History
of Latin Music
The
history of the Moorish empire prior to Spain extends from
the ancient Moabites, and extends across the great Atlantic
into north, south and Central American thus the Moorish
domination of the seas. It is important to point out that
as time goes on what is now known as Latin America is
highly influenced by European colonization and the slave
trade with Africa. Currently, Latin America, the countries
of the Western Hemisphere south of the United States,
include the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Central and South
America and contain an amalgamation of cultural influences,
namely European, The Moors, Mexican, and other African
tribes. Europe contributed the religions two main languages,
Spanish and Portuguese. Much of the native Moorish culture,
which was in place before the arrival of the Spaniards
and Christopher Columbus, was suppressed due to forced
assimilation; the rest was combined with the arrival of
slaves and other cultures in the 16th century. Through
this rich cultural mix, a distinct Moorish or commonly
referred to as Afro-Caribbean culture has emerged.
The
element in Moorish, African & Caribbean music that
many find most distinctive, is its rhythms are derived
from Moorish, and other Africans via the slave trade (1550-1880),
which is believed to have brought an estimated two million
people of Moorish descent, while in fact the Moors had
domination and inhabitation for over 2000 years in what
is now know as the west into the Caribbean Islands. Unlike
the Moors of North American and some that were enslaved,
who in 1776 were forbidden from playing drums (except
for areas such as New Orleans Congo Square), Caribbean
slaves were liberally allowed to play their drums, which
of course were not only for recreation and entertainment,
but used as a means of communicating. These were considered
talking drums, carrying current, as well as timeless messages;
message of history, struggle, and unspeakable joy. All
this was accomplished through the replaying of these traditional
Moorish and African rhythms, sung on a drum.
During
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these rhythms
spread, developed, and canonized throughout the Caribbean,
around the same time that another American art form was
beginning its conception. This North American art form
was also going to contain a rich cultural mix. It would
incorporate blues intonation, African drums and rhythms,
Indian cymbals, European instruments, harmony, and musical
forms with a syncopated beat namely jazz.
Every
country and every island in the Caribbean developed its
own unique musical culture, be it folk idioms or a national
conservatory styles. Four countries, namely Cuba, Brazil,
Argentina, and Mexico have had the most significant influences
on music in the United States (Cuba having the most enduring).
These influences included Latin rhythms and/or dances
that infatuated the United States, like the habanera,
bolero (Cuba),samba, bossa nova (Brazil), tango (Argentina),
and mariachi (Mexico).
As
these rhythmic structures and their dances canonized,
they began effecting music making everywhere, from the
concert hall, to the New Orleans Street parade, to Broadway
and Tin Pan Alley. As goods including people, were traded
through the convenient and busy port of New Orleans, Louisiana,
musically inclined workers on Caribbean ships were afforded
the opportunity to exchange new rhythms, dances, and songs
with the various Creole and African dancers and musicians
at public performance spaces ice Congo Square. It didn’t
take long for composers to begin writing Latin-influenced
works. For example, American Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869),
who hailed from Louisiana, and studied composition in
France with Aaron Coplands teacher Nadia Boulanger, toured
Cuba in 1857 performing his Latin-influenced works. Some
of the most famous compositions of this nature include
George Bizets hababera from his opera Carmen (1875); Scott
Joplin’s Mexican serenade, Solace (1902); Maurice
Ravels Rapsodie Espagnole (1907), and his Bolero (1928),
Jelly Roll Morton, the famed New Orleans jazz composer
and pianist, spoke to Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress
on the importance, even in the earlier days of jazz (the
end of the nineteenth century) of the jazz musician being
able to work with the Spanish tinge. He said, In fact,
if you cant manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes,
you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call
it, for jazz.
Latin
music is a catch-all term for a number of diverse styles
from different regions and countries in Latin America.
Often, the term refers to Latin pop -- either dance-based
or pop oriented-music sung in Spanish or Tejano. Tejano
has a number of different styles, from romantic ballads
to the narrative nortenos, and they're usually performed
by large groups with acoustic instruments and horns. In
the '80s and '90s, Tejano has also adopted smooth production
techniques from American pop-rock and soft rock. Latin
America is also known for such dance music as salsas and
sambas, which have layers of percussion, blaring horns
and an infectious sense of style. A related style to salsa
is the bossa nova, a cool, laid-back style that crossed
dance music with jazz. With the exception of tejano and
mariachi, which is folk and pop based, most Latin music
is defined by its strong rhythms.
