Mambo music
| Mambo | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Mainly danzón with arrangements of son montuno and swing |
| Cultural origins | 1940s in La Havana, Cuba, drawing on Haitian-Cuban influences |
| Typical instruments | |
| Subgenres | |
| Cha-cha-cha – Pachanga | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Boogaloo – Mozambique – Salsa music | |
| Music of Cuba | |
|---|---|
| General topics | |
| Related articles | |
| Genres | |
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| Specific forms | |
| Religious music | |
| Traditional music | |
| Media and performance | |
| Music awards | Beny Moré Award |
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | |
| National anthem | La Bayamesa |
| Regional music | |
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Mambo is a musical genre and dance style that developed originally in Cuba. The word "mambo", similarly to other Afroamerican musical denominations as conga, milonga, bomba, tumba, timba, samba, semba, bamba, bamboula, tambo, tango, cumbé, cumbia and candombe, denotes an African origin, particularly from Congo, due to the presence of certain characteristic combinations of sounds, such as mb, ng and nd, which belong to the Niger-Congo linguistic complex. In modern Swahili language, the word "mambo" corresponds to the English word "things" The Oxford Online Dictionary gives "mambo" as Haitian-Creole from Yoruba meaning "voodoo priestess".
The earliest roots of mambo can be traced to the "Danzón de Nuevo Ritmo" (Danzón with a new rhythm) made popular by the orchestra "Arcaño y sus Maravillas" conducted by famous bandleader Antonio Arcaño.
Antonio Arcaño was the first to denominate a section of the popular Cuban Danzón as a "Mambo." In 1910, José Urfé added a montuno (typical Son improvised closing section) as a final part of his El Bombín de Barretto. This was a swinging section consisting of a repeated musical phrase, which introduced some elements of the son into the Danzón. During the mid-to-late 1930s, some members of the Arcaño group were saying vamos a mambear (let's mambo), when referring to the Montuno or final improvisation of the Danzón. It was Arcaño's cellist, Orestes López, who created the first Danzón called "Mambo" (1938). In this piece, some syncopated motives, taken from the Son style, were combined with improvised flute passages.
Antonio Arcaño described the "Mambo" as follows: "Mambo is a type of syncopated Montuno that possesses the rhythmic charm, informality and eloquence of the Cuban people. The pianist attacks the mambo, the flute picks it up and improvises, the violin executes rhythmic chords in double stops, the double bass inserts a "tumbao", the "timbalero" plays de cow-bell, the güiro scrapes and plays the "maracas" rhythm, the indispensable "tumba" (Conga drum) reaffirms the bass "tumbao" and strengthens the ‘timbal’."
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Wikipedia