There’s a myth in some people’s mind that Cuban jazz began with musicians like Chucho Valdes and Arturo Sandoval.

With all due respect to those gentlemen, no.

The show starts at the 00:35 point after a brief piano prelude and then a second group comes on at 5:30. This music is from the early 1960s

The tune is “Gandinga, Mondongo y Sandunga” written by Frank Emillio.

Personnel

Frank Emilio, piano
Guillermo Barreto, drums
Tata Güines, congas
Orlando “Papito” Hernández, bass
Gustavo Tamayo, güiro

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The group is described as “Quinteto Instrumental de Musica Moderna.”

The film segues into another piece that features the dancer Ana Glorioa and Milacho Rivero’s percussion group

Released in 1964 by the Cuban National Film Institute which was formed in 1959.

I’ve been told, and I have no reason to doubt it, that the Cuban government frowned on jazz in the 60s and 70s. If that’s true, how do we explain this film which clearly celebrates jazz?

Here are many of the same gentlemen – about 20 years later – playing under the name “Los Amigos”

– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube

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