That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

In the ’30s, bandleaders Don Azpiazu and Xavier Cugat helped popularize
Cuban dance music called rhumba. Cugat had a hit in 1935 with Cole Porter’s
“Begin the Beguine,” and continued to play light, commercial Latin jazz into
the ’50s. Cugat was important because he helped introduce America to Latin
rhythms, setting the stage for Latin jazz musicians such as
percussionist/bandleader Tito Puente and pianist Perez Prado (both artists
are discussed later in this chapter).
Among Latin musicians, Alberto (or Albert) Socarras impacted early jazz and
led Latin jazz bands during the ’30s and hired jazz musicians like singer Cab
Calloway (see Chapter 6) and Cuban percussionist/composer Mongo
Santamaria. Socarras was also one of the first jazz flutists.
Some swing bands used Latin flavors occasionally during the ’30s. Duke
Ellington (see Chapter 6) played songs written by his Puerto Rican trombonist
Juan Tizol, including the famous Ellington anthem “Caravan.” But it wasn’t
until the ’40s in New York that Latin elements began turning up in jazz in a
significant way.
Meet the Cuboppers: Latin
Jazz in the 1940s
Chapter 9: The Perfect Hybrid: Latin Jazz
New York — an obvious birthplace for new forms of jazz — in the ’40s had
almost as eclectic a culture as New Orleans in the ’20s. Saxophonist Charlie
Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the inventors of bebop (see Chapter 7
for details on bebop), were the first famous jazz players to make major use of
Latin flavors. In turn, Cuban immigrants in New York merged bebop into their
music, and the cultural exchange between American jazz players and recent
immigrants created something called Cubop — blazing bebop played over
Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Cubop music may move to syncopated Latin rhythms, and then switch to the
straight up 1-2-3-4 of big band swing. When Gillespie and Parker collaborated
during the 1940s with bandleader Machito, the resulting hybrid featured Latin
rhythms (played on traditional drum sets and Latin congas and timbales) and
brassy horn sections, with Gillespie and Parker’s speedy, complicated bebop
solos soaring above it all. Gillespie and Machito’s artistic relationship lasted
on and off into the 1980s, and they’re considered key players in the invention
of Cubop.
167