Music of Mexico, Latin America and Spain

The music genres, composers and interpreters of the wonderful sounds and rhythms of Mexico, Spain and Latin America are many. Within this wealth of musical variety are salsa, cumbias, flamenco, jibaro, mariachi music, samba, rumba & cha-cha-cha.  Here we offer a short resumé of some of the different genres of each country and area, the most prominent musicians and interpreters, and the instruments, customs and costumes that go along with each.

Mexican Music

Mariachi Real de Apatzingan

Though Mexico offers a terrific variety of music styles, from Boleros to Rancheras, Huapangos to Polkas Norteñas, Sones to Jarabes, with many regional styles and overtones, when visitors to Mexico think of Mexican music, the word Mariachi almost invariably and immediately comes to mind.

Find out about the provenance and evolution of the Mariachis of Mexico…

Traditional Mexican music evolved from a mixture of rhythms and traditions of the various indigenous people of the area melded with those of Europe and Africa. Local rhythms and traditions were as diverse as the geographic features that defined the expanses of this region, and a great variety of musical styles ensued because of this.

Many of these styles are classified by regions, such as the Música Calentana from the Tierra Caliente hill country on the borders of the states of Guerrero, Michoacan and Morelos; the Sones Huastecos, from the Huasteca area of the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and their neighbors; or Sones Yucatecos from the Yucatan peninsula. Then there are Norteños of different flavors from Chihuahua or Zacatecas or Nuevo Leon; the Marimbas of the southern state of Chiapas and the epic, story-telling Corridos of Guerrero and its neighboring states.

There is also a large variety of instruments used in traditional Mexican music, some coming from autoctonous sources and other imported from overseas cultures. The instruments of typical Mexican music include the jarana, a small guitar used particularly in Veracruz and the Huasteca; the huapanguera, another type of guitar; the Teponaztle, an often very elaborately carved wooden ceremonial drum; the chirimia and the ocarina, types of flutes; as well as more commonly recognizable instruments from other cultures, such as the accordion, double bass, clarinet, trumpet, harp and violin.

The marimba, a percussion instrument similar to the Xylophone, is prevalent in the southern states of Mexico. For an introduction to this musical form, we suggest visiting the following site: The Virtual Museum of the Mexican Marimba

Browse the GuideMexico shop for Mexican and Latino music selections…

Salsa!

Born of African roots mixed with the indigenous and European cultures that are spread all over Latin America and the Caribbean, Salsa first emerged in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s as a melting pot of rhythms from Merengue to Mambo, Cha Cha Cha to Conga, Guaracha to Rumba. Salsa didn’t become a worldwide household word, though, until the 1960′s – 70′s.

The music uses all of the percussion and string instruments of the regions of its inception. Noted musicians as promotors of salsa in North America include Willie Colon, Larry Harlow, Oscar D’Leon, Ruben Blades, Fania All Stars, Hector Lavoie and Johnny Pacheco. Popular Cuban artists such as the Buena Vista Social Club, Cachao, Los Van Van, Eliades Ochoa and Compay Segundo have made their ways into the hearts and music collections of salsa lovers around the world. The genre of African Salsa is currently putting out some excellent music with the rawer rhythms of its own African roots, in the music of groups such as Kekele, and Africando.

Brazilian Music

Without a doubt the most well recognized rhythms of Brazil are the Samba and the Bossa Nova. According to Brazilian folklorist, Edison Carneiro, Samba designates a variety of types of percussion-based music with deep African roots that were brought to different regions of Brazil.

Brazil is rich with the offspring of the drums, and over and above these two well-known genres, offers the listener a huge variety of styles and rhythms such as Choro, Capoeira, Forro, Baião, Frevo, Xote, Maracatu, Cateret, Jongo, Batuque, Congada, Modinha and Samba de Enredo.

Some of the traditional instruments of mainly African origin include the Berimbau, consisting one wire-stringed bow tensed by a hollowed gourd and a coin and played with a small stick and rattle against the bare abdomen of the musician, giving it a particularly organic resonance; the pandeiro,a small frame drum of Middle East origin similar to the Tamborim, its cousin; the Surdo, a large, deep drum played in the Samba schools; the Caixa, which is equivalent of a marching snare drum; Shekeres, gourds with a latticework of beads or seeds that rattle against the sides when shaken; Apitos, small carved wooden flutes or whistles; Guiras, originally scored hollow gourds or wood against which are rubbed sticks to produce a rasped sound; the Agogo, a pair of joined wooden or metal bells of different pitches, played with a stick; the Cuica, a cylinder of wood or gourd fit on one end with an animal skin into which is embedded and tied a smooth stick or reed to produce a friction drum — the stick is rubbed with a small cloth and the tone is changed by the position of the other hand on the drum head; the Carimb, a tall drum made of a hollowed tree trunk, and the Ganza, a cylindrical wooden or metal shaker.

Some of Brazil”s noted musicians are Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethania, Gal Costa, Sergio Mendez, Luis Gonzaga, Pixinguinha, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Beth Carvalho, Elis Regina, Paulinho da Viola, Astrud Gilberto, Jorge Ben, Nana Vasconcelos, Luiz Gonzaga and Egberto Gismonti.

Colombian Cumbias and other Music genres

One of Colombia’s principal forms of music and dance is the Cumbia, with a lively rhythm that is a combination of African, indigenous and european influences, having developed from the Cumbe music of the African Guinean slaves during the Spanish colonization of the New World. Instruments used by Cumbia groups include the African Tambora, a large, bass wooden drum stretched with animal skins; the Tambor Alegre that carries the basic rhythm; the Llamador, a small and narrow drum with a higher tone; the Flauta de Millo, or flute made of wood or cane; Claves, a pair of thick round wooden sticks that are stuck against eachother; and the Guache, a metal tube filled with seeds or stones, or the Maraca, a gourd filled with seeds or stones.

Cumbia dancers typically are dressed in colorful attire. The women characteristically are decked out in brilliantly-colored blouses with wide, frilly skirts, adorned with bright necklaces and flower garlands. The men wear white shirt and pants, straw hats and a red neck scarf that figures prominently throughout the dance.

Other popular rhythms from Colombia include the Cumbión, Gaita, Son Sabanero, Fandanguillo criollo, Bullerengue, Fandango, Merengue and Joropo.

Cuban Music

Hear a Cuban beat and you can”t stop yourself from moving, whether it be your tapping your fingers and feet, bobbing your head, twitching your shoulders or letting it all loose and getting your whole body into it.

The mixture of Spanish and African influences led to the emergence of the Cuban Son in the 17th Century. Other popular and engaging rhythms stemming from it are the Danzon; the Pachanga from the 50”s; the Rumba, Cumbia and their slower cousin, the Yambu; the Guajira; the Mambo – a creation of Orestes Lopez brought to fruition by Perez Prado; the Guaracha; the Guaguanco and the Cha-Cha-Cha; which was conceived in 1948 by Enrique Jorrin, a young violinist of the Orquesta America.

In addition to Perez Prado, Orestes Lopez and Enrique Jorrin, other prominent composers and interpreters of Cuban music (not all of Cuban nationality, though) are Arsenio Rodriguez, Ernesto Lecuona, Celia Cruz, the Afro Cuban Allstars, Irakere, Mongo Santamaria, Los Van Van, Ruben Gonzalez, Tito Rodriguez, Paquito D”Rivera, Oscar D”Leon, Beny More, Bola de Nieve, Orquesta Aragon, Carlos Puebla, Celina Gonzalez, Chucho Valdes, Jacqueline Castellanos and Pacho Alonso.

Of late, the Buena Vista Social Club, with such artists as Ibrahim Ferrer, the late Compay Segundo, and Eliades Ochoa, have come to be considered some of Cuba”s most distinguished musicians with a music that is enjoyed and favored world-wide.

Beside the more traditional afro-latino dance rhythms of Cuba, the musical movement of the Nueva Troba, founded in the era of the 60s by Cuban musicians such as Pablo Milanes and Silvio Rodriguez, brought to Cuba’s music scene a new politicized ballad that spoke favorably of the revolution and its heroes.

Puerto Rican Music

Puerto Rico’s musical culture is one more that stems from a combination of African percussions and Spanish ballads and poetry. The Jibaro is the country’s music, formed in great part by Decimas. Boleros are a style of romatic ballad combined with the African beat, and the Danzas are more in the style of a waltz, but also with the pervading Afro rhythm. The Bomba, of African origin, and the Plena, of Taino origin, are forms of music and dance using a variety of percussion instruments. Plenas in particular were used to pass on information and knowledge in a skit-like manner.

Traditional instruments used in the interpretation of Puerto Rican music include several adaptations of the Spanish guitar such as the requinto, the cuatro, triple and bordonua. Some of the instruments stem from the native Taino; these include a hollowed gourd marked with notches called the guiro. Puerto Rican music also uses a variety of drums and other percussion instruments, among which figure the subidor and tambor - small and large drums made out of hollow trunks and animal skins, and the maracas, hollow gourds filled with seeds or small stones.

Notable Puerto Rican musicians, interpreters and Salsero groups include Jose Feliciano ( “Cheo”), pianist and composer Roberto Sierra, Ray Barreto (born in New York of Puerto Rican parents), Tito Rojas, Ricky Martin, Ismael Rivera, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and Willie Colon (of Puerto Rican grandparents).

Music from Spain — Flamenco

Flamenco is the most haunting and passionate way to tell a story. Flamenco was first mentioned in literature in 1774 in the Cartas Marruecas of Cadalso. Flamenco schools first came into being in the late 1700”s and early 1800”s in the area of Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Triana, near Seville in the region of Andalucia, southern Spain. Flamenco is attributed by many to the Gypsy and Moorish influences in Spain on the regional Andalucian folkloric music; the term “Flamenco” was used to denominate the Gypsies of Cadiz in the early 1800”s. Flamenco began then to be heard in the regional coffee houses and taverns, entering its “Golden Age” in the late 1800”s.

Flamenco is full of intrigue: beautiful and elaborate costumes, gritty, passionate voices, the clapping of hands, the syncopated stomp of feet, the rich and intricate guitar fingerwork, the intensity of sidelong glances and the deep pool of dark eyes peering over the tops of lacy fans.

There is Flamenco “Baile” (dance), “Cante” (song) and “Toque” (guitar). The instruments of Flamenco are the guitar, the castanet, hands and feet. There are many styles of Flamenco including tangos, seguiriyas, soleares, alegrías, malagueñas, fandangos, zapateados, rondeñas, bulerias, serranas, tientos, tarantos, farruca, sevillanas, colombianas and villancicos.

Some famous Flamenco guitarists are Manolo Caracol, Paco de Lucia, Tomatito, Andres Segovia, Ramon Montoya, Manolo Sanlucar, Sabicas, Paco Cepero and Manolo de Huelva.

Among Flamenco singers figure Chocolate, Vicente Soto Sordera, Pele, Aurora Vargas, El Terremoto de Jerez, Camaron de la Isla, Naranjito de Triana, Rafael Romero, Enrique Morente.

Noted Flamenco dancers include Carmen Amaya, Jose Greco, Antonio Gades, Christina Hoyos, Paco Peña, Pepito Vargas, Paco Mora, Maria Jose Franco.

Spanish music is by all means not only Flamenco. Spain has also contributed highly to the music of the world with its classical composers such as Albeniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, and Joaqui­n Rodrigo and outstanding opera singers, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, and Montserrat Caballe, among many others. In the north of Spain, the provinces of Galicia and Asturias were both occupied at one time by people of Celtic origin, who left a rich heritage of a plaintive and beautiful music in which the Gaita, or bagpipes, figures prominently. In other areas of the country, the Sephardic influence prevails, with its haunting vocals, bagpipes, flutes, stringed instruments, percussions and the zanfona.

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Originally posted 2009-07-31 13:09:41.