The purpose for this glossary
is to educate and enhance your understanding of the evolution
of Latin music. The more familiar you become with all of the
terms and their definitions, the more you'll be able to enjoy
listening to Latin Jazz, as well as other forms of Caribbean
and Central/South American music.
You can find this glossary
and other insightful information about the evolution of Latin
music in the classic book "The Latin Tinge"
written by John Storm Roberts. This book can be found
in most public libraries.
NOTE: The definitions highlighted by blue type have been
added to this glossary. If you can't find a specific Latin American
music term in this glossary, feel free to send us an email with
the word, phrase or questions and we will try to help you.
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Marimba A form of xylophone with wooden slats
over resonators. The name is African, but the mariamba is widespread
in western Columbia, parts of Mexico, and in particular Guatemala.
Marimba groups were very popular in the U.S. during the 1920's.
Marimbula A bass descendant of the African
finger-piano, the marimbula consists of a wooden box with prongs
of metal fastened to it, tuned to play a series of bass notes.
The marimbula was common in Cuba and the Dominican Republic,
as well as in several non-Latin Caribbean islands.
Maxixe An old Brazilian dance derived from
an earlier local ballroom dance heavily influenced by the early
20th century tango, It was briefly popular in the U.S. around
the First World War, but never caught on to any permanent extent.
Merengue Though dances by this name are found
in many countries, the merengue is originally from the Dominican
Republic, where it dates back at least to the early 19th century.
The modern merengue has a notably brisk and snappy 2/4 rhythm,
with a flavor very different from the somewhat more flowing Cuban
and jaunty Puerto Rican dances. The country form, for accordion,
tambora drum, metal scraper, and voice, is heard everywhere in
the Dominican Republic. The big band version of Dominican bands
like johnny Ventura's and Felix del Rosario's is often heard
at New York concerts.
Montuno Section A vehicle for improvisation
in Cuban and salsa numbers, based on a two or three-chord pattern
repeated ad-lib under the instrumental or vocal improvisations.
The piano often maintains a repeated vamp of guajeos, a process
known as montuneando.
Orquesta Típica A "Typical Orchestra."
In Cuba, a now extinct type of group combining a flute and two
clarinets, with timbales prominent in the rhythm. In Mexico,
a group organized by "trained" musicians to present
cleaned-up versions of folk and popular music.
Pachanga The pachanga was a rage among New
York Latin teenagers around 1961, as played by the then hugely
popular charangas. There is some dispute as to its origins. It
seems to be Cuban, but it never reached the popularity there
that it enjoyed in the eastern U.S. It had a fast, syncopated
ta-tum ta-tum pulse. The pachanga died out because the dance
involved proved to be too energetic for most.
Plena An Afro-Puerto Rican urban topical song form said
to have been developed in Ponce during World War 1. The plena
has four or six-line verses, with a refrain. Lyrical content
is social comment, satire, or humor. Instrumentation has ranged
from percussion through accordion or guitar-led groups to various
dance band formats. Its most famous composer and exponent was
Manual Jiménez, known as Canario. It has been a minor
influence on salsa through the work of Rafael Cortijo in the
late 1950s and Willie Colon in the 1970s.
Ranchera The ranchera, developed in the nationalist
theater of the post-1910 revolution period in Mexico, became
very much the equivalent of U.S. commercial country music. Professional
singers developed an extremely emotional style, one of whose
characteristics is a held note at the end of a line, culminating
in a "dying fall" that could drop a third or more.
Rancheras became an important part of Chicano music from the
1950s onward as moved from a folk-popular form to a greater professionalism.
Rumba Most of what Americans call rumbas were forms of
the son which swept Cuba in the 1920s. The Cuban rumba was a
secular drum form with many variants, including the guaguancó
and the Columbia, though modern musicians tend to regard all
theses as separate. Its descendent variations can be heard in
New York parks any summer weekend played by groups called rumbas
or rumbones. By analogy, a percussion passage in a salsa number,
or a percussion-only jam session, is sometimes called a rumba
or rumbón.
Salsa A contemporary word for hot, up-tempo, creative Latin
music, it means "gravy" or "sauce." Originally
it was used as a descriptive such as "swinging" or
"funky." The origins of the current usage are obscure,
but it began to circulate in the late 1960s.
Samba An African-Brazilian dance with several variations
in different parts of Brazil. The best-known are the urban sambas,
said to derive from the maxixe and the highly persuasive sambas
of the carnival "schools" of Rio. The characteristic
shuffling 2/4 rhythm, fused with jazz, was part of the bossa
nova.
Septeto or Sexteto The Cuban septetos and sextetos of
the 1930s played mostly sones and boleros. They were trumpet-led
string groups, usually with tres, guitar, maraccas, bass and
bongó. Famous groups included the Septeto Nacional and
the Sexteto Habanero. The music they played fell somewhere between
the guajiro string groups and the brassier conjuntos. Septeto
trumpet style is singularly lyrical, moving between 19th-century
brass-band cornet and jazz in its inspiration. The Septeto syle
as a whole is subtle, crisp, and charming.
Shekere An African-derived rattle made of
a large gourd with bead held by a string net on the outside.
It is one version of a rattle common in Africa and African-Latin
America and works on the opposite principle from maraccas.
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