Recorded musical examples can be listened to via the internet by clicking on the "Listening Examples" link on the left. Important information about each song is provided in the listening notes below. You can either print it out so that you can take your own notes as you listen, or open it in a separate window to read as you listen.

East Coast Listening Examples 1

1. “Mayeya,” Septeto Habanero      , 1930s
Cuban Counterpoint: History of the Son Montuno, Rounder CD 1078     

The instrumentation, rhythmic structure, vocal harmony, and above all the form of the Cuban son have been extremely influential in Latin popular music. This is a “septeto”, seven musicians: guitar, tres, bass, trumpet, bongos/cowbell, maracas, clave. The basic form of the son is an instrumental intro, a pre-composed section, and an improvised call & response coro or montuno section. (“Son montuno” is actually the most accurate description for this type of performance; early sones did not have the call & response section). In recordings this call/response section was of limited length, but since it was improvised, it could be extended in live performances as long as dancers wanted to dance.

Listen for the claves, a pair of wooden sticks that are struck together to play a repetitive rhythm (the rhythm is also referred to as “clave”), to which other parts relate. The texture formed by this interlocking of repeating and contrasting rhythms is called “polyrhythm.”



2.“Mambo Gozon,” Tito Puente 1950s
The Essential Tito Puente     

This is a New York style mambo. The “mambo” was first by conjuntos in Cuba (the conjunto was an expansion of the septeto, including piano, congas, and multiple trumpets). Mambo was popularized internationally by bandleader Perez Prado, a Cuban who relocated to Mexico City and made influential recordings. But at the Palladium Ballroom in New York in the 1950s, the mambo took a harder edge, including jazz harmonies and instrumentation. The polyrhythmic texture of the mambo is rooted in the rhythm section of the Cuban son, with piano, bass, congas, and other percussion instruments all playing fixed rhythmic patterns that are linked to the guiding rhythm of the clave (not heard here, but implicit in the rhythmic structure of the other parts). The call and response improvisations of the singer, exciting breaks, changing horn lines, and solos provide variety. One of Tito Puente’s important innovations was to foreground the percussion, especially the timbales, on which he plays brief solo near the end.

3. “El Bodeguero      ,” Orquesta Aragon date?
El Cha Cha Cha de Cuba, Milan Latino 73138-35740-2

The cha cha chá developed in the late 1940s in Cuba as a popular dance played by charanga bands. This gave the charanga ensemble, which had previously been associated with more elite social functions, a new level of popularity. The formal variety (several distinct sections that alternate) of this song reflects its roots in the tradition of set dancing—dancing in choreographed figures that change with each new section of the music—a European fad that caught on in the Americas in the 19th century. The charanga instrumentation includes piano, violins, flute and timbales in addition to bass and other percussion that is used in the conjunto. The piano style and the rhythmic figures of the violins and flute give this genre its character. Also note the rolls on the timbales, a technique called "abanico", to give the rhythm a kick-off at the beginning of new phrases. The on-beat rhythm and tempo of the cha cha chá helped make it especially accessible to U.S. dancers, and it became a huge dance craze in the 1950s.


4. “Oye Como Va,” Tito Puente date?
The Essential Tito Puente     

This cha cha cha uses the instrumentation of a jazz big band, but the dancers have the same rhythm to move to. Note the prominent melodies of the flute, reflecting the influence of the Cuban charanga (the flute was not commonly heard in jazz big bands of the time).

5. “Conmigo,” Eddie Palmieri, 1962     
La Perfecta     

Pianist Eddie Palmieri played with the big band of Tito Rodriguez, a rival to Tito Puente at the Palladium Ballroom in New York in the 1950s. In the early 1960s Palmieri started his own smaller ensemble, La Perfecta. La Perfecta was modeled on a Cuban charanga ensemble, and specialized in a dance style called the “pachanga” that the charanga bands had made popular (this song is a pachanga). But Palmieri substituted trombones for violins, to create an ensemble that his brother Charlie jokingly called a “trombanga.” This instrumentation became popular with New York Latino dancers, and the trombone later became one of the signature instruments of salsa music.

6. “Siboney--los panchos,” Los Panchos     

Los Panchos are one of the most famous guitar trios in Latin America, formed in New York in 1944. Their original members included two Mexicans, Chucho Navarro and Alfredo Gil, and a Puerto Rican lead singer, Hernando Aviles. This song was written by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. This kind of multi-national collaboration was common in the production of commercial Latin music in New York. The repertoire of Los Panchos was diverse, but most of their songs, like this one, were written by professional composers. Their songs were performed in a style that transcended national borders, featuring virtuosic guitar accompaniment and beautiful vocal harmonies.

7. “Que Te Pedi,” La Lupe     
La Lupe: The Best     

Cuban singer La Lupe teamed with Nuyorican bandleader Tito Puente in the 1960s to make some classic recordings. This is one of their best known songs, in the style of a bolero, a kind of love song popular throughout Latin America. The bolero’s rhythmic feel that is easiest to identify by the conga part. La Lupe’s passion is electric, and Puente’s arrangement is simple perfection.

8. “To Be With You,” Joe Cuba Sextet

This bolero is sung in English by Jimmy Sabater. The use of English lyrics with Latin musical styles like the bolero was popular in the early 1960s, and was referred to broadly by the term “Latin soul.” This style reflected the fact that bands like Joe Cuba’s played for ethnically mixed audiences, and also reflected the socio-cultural situation of Puerto Rican immigrants, who lived side by side with blacks in Harlem and the South Bronx and listened to plenty of soul music.

9. “El Pito,” Joe Cuba     

Puerto Rican bandleader and percussionist Joe Cuba led a sextette (six musicians) that sounded like a big band in the late 1950s and 1960s. This song is in the style of boogaloo. The term boogaloo originates in African American tradition, referring to a way of dancing or playing, and related to words like boogie woogie. In the early 1960s, though, Nuyorican musicians (Puerto Ricans born in New York) began to mix African American rhythms with Cuban genres like the cha cha cha, pachanga, and guajira. The style became known as boogaloo (or bugalú) or Latin boogaloo, and was wildly popular for a few years, especially with the racially mixed dancers that Joe Cuba and other Nuyorican bands played for. Listen to how the bass line leaves gaps that can be filled by clapping on the back beat (i.e. clapping off the beat in the style of African American church music or R&B). The word “pito” has double meaning: 1) Whistle, and 2) marijuana joint.


10. “Bang Bang,”      Joe Cuba     
Bang Bang / Push, Push, Push - Single     

This song hit the charts on both English and Spanish radio in 1968. Its pure fun includes the sounds of a house party, with children shrilly shouting the chorus. The mixture of Latin rhythms with a strong African American backbeat represents a conscious connection between those two communities, as does the naming of similar foods, like chit’lins (the singer says “chitterlins”) and cuchi frito—African American and Puerto Rican dishes, respectively, that are made from pig intestines.

11. “Deja lo que Suba,” Cortijo y su Combo     

Percussionist Rafael Cortijo founded a neighborhood combo in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in the early 1950s that went on to make an international impact. Cortijo’s combo was famous for including Afro-Puertocan genres like the bomba and plena into a popular dance band format. This song has the steady on-beat rhythm of the plena, and its verse and chorus structure is also typical of plena. Nonetheless, the singer or “sonero”, Ismael Rivera, improvises the verses in the same way a sonero would improvise in the call and response coro of the son. Listen to Rivera’s vocal improvisations, and see if you can imitate his subtle rhythmic phrasing.

12. “Barrunto,” Willie Colon     
OG: Original Gangster     

Willie Colón helped make the trombone a signature instrument of salsa music, turning his raspy trombone sound into a virtue, reflecting the rough edges of life in the barrio. This song is about a troubled heart (barrunto is a feeling of unhappiness or foreboding in love). The song begins with a verse, then proceeds to the call and response coro for singer Hector Lavoe to improvise. The polyrhythmic groove in the coro uses many typical rhythms of a salsa rhythm section. Other parts of the song include a piano solo and a couple changes of rhythm and feel (the song ends on that different feel).


13. “Esta Navidad      ,” Willie Colón     
Asalto Navideno     

This early 1970s recording was part of a salsa Christmas album (Asalto Navideño), in which Willie Colón integrated aspects of Puerto Rican jibaro music (rural folk music, roughly speaking) with the urban energyof salsa. It was a huge seller in New York and Puerto Rico, where dancing and singing are enjoyed at house parties throughout the Christmas season. Jibaro elements include the sound of the cuatro (a Puerto Rican guitar with 5 courses of strings), the lyrical trombone lines (the melodies, not the instrument, are borrowed from the jibaro style of aguinaldo), and the vocal sound and phrasing of singer Hector Lavoe.

14. “Siembra,” Ruben Blades with Willie Colón                 
Siembra

Salsa’s sound and lyrics spoke to the experience of urban life throughout Latin America. Panamanian singer Ruben Blades, salsa’s most celebrated poet, began his career with Willie Colón in New York, writing songs of struggle and hope that fostered pan-Latino solidarity. The title of this 1978 song (and the album it was on), “Siembra,” means to plant or sow. Blades encourages Latinos everywhere to sow the seeds of a better future. The chorus, “con fe, siembra y siembra y tu verá,” means, “with faith, sow, sow, and you will see.”

1. "Rapper's Delight," Sugar Hill Gang
Sugar Hill Records

This song introduced rap music to nationwide radio listeners in 1979, and began a new commercial phase in the development of hip hop culture. Hip hop's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural scene is reflected in the sounds of this song. It begins with Latin percussion, followed by a bass line that is borrowed from "Good Times," a disco hit by Chic. The boundary between disco and hip hop was blurry, since both scenes involved DJs playing for dancers, and both scenes were popular with both African Americans and Latinos.

2. "Together," Ray Barretto
Que Viva La Musica

Nuyorican conguero Ray Barretto recorded lots of crossover music, in addition to salsa and Afro-Cuban drumming. This song is still popular among break dancers, who tend to prefer fast tempos and energetic percussion. Also listen to the words, which speak to the multi-racial ethos of early hip hop.

3. "Tiburon" (English version), Proyecto Uno
20 Exitos (disc 2)

The success of Proyecto Uno, young New Yorkers of Dominican descent, drew attention to the market for Spanish language rap in the 1990s. This song includes elements of Dominican merengue, including the rapid piano licks and the razor sharp scratching of the güiro. Many Latino rappers were shut out of a record industry that was trying to market hip hop as a "black" music. Spanish rap gave them new opportunities, and this is one song that even crossed over to English radio..

4. "Gasolina," Daddy Yankee
Barrio Fino

This 2004 hit crossed over even to English speaking audiences, and put reggaeton on the cultural radar of many Americans. Daddy Yankee got his start in the "underground" scene in Puerto Rico, a mixture of hip hop, reggae, and electronic music that got distributed on cassette tapes outside the mainstream marketing channels. Reggaetón had important roots in hip hop and Jamaican dance hall, and was especially influened by Spanish language dance hall from Panamá. The constant drum rhythm that you hear in this song is known as "Dem Bow," named for a song by Jamaican dance hall singer Shabba Ranks. The dem bow rhythm is one of the defining feature of reggaetón generally.

5. "Loíza," Tego Calderon
El Abellarde

Although commercial reggaetón is dominated by lyrics about sex and dancing, there are many reggaetón artists who record innovative music and progressive messages. This song is named for Loíza Aldea, a community known for its strong Afro-Puerto Rican culture. The lyrics speak of Afro-Puerto Rican pride and resistance to oppression, and the music features Afro-Puerto Rican bomba drumming.

6. "Que Lloren," Ivy Queen
Sentimiento

Reggaetón is dominated by male singers, and the lyrics and the video images of much reggaetón portray women as sexual objects. As a female reggaetón star, Ivy Queen has cultivated an image that is sexy, but also strong and dignified. This song talks about the way love can hurt men, too, and how they deserve to be hurt and to cry.

1. "Buena Vista Swing" Conjunto San Antonio Alegre 1950

This is a conjunto trio (accordion, bajo sexto and standup bass) playing swing music which was popular throughout the U.S. in the 1940s. Listen to the bajo sexto accent beats 2 and 4 and the bass playing on all 4 beats (known in jazz as a walking bass line). The accordion is playing the melody taking the place of a swing band's horn section. Conjuntos were known to play many popular styles depending on what was popular at the time and what people wanted to hear.

2. "La Novia Antonia" Conjunto Bernal 1957

This is also a conjunto with a drum set and saxophone added. This is a rock-n-roll tune using a 24 bar blues form. Conjunto Bernal were known for their virtuosity and creativity and for successfully incorporating different musical styles into the conjunto while staying within the tradition.

3. "Vamos A Bailar" Freddy Fender 1961

Freddy Fender (Baldemar Huerta) grew up in the small town of San Benito in South Texas. He loved rock-n-roll and playing guitar so he began taking his favorite tunes and making Spanish versions of them. His first recordings were in 1957 but later he recorded with various independent labels under different names like "The Bebop Kid" or "Eddie con los Shades." Later in his career, he started recording country music. This song is a cover of Ray Charles' song "What I'd Say." Freddy changes the lyrics to Spanish and changes the topic to one about dancing.

4. "Wooly Bully" Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs 1965

Sam the Sham (Domingo Samundio) grew up in Dallas and was inspired by singers like R&B shouters Little Richard and Chuck Willis. He formed the Pharaohs from a previous band, "Andy & the Nightriders" when two of the members left the group in 1963. This song was originally named "Hully Gully" after a popular dance coming out of Florida. The song resembles rock-n-roll coming from the south with a typical 12 bar blues form, but Sam adds a little Tejano flavor by counting in the song in Spanish.

5. "Should I Take You Home" Sunny & the Sunliners 1968

This is an example of the "West Side Sound" recorded by one the most popular groups in San Antonio. Sunny Ozuna was the singer and leader. He was known to make his band work really hard to become one of the best. The instrumentation used was typical of many San Antonio R&B bands which include guitar, bass, drums, organ, and a horn section with at least two saxophones and a trumpet. In the late 60s, bands like this had to start playing polkas and rancheras associated with conjunto and orquesta to keep up with audiences demands.

6. "You've Succeeded" The Royal Jesters 1968

This is the other most popular group in San Antonio that started out as a vocal group taking their influences from Doo Wop and Mexican Trios. The song is written and sung by Dimas Garza who was inspired by Black singers like Etta James. When listening to this song pay attention to the horns. They have a quality of orquesta and mariachi horns which makes this song representative of the fusion between R&B and Orquesta Tejana.

7. "Hello Stranger" Paula Estrada w/ Little Joe & the Latinaires 1965

Little Joe was from Temple, just north of San Antonio. At the same time as the bands in San Antonio, he was also creating a unique R&B sound with his group. Later in his career he began to play more orquesta music and was one of the bands that created the sound we hear in Tejano music today. The singer in this song is Paula Estrada who had previously, in 1962 had the chance to become a star, but the record company didn't let her record because she was "Mexican." She joined Little Joe in 1965. This song is a cover of a previous recorded sung by Black artist, Barbara Lewis.

"I Turn You On" Latin Breed 1969

The Latin Breed became one of the hottest bands in the 1970s in San Antonio. They were known for their tight horn section and musician talent capable of playing anything from funk, polkas, rancheras, to soul. The band was started from ex-members of Sunny & and the Sunliners. This song is a cover of James Brown who was an inspiration to many bands in Texas, Blacks, Whites, and Tejanos.

"Cookin" Tortilla Factory 1973

This group was started by Tony Guerrero who played trumpet and arranged music with Little Joe. The singer is Bobby Butler, a Black singer who also used to sing with Little Joe. Bobby could sing R&B and sing Spanish tunes as well which gave him the name "El Charro Negro" (The Black Cowboy). Tortilla Factory was another orquesta that played musical styles from all over the map.

"Everybody's Getting' So Funky" Machismo 1977

This is an another funk example from a band managed by Manny Guerra. Manny used to play drums for the orquesta of Isidro Lopez. He left Isidro's group and started his own label called "Sunglow Records" and started and managed a band called the Sunglows. This is the band that Sunny Ozuna sang for and had a hit with in 1963. This band, Machismo, mixes funk, disco, latin and sings both in English and Spanish. Try to hear the conga playing tumbao. The bridge section (in the middle of the song) has disco elements heard in the guitar and in the references to "Boogie."

"Mal Hombre," Lydia Mendoza (1934)

Lydia Mendoza was one of the earliest Tejano recording stars. She began recording in a trio with her sisters in the 1920s, but the success of this song helped launch her solo career. It is performed not in a local Tejano style but rather in the style of the Argentinian tango, an indication of the diverse musical tastes of Tejanos, and of the diverse Latino audiences for whom Lydia Mendoza performed and recorded. Her records sold in Mexico as well as Texas.


"La Cuquita," Narciso Martinez and Santiago Almeida (1930s)

Narciso Martinez was one of the first Tejano accordionists to make commercial recordings in the 1930s. With the accompaniment of Santiago Almeida on bajo sexto, these recordings became models for later musicians, and today Martinez and Almeida are honored as founders of the Tejano conjunto tradition. With the bajo sexto providing bass and chords, Martinez is free to concentrate on the melody in his right hand (as opposed to the chord buttons in his left hand), with great speed and ornamentation. Also notice the intricate accompanying melodies that the bajo sexto plays at times; this style of playing the bajo diminished in later years, in favor of a more steady strumming rhythm (compare to the bajo sexto in "Atotonilco," for example).


"Atotonilco," Tony de la Rosa

In the 1950s Tejano conjuntos expanded their instrumentation to include drums and bass (which they called tololoche), in addition to the accordion and bajo sexto. This polka is a good example of the classic conjunto sound: bass line on the tololoche, the bajo sexto plays mainly an off-beat strum, the drummer plays tasty accents on the snare, and the accordionist concentrates on melodic phrasing and ornamentation.


"Mi Unico Camino," Conjunto Bernal (1958)

The popularity of this song established Conjunto Bernal as modernizers and innovators in the conjunto tradition. They used two accordions instead of one, and featured rich three-part vocal harmonies in the style that was more typical of guitar trios, to give their music a more cosmopolitan, sophisticated sound. This is in the style of a ranchera, a type of love song in triple meter that was popularized all over Latin America by Mexican movies, beginning in the 1930s.


"A mi Querido Austin," Eva Ybarra

It took talent and determination, but Eva Ybarra succeeded in making a career for herself in the otherwise male-dominated role of Tejano conjunto accordionist. This song is a huapango, a Mexican folk dance style with a three against two metrical structure—i.e. you can count it in 3 or in 2, depending on which beat you choose. The bass articulates a clear triple beat. But the off-beat accent of the bajo sexto implies a duple beat. The melodic phrasing plays on both of these beat schemes at different times.


"Un Rato No Más," Beto Villa

While the conjunto originated as the preferred ensemble for working class dances, larger (and more expensive) orquestas are also popular in Texas. The orquesta tejana incorporates instruments (e.g. large horn sections) and styles from U.S. swing bands as well as Mexican orquestas, and generally is associated with a more middle class audience than the conjunto Tejano. In this example, the percussion and rhythmic structure are modeled on Afro-Cuban dance bands.

"You Keep me Hanging On," Steve Jordan

Sometimes called the "Jimi Hendrix of the accordion," Esteban Jordan is known for integrating rock and R&B into conjunto music. This is a cover version of a hit song that the Supremes recorded on the Motown label in 1966.

1. "El Lavaplatos"/ "The Diswasher" by Hermanos Banuelos. 1929. Recorded in Los Angeles, California.

Example of an urban corrido.

During the 1920s, Mexican communities in Los Angeles, California listened to Mariachis from state of Jalisco, canciones nortenas (northern songs) from the state of Chihuahua, troubadors from the Yucatan region , banda jarochas from the Veracruz region, and marimba groups from Chiapas and Oaxaca.

Yet, of the all the styles that stood out in popularity in L.A. in the 1920s, it was the CORRIDO or border ballad genre.

The Corrido had a long history in Mexico, especially along the U.S./Mexico border regions, but it reached its "Golden Era" during and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The genre narrated heroic battles of the revolution.

The corrido ensemble was generally comprised of two guitarists and two or three vocalists.

The song "Los Lavaplatos" is considerd to be a modern and urban corrido as it was the first recorded corrido and it was a corrido about the everyday working person instead of an heroic leader.

"El Lavaplatos"/"The Diswasher" is also an example of why Mexican migrant musicians can be understood as "organic intellectuals." These working class intellectuals use music to express the frustrations and hopes of their social group and challenges the story that the mainstream tells about their migrant lives.

Notice the sound of the "slide guitar" technique.

2. "Corrido Pensilvanio"/ "Pennsylvanian Corrido" by Pedro Rocha and Lupe Martinez. 1930s. Recorded in Los Angeles, California.

Example of modern, urban corrido.

Corrido about the mid-west labor routes via Texas of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. "Corrido Pensilvanio"/ "Pennsylvanian Corrido" is an example of the way Mexican labor has been vital to U.S. culture. One the one hand, it describes the way Mexican labor has been integrated into the American economy and on the other, it shows how the work of these Mexican immigrants was made invisible in U.S. culture. "Corrido Pensilvanio"/ "Pennsylvanian Corrido" is also an example of why Mexican migrant musicians can be understood as "organic intellectuals." These working class intellectuals use music to expresses the frustrations and hopes of their social group and challenges the story that the mainstream tells about their migrant lives.

3. "Pachuco Boogie" (Don Tosti's Pachuco Boogie Boys, rec.1948)

Don Tosti (Edmundo Martinez Tostado) was born in El Paso, Texas and later moved to Los Angeles, CA. In 1948, Don Tosti recorded this song on the spot after being hired to accompany popular balladeer, Ruben Reyes who never showed up for the session. Tosti took advantage of this opportunity to incorporate elements of his experience growing up in a Mexican barrio. With his experience in the swing bands of Jack Teagarden, Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey and Les Brown. Like early African American R&B, this song has a rebellious spirit rooted in the street life of young pachucos/pachucas or "zoot suiters," otherwise known as Pachucos. The use of caló slang of the Pachucos, together with the raw sounds of African American jump blues and boogie woogie, are examples of Chicano innovation and participation in U.S. popular music.

4. "Los Chucos Suaves" (Lalo Guerrero, rec.1949)

Lalo Guerrero wrote diverse dance music, ballads, and many humorous songs reflecting the bicultural experience of Chicanos. Stylistically this song could be broadly described as a guaracha, but the references to Los Angeles Pachuco culture and their caló dialect give it a distinctively local flavor. Music like this, as well as more conventional swing band and afro-Cuban dance music, was a favorite of Pachuco dancers.