Word: cubans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When jazz as an identifiable genre of music originated in New Orleans, during the later years of the 19th and earlier years of the 20th centuries, among the early pioneers of jazz were many Afro-Cubans or Creole musicians of Cuban heritage...
...jazz evolved, it continued to borrow heavily on Cuban forms, and in turn Cuban-born musicians such as the late, great Machito, who had played traditional Afro-Cuban popular music as well as jazz, migrated north and began combining Cuban rhythms such as the mambo, guaracha, and son montuno with jazz instrumentation and arranging techniques...
Although hostilities between the U.S. and Cuba in the early '60s put a damper on the exchanges between the two countries, these political antagonisms could not stem Cuban interest in American jazz. Even the term "jazz" was considered counterrevolutionary during Castro's early years, but Cuban musicians continued to keep up with the latest developments by passing smuggled cassettes from one end of the island to another. And this is how D'Rivera came to truly appreciate jazz...
...child prodigy who sat in with Cuba's best musicians as early as the age of seven, D'Rivera went on to become a founding member of the Cuban super band, Irakere. Founded in the early 1970s, Irakere (whose name is a Yoruba meaning forest), an II-piece aggregation that drew on Afro-Cuban religion and folklore as well as jazz, rock and even classical music, was typical of the eclectic approach many Cuban bands took following the revolution...
Irakere fused many diverse musical ideas together in an exuberant, exciting whole. The band, with its four percussionists, brought many instruments into jazz, such as the Congolese maquta and the Abakua bonko-enchemiya, which had never before been seen outside Africa or Afro-Cuban religions...