Salsa from Panamá, VZ etc. in the 60s and 70s

B

beto1971

Changui
I don't know how it took me so long to find this forum but I learned some interesting things just browsing for the last hour or two. I will continue, seems like a great community.

I wanted to share a blog I've been working on in Covid times to give some shine and discussion on some lesser known (in the US) salsitas from Panamá, VZ etc.

Unfortunately I'm not being allowed to post a link, you can type in esperobook dot com slash
blog-rumbera

Hope you will find something new! Salsaludos Roberto
 
beto1971 said:
I don't know how it took me so long to find this forum but I learned some interesting things just browsing for the last hour or two. I will continue, seems like a great community.

I wanted to share a blog I've been working on in Covid times to give some shine and discussion on some lesser known (in the US) salsitas from Panamá, VZ etc.

Unfortunately I'm not being allowed to post a link, you can type in esperobook dot com slash
blog-rumbera

Hope you will find something new! Salsaludos Roberto
Click to expand...
Wow, the little bit I've looked through is really amazing work!
Contratlations! I hope there is more of this kind of sites. Great research!
Just going through the "Son Afro and Motown" part, really interesting!

As a comment - not a correction, because I really don't know enough of this:
Could the name of the Video "Conga" come from the fact that they use a lot the Habanera-Rhythm in Conga and it's half of the afro-son beat?

It's great all these songs you discovered that use the afro-son as a pattern!
I knew many of them and had never thought of this. Actually, I knew the groove "afro-son" but never gave it so much thought so far!

But I noticed it here, in Billie Holiday's version of "Speak Low":
 
Latinjazz said:
Wow, the little bit I've looked through is really amazing work!
Contratlations! I hope there is more of this kind of sites. Great research!
Just going through the "Son Afro and Motown" part, really interesting!

As a comment - not a correction, because I really don't know enough of this:
Could the name of the Video "Conga" come from the fact that they use a lot the Habanera-Rhythm in Conga and it's half of the afro-son beat?

It's great all these songs you discovered that use the afro-son as a pattern!
I knew many of them and had never thought of this. Actually, I knew the groove "afro-son" but never gave it so much thought so far!

But I noticed it here, in Billie Holiday's version of "Speak Low":
Click to expand...

That's a great observation about the habanera being half of the afro-son beat. I'm not sure about the etymology, though it points out the deep sources of Congolese/Angolan culture.

You are totally right on with "Speak Low"!
 
Latinjazz said:
You mean the etymology of Conga - the music style?
Click to expand...
Right, so for :

Could the name of the Video "Conga" come from the fact that they use a lot the Habanera-Rhythm in Conga and it's half of the afro-son beat?

My understanding is the "Conga" is a classic carnaval rhythm, and with respect to the name I'm not sure if it was called that by Afro-Cubans (in which case it would nod to the origin being Congolese/Angolan), by Cuban mestizos ( who played or danced to the rhythms alongside Afro-Cubans - or alternatively those like Desi Arnaz Sr., who as mayor of Santiago de Cuba outlawed African dancing and rhythms at the carnavales), or by North Americans or Cubans (like the Spanish Cuban Cugat) as an exotic term to market to North American dancers. I need to look that one up, I'm guessing Robin Moore or Ned Sublette may have discussed it in their works =)
 
beto1971 said:
Right, so for :

Could the name of the Video "Conga" come from the fact that they use a lot the Habanera-Rhythm in Conga and it's half of the afro-son beat?

My understanding is the "Conga" is a classic carnaval rhythm, and with respect to the name I'm not sure if it was called that by Afro-Cubans (in which case it would nod to the origin being Congolese/Angolan), by Cuban mestizos ( who played or danced to the rhythms alongside Afro-Cubans - or alternatively those like Desi Arnaz Sr., who as mayor of Santiago de Cuba outlawed African dancing and rhythms at the carnavales), or by North Americans or Cubans (like the Spanish Cuban Cugat) as an exotic term to market to North American dancers. I need to look that one up, I'm guessing Robin Moore or Ned Sublette may have discussed it in their works =)
Click to expand...
My little knowledge of Conga is that it refers to Conga de Comparsa, and yes - correctly a carnaval rhythm.
I couldn't tell if it came to Cuba after the revolution in Haiti in 1791 or if it was already there before that.
In any case, I share your view that it would be of Congolese or at least Bantu origin.

There seem to be minimum 2 styles of Conga, the Havanna and the Santiago Conga.
And in both of them I hear the Habanera rhythm pattern on the percussion instruments, I guess the rhythm comes from there.

As much as I know, the US Conga started later - I'll guess around 1920/30, and is a simplification of the original one as a mass dance. I had a site somewhere documenting this but can't find it right now.

I associate more Desi Arnaz with this style than Xavier Cougat (Who I would rather associate with proto-US-Mambo tied to the movies industry), but I might really just not know him enough.
 
BTW, Conga as a source of inspiration becomes really important in the 50ties together with Rumba, most of the new styles after 1959 are inspired by it.

Thanks again for your page, I'll keep looking it through! Really interesting, and I love the fact there is others digging these things!
 
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