Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Video and audio
Palo is one of the spiritual streams, along with Santeria (“The Way of the Saints”), that developed in Cuba and the Western Hemisphere. It’s also known as Las Reglas de Congo. Palo was developed by enslaved people taken from the Congo basin.
Palo is known as a syncretic religion, meaning it blends two or more elements together. You can see references to the Catholic elements in this film excerpt.
Congo culture contributed the inspiration for two musical instruments invented in Cuba that are now found around the globe: the open-bottomed conga drum (“tumbadora”) and the bongó.
According to musician, scholar and old Cuba hand Ned Sublette author of “Cuba and Its Music”:
The Congo was the first layer of direct-from-Africa tradition to appear in Cuban music…You can detect its influence in all the important genres of Afro-Cuban dance music, from creolized contradanza to the rumba to the son to the street dance called the conga.
Arsenio Rodríguez’s grandfather was Congo and Benny Moré as a boy was welcomed into his local Congo organization, where his great-great-grandfather had been king of the cabildo.
We’ve been showing a lot of films from the early 60s in Cuba because they occupy a sweet spot in time. “Old” Cuba was still alive and well and there was a golden age of film documentation during this period.
This clip comes from a short film called “En Un Barrio Viejo” by Nicolás Guillén Landrián which was released in 1963.
Landrián was born in 1938 in Camaguey, Cuba. He made thirteen films, all worth watching. Here’s the full version of “En Un Barrio Viejo.”
This talk by Robert Farris Thomspon is a good place to go to start to get some understanding of the Palo religion.
Robert Farris Thompson on the art of Palero (practitioner of Palo) José Bedia
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Video and audio
Like New Orleans and Brazil and other places with Catholic cultural roots, Cuba has a vibrant Carnival culture.
This black and white film shows what Carnival looked like in February of 1962. The director: Alberto Roldán.
This was shot in is in Havana, but Carnival is celebrated all over Cuba and is especially dynamic in Santiago de Cuba.
Important: Don’t go looking for Carnival in Cuba on Mardi Gras. The dates were moved to July 18–27 to honor the Cuban Revolution.
Here’s what Carnival is like these days in Santiago de Cuba.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
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Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
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Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Video
La Tumba Francesca is an art form unique to eastern Cuba.
Tumba is “drum” and “Francesa” is French, so it means literally “French drums.”
Why “French?”
Because the art was created by the French-speaking Haitians who came to eastern Cuba during and after the Haitian Revolution
This documentary by Jimenez Leal y Nestor Almedros is from 1961. The visual quality is not great, but what it captures is, so we went with it. You can find additional videos of this music on YouTube.
Tumba Francesca was in its heyday in the late 19th century when a profusion of sociedades de tumba francesa (tumba francesa societies) flourished. Three remain in operation today.
Historical background
The Haitian Revolution was one of the most important events in Cuban history, music history, and world history for that matter.
Haiti (then called Saint-Domingue) was a monstrously corrupt place with perhaps the most brutal slave regime the world has ever seen – but it was rich and it invested no small amount of its wealth in music.
In fact, the French musical culture in Saint-Domingue far surpassed anything else in the hemisphere at the time including New York and Boston.
As a result of the Revolution, Haiti became the first country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery.
During and after the fighting, thousands of Haitians left the island for the United States (including New Orleans), and eastern Cuba where they settled in and around Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo.
This cultural influx had a huge impact on Cuban culture and American culture too
During a war between France and Spain a large number of French in Cuba were expelled. Many went to New Orleans where they literally doubled the population overnight and transformed what was then a backwater into one of the most important centers of musical innovation of the 19th and 20th centuries.
You can’t fully understand our music – jazz, blues, rock and roll, funk etc. – without appreciating its Haitian roots.
Here’s some of the history of the French Haitians in Cuba:
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
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Afro-Cuban culture, Artist-Educators, Blog, Cuba, Latin Jazz, Puerto Rico, The Cuba-US connection, Video and audio
We discovered this gem in the middle of a documentary about Puerto Rican culture in New York.
The late great Charlie Palmieri (1927 – 1988) does what so many great musicians have done – and continue to do – over the years: teaching the next generation.
That’s why we have the great music we do.
Interviews about Latin music education on Jazz on the Tube:
Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Camp
Latin Jazz and Our Beloved Bronx
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Latin Jazz, The Cuba-US connection
A mambo version of from the Gym Scene of West Side Story performed by the students of the 2017 Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Camp directed by Bobby Sanabria.
Composed by Leonard Bernstein, arranged by Danny Rivera with additional arranging by Bobby.
The dancers are from the Cleveland Ballet.
Thanks to all the sponsors who made the camp and this performance happen.
Here’s our in depth interview with Bobby about the annual Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Camp, a great cultural institution that deserves all our support.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Afro-Cuban culture, Blog, Cuba, Video and audio
Playlist
1. “Bruca Manigua.” – Orquestra Casino de la Playa.
2. “Que Pena Me Da.” – Machito and his Afro Cubans.
3. “Africanerías” – Machito and his Afro Cubans.
4. “Babalú” with his Orquestra
5. “Celina” with his Orquestra
Miguelito Valdés born Miguel Ángel Eugenio Lázaro Zacarías Izquierdo Valdés Hernández on September 6, 1912 in Havana.
For those who are new to Cuban music, you may think he is imitating Desi Arnez. The opposite is true. Miguelito and his version of Babalú were famous long before Desi came along.
Like his friend Chano, Miguelito was an authentic tough guy and won twenty-three bouts as an amateur boxer.
He was a star singer in Cuba and all over Latin America and was one of the movers and shakers behind Cuba’s legendary Orquesta Casino de la Playa.
In 1940, frustrated by the racial prejudice of Cuba’s music industry where black performers were not allowed opportunities to perform in public venues, he moved to New York City. A light skinned person – his father was Spanish and his mother was Mexican – he was outraged by the prejudice that kept friends like Chano Pozo and Arsenio Rodriguez out of the limelight.
In New York City, he worked with and helped advance the career of Machito and invited Chano Pozo to New York City and in turned helped him with his career.
One highlights of the highlights of that time were two recorded sessions in February of 1947 that featured the Machito Orchestra, Valdés, Chano Pozo, Arsenio Rodríguez, Tito Rodríguez, Garbiel Oller, and Olga Guillot.
Because of Valdés celebrity and show business acumen (not to mention his talent), there’s quite a bit of film of him.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
Thelonious Monk