of Jazz, even by Jazz radio “on the air” hosts and DJs, and so called experts. Latin Jazz, originally called Afro Cuban Jazz and Cubop, is often falsely perceived as being a foreign entity, and is often denigrated. In Ken Burns’ well known documentary “Jazz,” Latin Jazz is only very briefly mentioned, while the truth demands a much more complex reference.

Let’s go back to the beginnings of Jazz in New Orleans. First, let’s remember that New Orleans is a Caribbean port, and has been part of trade routes that included many of the Caribbean islands since the early Spanish, and later French colonizations. Comparisons of early Ragtime music from New Orleans with early Danzon* music from Cuba reveal many similarities, especially in the use of Afro Caribbean rhythms. Many early Jazz and Blues pioneers, like W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller, acknowledged what they called “the Spanish Tinge”.

During World War 1, famed African American band leader, James Reese Europe led large orchestras as part of the U.S. Army’s elite black unit called “the Hell Fighters” in Europe, and the U.S. They played both martial music and jazzier music, and recruited many musicians from Puerto Rico (a U. S. possession) including many who became well known as major innovators in both the Latin and Jazz idioms. Rafael Hernandez and Juan Tizol were two of their best-known alumni. Hernandez won fame as the composer of many Latin tunes including “Lamento Borincano”, while trombonist Tizol won fame as a collaborator of Duke Ellington, and the composer of “Perdido” and “Caravan”. He later recorded with Nat Cole.

By the 1930’s, much Latin music was being heard in the U.S., including Argentinean Tango, Brazilian Samba, and Cuban Rumba and Son**. One famous Cuban Son Pregon***, “El Manicero” had become a huge international hit in 1930 (selling many 78 rpm records and many copies of the sheet music under its American title “the Peanut Vendor”) and it was being played by everyone including Jazz master Louis Armstrong. “The Peanut Vendor” became a hit again in 1947 with a jazzy recording by Stan Kenton. This song has been recorded over 160 times.

“The Peanut Vendor” inspired a so-called “Rhumba” craze. (The “Rhumba” spelled with “h” was really a watered down and over orchestrated version of the Cuban “Son” and, in reality, has very little to do with the virile percussive Afro Cuban “Rumbas”). The popularity of the so-called “Rhumba” inspired a young supremely talented Afro Cuban musician to try his hand finding work in the U.S.

Mario Bauza was originally a classically trained clarinetist and alto saxophonist, a former child prodigy, who realized that Cuba and its highly segregated classical music scene had no place for a black musician, no matter how talented he was. After arriving in New York, he initially found work playing with Latin Dance bands. To take advantage of recording opportunities, Bauza taught himself to play trumpet, and soon discovered the world of African American swing bands. Soon he was playing with the renowned Chick Webb orchestra, known far and wide as the leading swing band in black dance clubs, and the most popular bandleader at the world famous “Savoy” ballroom. White bandleader Benny Goodman, often acknowledged as the “King of Swing”, challenged Webb, and according to most eyewitnesses, was severely trounced.

auza absorbed the essence of the Swing musical style, the jazzy and bluesy phrasing, and the use of brass sections and reed sections playing counterpoint to each other to create rhythmic tension. Later he joined the orchestra of popular cultural icon Cab Calloway, where he met a talented young trumpet player who became a lifelong friend, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. And then Bauza gave up the security of working with popular bands to do something startling.

Frank “Machito” Grillo was Mario’s brother in law and a childhood friend, known as a singer and a maracas player in Cuba. He mentioned to Bauza that he was coming to New York to seek employment among the many Latin dance bands exploiting the so called “Rhumba” craze. While in New York, Machito worked briefly as the lead singer with well-known commercial bandleader Xavier Cugat, even recording with him. Bauza told Machito that he would create an orchestra especially for him. Copying the unique swing style of brass and reed section counterpoint, and combining it with truly authentic Afro Cuban rhythms, Machito and his Afro Cubans (a revolutionary name for a revolutionary orchestra) was formed at the beginning of the 1940’s.

Much less commercial than the popular Latin dance bands that catered to mainstream white America, the band at first, struggled for its existence but Bauza persisted, adding many Jazz musicians and Jazz concepts. The combination of authentic Afro Cuban rhythms with horn section writing, borrowing from swing, was a new concept that became the standard in later years. Inspired by his talented musicians and his vast experience, Bauza composed a song called “Tanga” in 1943. This moment in time has been generally recognized as the beginnings of “Latin Jazz” (although Bauza always preferred the term “Afro Cuban Jazz”) and “Tanga” is known as the first Afro Cuban Jazz composition.

Mario and Machito had created the standard for what became known as “Latin Jazz” and it was uniquely North American music, made in New York City. True, it had roots in Africa and Europe but so called “straight ahead” Jazz and the Blues also has roots in Africa and Europe. Many an argument has been made that if African American slaves had been able to retain their African drums, and African languages and cultures, then North American music would have resembled the neo African music of the Caribbean a lot more. (Colonial American slave owners had passed laws, known as the Black codes, banning the use of African drums and African languages).

Machito’s music influenced many of the Latin bandleaders that followed and many American musicians as well. Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Flip Phillips recorded with the Machito Orchestra. Dizzy Gillespie consulted with Mario and Machito when he was looking for a conga drummer for his own Afro Cuban Jazz (or Cubop) experiments. Machito and Mario suggested Chano Pozo to Dizzy and history was made again. Stan Kenton openly stated his affection for the orchestra and he named one of his compositions “Machito.” Tito Puente, who played with Machito as a youngster, often said that his mentors were Mario and Machito. In later years, Jazz musicians like Dexter Gordon, Cannonball Adderly, Joe Newman, Eddie Bert, Curtis Fuller, Herbie Mann, Johnny Griffin, David Amram, Jorge Dalto, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Morrow, Mario Rivera, Mickey Roker, Mauricio Smith, Harry Belafonte, and many others all performed and recorded with Machito. Leonard Bernstein even used Machito’s music as an example of real Jazz on his famous television broadcasts in the 1950’s.

North American Latin Jazz continued to develop throughout the 50’s and 60’s with stellar contributions from Stan Kenton, George Shearing, Cal Tjader, Jack Costanzo, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers, Sabu Martinez, Hugo Dickens, Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Chick Corea, Chico O’Farrill, Lalo Schiffrin, and more. Popular Latin dance bandleader/vocalist Tito Rodriguez recorded a Latin Jazz album with Zoot Sims, Al Cohen, and Bob Brookmeyer. Cal Tjader collaborated with Latin bandleaders like Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Palmieri, and Tito Puente. Renowned Jazz musicians like Hubert Laws, Sonny Fortune, Carter Jefferson, Bobby Porcelli, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Eric Gale, Bobby Capers, Marty Sheller, Roger Glenn, Armando Peraza, etc. all played with Mongo Santamaria. Roy Ayers, Dave Pike, Bruno Carr, Ben Tucker, Ray Barretto, Patato, Willie Bobo, Ray Mantilla, John Rae, and Mark Weinstein all played with Herbie Mann’s Afro Jazz group.

In more recent years, North American Latin Jazz has produced artists like Poncho Sanchez, Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band, Papo Vasquez, Hilton Ruiz, John Santos, Ray Barretto****, Justo Almario, Francisco Aguabella, Pete Escovedo, Jorge Dalto, Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Valentin, Bobby Matos, David Sanchez, Ray Vega, Charlie Sepulveda, Paquito D’Rivera, Giovanni Hildago, Oscar Cartaya, Chembo Corniel, Paoli Mejias, Bill Summers, Roger Glenn, Bobby Vince Paunetto, Ray Armando, Patato Valdes, Steve Berrios, Edsel Gomez, Edwardo Simon, Louis Cruz Beltran, Chris Washburne, Bill O’Connell, Eddy Martinez, Bobby Sanabria, Ray Mantilla, Manny Silvera, Rebeca Mauleon, Ignacio Berroa, Dafnis Preito, Horacio Hernandez, Wayne Wallace, Daniel Ponce, John Calloway, Bongo Logic, Jane Bunnet, Rolando Matias, Mark Levine, Mark Weinstein, and others. Importantly, Tito Puente, known for decades as a Latin dance bandleader, became active on the Latin Jazz scene with a variety of small groups. Tito always said that he wasn’t crossing over, he was crossing back. Larry Harlow, another well-known Latin dance bandleader, also formed a Latin Jazz group. All these musicians have contributed their personalized unique vision to the further development of North American Latin Jazz.

Much of the exciting rhythmic and harmonic devices of Latin Jazz have influenced and changed other genres of music. The whole concept of accenting the backbeat in early Rock music (accents on the “four and” and “two”) comes from the most common conga drum rhythm heard in Son, Son Montuno, Mambo, and what’s called Salsa. The two and four measure repeated rhythm figures (known as guajeos, montunos, moñas, mambos) heard in Latin music have also snuck into Rock since before “Louie Louie,” “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” and “There Goes My Baby” (some of the seminal recordings in the history of Rock). This was no accident because many early pioneer creators of Rock were big fans of Mambo and Latin Jazz.

Because I wanted to focus on how much a part of mainstream Jazz (and obviously North American music), I have not mentioned the many wonderful contributions made by our talented brothers and sister based in Cuba and Puerto Rico. A short list would have to include Bebo Valdes, Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Bobby Carcasses, Raices, Rumba Jazz, Los Terry, Emiliano Salvador, Batacumbele, William Cepeda, Tony Martinez, Orlando Valle “Maraca”, etc.

Last, but not least I apologize for anyone I inadvertently omitted.

*Danzon is a 19th century creolization of the English and French contra danse (country dance), fusing elements of European chamber music with an Africanized rhythm on the tympani. Danzon is the forerunner of the Tango. It was also known as the Habanera when Bizet, a French composer, borrowed the rhythm for his opera, “Carmen”. One style of Danzon group was based on classical chamber ensembles and called the ”Charanga Francesa”. It replaced the tympani with the Creole timbales.

**Son is an Afro Cuban song form from Oriente, Cuba. The Son and its offshoot, the Son Montuno is recognized as one of the roots of what is today called Salsa.

***Pregon is a Cuban street vendors musical cry advertising his wares.

**** Barretto went from being a well-known Latin percussionist on primarily Jazz recordings to becoming a popular Latin band dance bandleader, and then became a Jazz Latin, as he preferred to call it, bandleader. Indeed, many of these artists had parallel careers as dance bandleaders.

Bobby Matos is a Latin Jazz bandleader, percussionist, arranger, composer, and educator. With over a dozen recordings to his credit as a leader, he currently records for the LifeForce Jazz label. ©2009 Bobby Matos

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Want to find out more about Bobby Matos? Start at his website and then check out these albums:

Unity

Acknowledgement

Sessions

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Looking Back At Some Great Latin Jazz Recordings From The First Half Of 2009
Album Of The Week: Unity, Bobby Matos
10 Latin Jazz Perspectives On Miles Davis
5 Albums That Remember Bay Area Latin Jazz Saxophonist Ron Stallings (1947 - 2009)

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