The influence of Cuba on American music has been pretty steady ever since there was an America to influence (Cuba is a longer European settled place than anywhere in North America.)
That said, 1930 was an especially important year. That was when “The Peanut Vendor” became a super hit in the US.
The original title of the song is “El Manisero.” It’s based on the call of the peanut vendors (“Mah-NEEEEEEEEE!”), folks you can still see – and hear – in Hanava’s Parque Central.
In 1930, Don Azpiazú and his Havana Casino Orchestra in New York recorded it for Victor Records. Sales records are spotty, but it was most likely the first million-selling record of Cuban (or even Latin) music in history.
The band included a number of star musicians including Julio Cueva (trumpet) and Mario Bauza (saxophone); Antonio Machín was the singer.
The song was such a hit that even Louis Armstrong took a crack at it, changing “Mani” to “Marie” and scatting (or proto-rapping?) on the melody.
Stan Kenton gave the piece another boost with an all instrumental version he recorded in 1947. The version here was recorded in 1972 in London.
I like this version by the Cuban group Quinteto Son de la Loma
Beloved Cuban pianist and singer Bola de Nieve (“Snowball”) offer his classic version.
To round things out, how about a version by the Skatalites of Jamaica.
The song, composed by the Cuban Moises Simons, has been recorded over 160 times and is so important to American music that it was added to the United States National Recording Registry by the National Recording Preservation Board in 2005.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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I was thinking of calling this one “What happens when money is invested in music education.” I was also thinking of calling it “The Universality of Afro-Cuban Music.”
You’re looking at the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.
New Brunswick is a province in the country of Canada. It has less than a million people total and a good number of them are in rural areas.
There may be some Latinos in the province, but my guess is it’s less than 1%.
So how do you explain the existence of this orchestra and this performance?
First, Canada, like every other developed country in the world (except the U.S.) makes a serious investment in music education for youth.
Second, the orchestra’s director Antonio Delgado. His training is rooted in his experience as conductor of the world renowned “Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela” (National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela), a group every music educator should study carefully.
He took this orchestra to a first place win at the prestigious Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Competition in Vienna, Austria.
For the youth orchestra of a small Canadian province to top the European youth orchestras of places like Germany, France and Italy is like the Estonian basketball team winning the NBA finals. It’s an amazing accomplishment – and you’re watching the group that did it – and they did it with Cuban music!
And then there is this…
Japanese people are crazy – but in a very good way!
Honestly, who else would have thought of combining Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with Pérez Prado’s Mambo Number 5?
Still with us?
I hope so.
Here’s the original with some great photos from the Golden Age of the Palladium Ballroom.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Machito’s son, percussionist and bandleader Mario Grillo, recalls the details of his father and his work in a touching and entertaining way.
Lots to learn from this narrative.
Machito and his Afro-Cubans perform for a live studio audience in Japan. The beautiful manners of Japan and Latin America meet.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
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This presents are problem for future scholarship on the subject of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz.
There’s a similar scholarship problem in the area of contributions of Gaelic to American English for the same reason.
In both cases, the people involved were so busy with the challenges of simply making a living, they didn’t have time to document and archive and mainstream society wasn’t interested in helping.
Bringing the Irish into this may seem like a tangent and in some ways it is, but not really.
Here’s why…
The word “jazz” is Gaelic.
“What?”, you say. “Jazz is an African word that means ‘sex’ or something.”
The truth is the first time that “jazz” ever appeared in print was 1913 in an account in the San Francisco Bulletin about a baseball game written by an Irish-American “Scoop” Gleeson.
Readers didn’t recognize the word so three days later on March 6th, 1913, Gleeson provided an explanation:
“Come on, there Professor, string up the big harp and give us all a tune Everybody has come back to the old town full of the old ‘jazz’ and they promise to knock the fans off their feet with their playing.
“What is the ‘jazz?’ Why, it’s a little of that ‘old life,’ the ‘gin-i-ker,’ the ‘pep,’ otherwise known as the enthusiasalum. A grain of ‘jazz’ and you feel like going out and eating your way through Twin Peaks. It’s that spirit which makes ordinary players step around like Lajoies and (Ty) Cobbs
“‘Hap’ Hogan gave his men a couple of shots of ‘near-jazz’ last season and look what happened — the Tigers became the most ferocious set of tossers in the league. Now the Seals have happened upon great quantities of it in the quiet valley of Sonoma and they’re setting the countryside on fire.”
“Pep” was a very popular word in that era, but what about “gin-i-ker?”
“Gin-i-ker” is the phonetic spelling for the Gaelic phrase “Tine Caor” which means “raging heat and lightening.”
“Tine” is the “fire” part of the phrase and it’s pronounced “Jin-eh” or “chin eh”
The Gaelic word “teas” is related to “tine”. It means “heat of the highest temperature.” In human emotional terms that would mean “hot”, “exciting”, “passionate.”
And in Gaelic the word “teas” is pronounced JASS or CHASS.
The adjective “Teasai” in Gaelic is pronounced “JASSY” and means “hot, warm, passionate, exciting, fervent, enthusiastic, feverish, angry.”
After it’s initial coining, the word “jazz” became a local verbal phenomenon in San Francisco.
In fact, an article was published it in the S.F. Bulletin on April 5, 1913 written by Ernest Hopkins: “In Praise of “Jazz” A Futurist Word Which Has Just Joined the Language.”
“Jazz” jumped the Bay and appeared in The Oakland Tribune on October 4th of that same year.
How did it get to New Orleans and the rest of the country?
That’s easy.
Every port city in the US, New Orleans included, was packed with native Gaelic speakers and first generation Irish-Americans. Many worked the docks. Many went to sea.
Many other “mysterious” slang American words come from Gaelic.
Here’s a very short list:
First the American slang, then the Gaelic root, then the Gaelic meaning.
Slum = ‘s slom e = “It’s bleak”
Cop = ceapaim = “I catch”
Racket = reacaireacht = “dealing, selling”
You dig? = Duigeann tú = “Do you understand?”
Scam = ’S cam é” = “trick or deception”
Scramm = “scaraim” = “I get away.”
“Say uncle!” = “anacal” = mercy
Buddy = “bodach” = a healthy, young man
Geezer = “gaosmhar” = wise person
Dude = “dúid” = a foolish-looking fellow based on his clothing choices
Gimmick = “camag” = trick or deceit, or a hook or crooked stick
Longshoreman = loingseoir = a maritime worker
A lot of otherwise untraceable American slang words related to labor, hardship, crime, gambling, violence and other real world, gritty aspects of life appear to have Gaelic origins.
When he died, Alex Haley of “Roots” fame was working on a book that showed the close relations between early Irish immigrants and Afro-Americans.
They lived in the same neighborhoods, worked together, dated, married, and had kids together.
What were Africans called in Liverpool in old days? “Smoked Irishmen.”
Most of the Irish who came to the US in the 19th century were from rural areas. They spoke their own language and lived a life that was much closer to tribal than modern. They were impoverished and discriminated against.
Signs on stores: “No Irish or dogs” and want ads that stated “No Irish need apply” were a reality.
In his research Haley discovered that Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald had some Irish blood as did Muhammad Ali and Jim Hendrix.
History is a lot more complicated and rich than we know.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
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Two great gentleman percussionists talking about the fine points of the art.
Cándido Camero is the most recorded conga player in jazz history.
In this interview, Bobby Sananbria interviews him about Cándido’s life in Cuba and New York City and the innovations he brought to percussion.
We covered Cándido and the film about him “Hands of Fire” in a previous post.
We also have two in depth interviews with Bobby (1)(2) we recommend.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
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