Cuba was one of the first major New World countries to be colonized by the Spanish and with them came a wave of musical influences both from Europe and Africa. Understanding the key elements of these influences provides a fantastic framework for analyzing Cuban music and helps define many of the early components of Latin music. In this session we cover a number of the major characteristics of the three musical influences on Cuba, taking time to highlight Afro-Cuban folkloric styles such as those from the Congolese, Yoruba, Dahomey, and Carabali nations.

Thanks to centuries of creolization, in the 1700s a variation of a European musical format emerged in Cuba called the contradanza. By blending Afro-Cuban folkloric elements with Baroque characteristics, the style eventually transformed into what we now call danzón, Cuba’s first nationally recognized musical style. In this session we will revist the Afro-Cuban folkloric styles to see how certain rhythms merged with the European Country Dance format, creating one of the first truly creolized Cuban styles of the 1800s.

Due to centuries of slaving, the Afro-Cuban population represented dozens of different African nations. Forced to work together, they developed a new type of music which blended many of the major elements of their cultures together, creating a unique style which eventually became the backbone of percussion vocabulary in Latin music. In this session we will explore three types of rumba, specifically yambú, guaguancó, and columbia, and how they have defined the role of the congas for more than a century.

Cuba has a rich vocal tradition stretching from the theatrical productions in the west to the farmlands and tobacco plantations of the east. In this session we explore how three vastly different styles developed, each of which defining the sound of the Cuban trova tadition.

Similar to the street parades of Brazil or New Orleans, Cuban’s also have annual processions which feature unique music. Drawing from the rumba tradition, much of the music features complex interwoven rhythms played by large ensembles called comparsas. In this session we will explore the difference between eastern and western conga de comparsa, as well as unpack the variety of rhythms associated with the style.

Possibly the single most influential Cuban style, son took the world by storm at the start of the 20th century when it introduced the montuno to audiences. Evolving out of a number of rural eastern styles such as changüí, this session will cover how the style came to be as well as the different components required to emulate the sound of early son cubano.

As son grew in popularity, it attracted a variety of musicians to the style, each of which brought their own approach. However, while there were many who played son, one stood out and took the style further by developing a variation titled son montuno. In this session we will focus on the music of Arsenio Rodríguez, uncovering how he reinvented son through incorporating new instruments and changing the overall form of the style. We will also spend time looking at the vast number of styles that merged with son and how it changed the landscape of Cuban music forever.

Thanks to the popularity of son, every major Cuban style was impacted including danzón. In a similar manner to Arsenio Rodriguez and how he created son montuno, another musician by the name of Antonio Arcaño was redefining danzón evenutally leading to the creation of two new styles: mambo and cha-cha-chá. In this session we will explore how through the innovations of Arcaño, as well as a number of other arrangers, turned danzón into two of the most influential Latin styles of the 1950s. We will then spend some time looking at how mambo and cha-cha-chá transitioned from an orchestral style to being associated with big bands through artists like Tito Puente.

Shortly after mambo and cha-cha-chá took the United States by storm, Cuba was distanced from the West due to the 1959 revolution. As a result, the Latin music in the USA developed in a completely different way to what took place in Cuba. This session will focus on how those in America started to prioritize a more traditional form of Cuban music, eventually leading to the creation of Salsa. We will then shift to focusing on Salsa specifically, unpacking the major characteristics of the style.

While Latin music in the United States become more traditional, Cuban music kept developing and took on influences of other styles such as rock, soul, and funk. In this session we will look at songo, looking at how a new generation redefined the sound of Cuban music and how it eventually turned into timba.