Andres Ayala Bas (0678900)

March 23rd, 2018

Bertram Lehmann

Cuban Past and Present

Cuba is an island in the Caribbean near Florida. Is an island that the sound of rumba is the

main music style there. Since the 1940’s in the Havana with the big bands around playing rumba.

The word” rumba” was used as party back in the years by the north part of Cuba and later called

Cuban Rumba. But way back in the history of Cuban Music rumba included a lot of sounds and

cultural voice of drummers, dancers and singers accompany by the Rumba Clave. During all this

years the young Cubans have grew up listing around their houses this music. Like this music is not

just music for them, is life. It was colonized by Spain first, and by that they absorb the cultures of

Europe and Africa from the slaves that took their culture and bring it with them embedded in the

Yoruba language and religion.

Going back to the clave that the Rumba music brings are essential in a lot of music. Salsa,

timba, cha-cha and a lot of other rhythms. The clave is the clave of Cuban Music. You can find it

in every music, that (ta ta taaaaaaa ta ta) that defines the Cuban Music. Obviously, the music has

change with time but if you see it very close the clave has always been the clave. Haven’t change

at all and that’s impressive. If you go to the far southeastern corner of the island, you can go to

Guantanamo and hear people playing changüi, a mix of Spanish guitar and African drums that’s

changed little over the years.

 Something very curious you can find there is that if you are driving for an hour out

of Havana to Matanzas, you can hear a very slow style of rumba. Listening to a group like “Los

Muñequitos de Matanzas”, who’ve been going in one shape or other since 1956, there’s a more

easygoing pace compared to some of the fiery performances you might see elsewhere.

There’s plenty of live venues around Cuba. Normally for a tourist is very hard to hear authentic

music out of a new country. Now days you find a lot of traditional music and not authentic music

from the begging of the 1940’s to 1980’s is hard to listen this days in live venues. You need to go

to this rumbas (parties) the once that look sketchy to hear them. People like Chucho Valdes and

Omara Portuondo have gone thru this culture and this rumbas before and thanks to that they are

who they are today. Their names are going to last a lot.

There’s always music in Cuba. No matter the times bad or good you can always find this

emotional encounter with music. We Hispanic or Latinos are very close to each other. We make a

party out of everything. We are loud but it’s fine because we all are. My first time going to the

states was weird because my culture Is very different to the United States even though we are

Americans to. If you’re able to speak a bit of Spanish, locals are often keen to share their culture

with you, and you might just be invited to join the party.

These three songs I’m going to mention are very special in my life since I know them since

kid. Puerto Rico an Cuba are not that far from different. We have a lot of things I common. Abakua

by Afro Cuba de Matanzas. This song is very simple song that says let’s sing all together and

gather to all together. Another song that is very interesting Arara Collage, you can hear how the

drums are coming together to play what it called Rumba at the beginning. This song is very old

and you can contemplate the history. In this song you can hear few approaches to what is Rumba

music. And the third song that I picked was Ewe-Fon/ Gun Collage, you can hear how the Afro-
Cuban Music is evolving. You can hear more instruments joining. In Puerto Rico the maraca is

very traditional in la Bomba music. We have something that works as clave but is not a clave

exactly and it’s called Cua. Is this hits that makes you know where exactly you are playing.

Me personally from modern music, Rumba is one of my favorites following timba that is

also Cuban Music. Since I started playing in 3rd grade, I have grown an interest for Cuban Music.

I love Cuban music in fact two of my favorite artist are from Cuba. Alexander Abreu and Pedrito

Martinez. I also wrote once a Danzon back in the 2000’s. They way com complexity that Cuban

music have and so smooth to understand and ag the same time warm enough to gather people in

just one place.

Reference

Cuban Music History. (2018). Hostedhavana.com. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from

http://www.hostedhavana.com/resources/cuban-music-history
Dance, E. (2018). Everything You Want To Know About Cuban Music and Dance. Azamara Club
Cruises. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/blog/everything-you-want-know-about-cuban-music-
and-dance-0
Facts About Cuban Music. (2018). Melodyful. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
https://melodyful.com/facts-about-cuban-music
Music Atlas of Cuba: History. (2018). Pbs.org. Retrieved 24 March 2018, from
http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/music/timeline_1900.html