Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo

Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. As the cofounder of the important Cuban music label Qbadisc and coproducer of public radio's Afropop Worldwide, .
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The other aspect of Cuban music that makes it seem mysterious to outsiders is that it's heavily imbued with folkloric elements, much of it having been passed from generation to generation through word of mouth and instrument. With Cuba and its Music , New York musician, producer, and musicologist Ned Sublette takes on the mammoth task of piecing together a story for outsiders and especially Americans.

He's well aware of the enormity of his mission: Afro-Cuban culture didn't happen in history, exactly, because for a long time nobody was writing it down. It happened parallel to history, or perhaps, in another kind of history: Amazingly enough, the almost big hardcover pages of Cuba and its Music don't even stretch past But that's a wise choice on Sublette's behalf, because the African and European roots of Cuban culture go back for centuries.

There's already plenty to talk about. In putting together this study, Sublette touches on religion, language, politics, economics, and a number of other related topics that tangle together to yield the twisty threads of Cuban music. You have to remember that Cuban music as we know it is a product of people whose ancestors were not originally from Cuba, and so their European and African mostly roots play a dominant role in anchoring its development. That has important implications for music.

Sublette argues that the slaves of North America were fundamentally different from those of Cuba in that they were bred, rather than imported. The sugar trade formed the backbone of the Cuban economy, and the harsh working conditions meant that new slaves had to be imported all the way through , when the last slave ship arrived in Havana, over fifty years after other New World areas stopped the trade. African groups in Cuba, which Sublette traces to four distinct regions on the dark continent, kept a lot of their culture and traditions intact through the formation of cabildos, something like "town councils," for blacks of related ethnic groups.

Despite prohibitions on the use of African drums which lasted well into the 20th century , underground music flourished, along with plenty of inventive deviants, who would play boxes and furniture instead in order to comply with the rules.

Cuba and its music : from the first drums to the mambo

Spanish colonists brought their own musical traditions to the New World, including guitars, European dance forms, and styles of lyrical performance. It's no accident that the Cuban beans and rice dish is known as moros y cristianos "Moors and Christians" , because the Iberian peninsula was under Moorish occupation for quite some time before it became Spain as we know it today. And thousands of manuscripts were summarily burnt as the Arabic language was banned in North African music, which emphasizes single melody lines, metric rhythm, melismatic delivery, and erudite lyrics, can be differentiated from the music of sub-Saharan West Africa, which is polyphonic, polyrhythmic, syllabic, and relatively simple in its use of words.

Both made independent contributions to the Afro-Cuban musical identity. My grandmother got me listening to jazz music as a young boy, but I wasn't really hooked until I heard Wynton Marsalis perform live, when I was 13 years old. My grandmother took me backstage to meet Wynton and he gave me a little lesson. By Charlie Porter Member since: Membership has its privileges. Membership has its privileges! Sign in or sign up to build your personalized All About Jazz experience!

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Learn more and read our FAQ. If you shop at any of the stores below, please initiate your purchase from All About Jazz. When you do, All About Jazz will receive a sales commission. View as a separate page. African groups in Cuba, which Sublette traces to four distinct regions on the dark continent, kept a lot of their culture and traditions intact through the formation of cabildos, something like 'town councils,' for blacks of related ethnic groups.

Ned Sublette Cuba and its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo Chicago Review Press pages ISBN It's worth pausing now and then to appreciate the fact that our understanding of music and culture is a direct product of our exposure to that music and culture. From the First Drums to the Mambo Read more articles. Monsters From The Deep Tzadik buy. Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers.


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Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention cuban music new orleans ned sublette chano pozo history of cuba second volume well written recommend it to anyone must read great book musical styles latin music well researched made new cuban music history of cuban cuban musicians classical music african elements of cuba afro-cuban music. There was a problem filtering reviews right now.

Please try again later. This is the finest book on the sociological basis of music I have ever read. Many good books will provide a new fact on each page or two, but I seem to learn three new bits of history on every single page of this extensive analysis of the origins of musical styles in Cuba. It is about differing social policy and its effect on the slave trade.

It is about what gave New Orleans jazz the Latin tinge and makes that city a treasure.


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It is about the distinct origins of the polyrhythmic, polytonal structures of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian music and the recitative, glissando-embellished, monorhythmic music of the blues and later jazz. We learn about Louis Gottchalk's first use of the African drum in classical music [performed in Europe] and why such instruments were banned in England's continental colonies and the early United States since We learn how Moorish, that is, black, line dance style was once the rage of western Europeans, and led to England's Morris dances.

These are among the smallest of factoids that you will encounter reading this highly readable yet scholarly book. Because I admire and particularly enjoy multidisciplinary cultural histories, Sublette's book is a feast. His explorations are ours. You will be fascinated, and you will be delighted. The book is an education. It's a first for me to review a book I haven't finished reading. I've been reading Cuba and Its Music for about a year, off and on, as I've read other books and material. What's prompting me to review it now is that this is simply a terrific, wonderful book and the word needs to get out.

The more I learned about it the more it took me over. This is not the place to go into the reasons, but I will make an outrageous blanket statement and say that what Bach is to classical music, Cuban music is to popular music. Ned Sublette explains why in his marvelous book.

Mambo Kings - Tito Puente Latin Salsa Band w/ Armand Assante

I find myself pouring over passages, rereading and underlining and making notes to myself in the back. I can't take a lot of this at one time. I'll put the book down to pick it up a week later and end up rereading what I'd already read. The prospect of getting all the way to the end of it fills me with joy and dread at the same time. It's not that it's densely written: The book is not for everyone.

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You have to like music, for starters. Then, it would be good if you enjoy learning about how musical styles originate, travel, and influence other styles. Cuba has been a true melting pot for many of the world's musical traditions, and most have made their way to this country, through New Orleans, through New York, and by other means, to the point that its influence is discernible in almost every popular American genre today.

Sublette has traced these influences in the most careful and understandable way, and the result is enlightenment on every single page.

Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo by Ned Sublette

Now I hear that Sublette has another book out on the musical cultures and history of New Orleans. This is wonderful news even if it means I'll spend the next five years finishing both volumes.


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Amazon won't let me review a book twice, so I won't be able to comment on the latter parts of Cuba and Its Music here. From Spanish Silver to Congo Square. There is nothing written in English that compares to the scope and depth of this book on Cuban music. Leymarie's Cuban Fire comes close in volume of information, but it lacks the cogent overview and insight that Sublette masterfully weaves into the details.

This is a history of Cuban music written by a musician! Furthermore, he uses his perspective as an outsider--he is a North American--to our advantage. Coupled with his examinations of the complexity of a Cuban identity and aesthetic, our North American culture also becomes more transparent. This is particularly true when it comes to dissecting the story that most conventional Western Hemisphere histories neglect-the profound cultural influence of West Africa.

As Sublette notes, "the drum Sublette presents a convincing case for this, while simultaneously providing an explanation for those among us who are rhythmically challenged Readers also benefit from the full spectrum Sublette's perspective--that of a musician who migrates comfortably between the music of the concert hall and the dance hall. Dancing can be complex and it can be spiritual. African music is almost always music for dancing; and so is Cuban music, which is African music's grown-up child.

Furthermore, his writing is not of that academic ilk that is afraid to offer opinions, or reveal passions. For starters, he states that he likes Cuban music because he "has good taste. He is the first author I have come across to point out that the geographical origins of the African slaves-those coming to North America from the Senegambia, those to the Caribbean from the coastal areas-largely explains the differences in the musical styles melismatic vs.

Shouldn't this information be part of our cultural literacy? The subject of this book is huge and Sublette is certainly up to the task. Did I mention the extensive index? I have also found, thanks to this text, that I am listening to Cuban musicians eg. That's quite a gift.

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