Merengue, salsa, tango .... What is it all about?
SALSA
Starting with the more recent first, salsa is a blend of percussion, brass, and singing that is more a sort of melodic chant than anything else. From Cuba and Puerto Rico, it is the overall sound and effect that is aimed at. Almost a brand, if you like. Salsa began with singer Hector Lavoe in the late '60s. If you look at the clip below, you can see that the vocals don't really seem to project a message or even a significant lyric. The singing is more like an instrument fitting into the overall sound, and not stepping forward. Trombones were utilised instead of trumpets for brass. Since then, trumpets have also entered the mix.
Famous Latin percussion master Tito Puente (famous before salsa emerged) has said that "'Salsa' - 'sauce' in Spanish - is something in a bottle" ie: for him not a specific form of music. "I play Cuban music", he said. And Afro-Cuban breakthrough band-leader Machito (who recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker) said "I've been playing it ('salsa') for forty years".
This later clip of Lavoe is interesting as it is a little more subdued but with a large group of musicians, which enables the concept of this music to be clearly seen. It also seems to bear out the comments of Tito Puente and Machito above.
Then there is Ruben Blades (1948- ) who performs the exception to the above, a type of political salsa where the lyrics matter a great deal. A famous album of his is "Celebrations: Epic Duets" from 1999.
The latest type of salsa is "salsa romantica", a pleasant melodic style of crooning that became known in the 1980s. Melody triumphs over rhythm, in contrast to the earlier salsa. The two major artists are Eddie Santiago (1955- ) and Jerry Rivera (1973- ). Listening to a track by these guys in a shop on Broadway, I noticed the similarity to part of The Beatles' "If I Fell" (from 1964) in a section of the tune. There is also a more hardcore version known as "salsa erotica".
TANGO
From Argentina, tango is probably the most wide-spread type of latin-american music, and has inspired classical composers to write it. The Danish composer gade wrote a very famous tango, and Astor Piazolla (accordians in the mix) is a virtual industry in Argentina.
The first tango artist was Carlos Gardel (c1890 - 1935). This guy is so famous he must be the Argentinian Beatles! A baritone singer and guitarist, Gardel is the basis for the music.
Tango has been and will always be everywhere. From a dance class in your town to the dance scene in "True Lies" (Arnold Schwarzeneggar, 1993).
MAMBO
Mambo was a big band development of the earlier "Afro-Cuban" music of the 1940s. Of course, all this music is Afro-Cuban, as noted by Machito (see above). Popular in the '40s and '50s, it fell off in popularity when big bands became too expensive to maintain, just as jazz big bands had given way in the 1940s to smaller "jump" groups and rock and roll.
In and around the mambo era, Perez Prado and Tito Rodriguez joined Puente and Machito as major latin music figures.
THE POST MAMBO ERA
The latin equivalent to the Western rock and roll phase, then, was a rise in Puerto Rican music over purely Cuban: smaller groups replacing big bands. This took place from 1959 to the mid '60s. Significant figures of the smaller groups were Ray Baretto and Eddie Palmieri, who of course have become well-known main-stream latin and latin-jazz artists.
Salsa then followed in the late '60s. Some have speculated that salsa is a "1970s revision of mambo".
The overall move to smaller outfits could be said to be a return to the original Cuban "son" music of the 1930s which was characterised by sextets and septets.
MEXICAN MUSIC
a) Ranchero Music
The most well-known genre is ranchero, usually played by the ubiquitous mariachi bands which comprise a small number of violins and trumpets, a big "Mexican guitar", a vihuela (a higher pitched small guitar, oftened capoed), other instruments and of course many large hats! Ranchero has been popular since about 1930. A soft yet higher pitched trumpet is particularly characteristic.
Here is a (mini) mariachi band performing in a Broadway Mexican restaurant, New York City. Note the huge guitar, and melody over Beatle-like chords ("Here, There And Everywhere").
The premier ranchero singer was Lola Beltran (see also Vicente Fernandez). This clip has the high trumpet prominent early.
Mexican ranchero style music has provided many hits for Western music in general. Examples are, in the 1930s, "Frenesi" which band leader Artie Shaw discovered when he took time off in Mexico. A later example is "Besame Mucho", which the Beatles nearly recorded on their first album, before George Martin talked them out of it (too schmaltzy). However, they recorded another latin song instead, the early Beatles signature "A Taste Of Honey" (later a hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana (Mexico) Brass.
A recent telecast of ranchero music shows an identical sound to The Beatles' recording of "Till There Was You", in 1963 on their second album. The song is Broadway, but The Beatles' version is latin (after Peggy Lee's 1962 version). There is a bootleg of The Beatles in November 1963 where John Lennon refers to the song as being by "Peggy Leg". See the Mexican performance - the guitar lines are exactly what the Beatles played over and over in Hamburg, amongst the Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles:
b) Norteno Music
Another main category of Mexican music is norteno ("northern tunes") music , which features principally an accordian and a bajo sexto (a type of lower tuned twelve-string guitar with a bass function also). This music developed in northern Mexico after contact with European immigrants (German, Bohemian and Czech) toting acccordians and playing polkas in and around southern Texas.
A norteno band (without accordian) plays on the New York subway:
Another norteno band captured on the New York subway is here, playing the famous "Cielito Linda":
A norteno duo (with the two principle instruments, the accordian and the baja sexto) demonstrate the music:
An irreverent (and not fully accurate) take on norteno music:
Banda music ("banda sinaolense"), is a more recent development of this music: instruments are predominantly brass, with woodwind and percussion (eg: the tambora, animal hide on a drum shape). The form is similar to norteno. "Banda bands" can of course play other types of Latin music in general, even salsa. The banda sound is more or less "oompah" music.
For example, here is a brief clip of the most famous banda band, Banda El Recodo.
DOMINICAN MUSIC
The Dominican Republic has music that is very much different to Cuban and Puerto Rican music. The most well-known is merengue. Current artists include Elvis Crespo (see the song "Suavamente") and Milly Quezada.
This clip introduces the tambore, a drum with areas to strike at both ends, though the band is electric
The most famous merengue tune is "Compadre Pedro Juan" by Luis Alberti.
Before the modern era, there was the famous Dominican baritone Eduardo Brito. The annual Festival of Dominican Song Eduardo Brito is named after him, and is held over two nights usually at the National Theatre in Santo Dominico. His records are very interesting: here is a clip from " ", which even has a "Sergeant Pepper" similarity in the arrangement at one point.
Hear
REGGAETON
A mix of latin music and .... reggae! The form is said to have originated in Panama, and has been extensively produced also in Puerto Rico.