Introduction
The Caribbean and the Latin America have a rich musical heritage ranging from classical and classical-influenced styles, folk traditional music and the modern popular music. It has different countries and regions such as Jamaica, Brazil, Peru, Haiti, Virgin Islands among others. The vastness of the involved area and ethnic collection makes the music from the region the most efficiently discussed and since it is acculturated. This paper seeks to explore a descriptive analysis of Tango and Nuevo Tango of Astor Piazzolla, Brazilian Bossa Nova Movement and Afro-Cuban Music from different orchestras such as Machito, O’Farrill styles among others. In addition, the paper will also explore Latin Jazz such as the ones by Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Chucho Valdes among others in understanding the music styles in the Caribbean and the Latin America.
Tango And Nuevo Tango Of Astor Piazzolla
Astor Piazzolla an Argentinian is an undisputed leader of the Nuevo Tango having wide experience with Tango orchestras at an early age. His musical life was highly influenced by Elvino Vardaro’s sextets, which made him to move to Bueno Aires to learn that style of Tango when he was only 17 years. He joined different Tango orchestras such as the Anibal Troilo orchestra, where he met with Pichuco who had mastery and was the best bandoneon player. Astor began musical studies in 1941 based on the need to advance musically and started arranging different orchestras such as Troilo and later learnt playing the piano. He began classical works in 1943 with Suite para Cuerdas y Arpas and later left the Troilo orchestra to join singer Fransisco Fiorentino until 1946. It was while working with this orchestra that he developed creative impulses and began developing big dynamic and harmomic contents making Tango more modern inciting controversies among the traditional Tangueros.
Astor composed the first formal Tango ‘El Desbande’ in 1946, and began composing musical scores for movies. The origin of Tango Nuevo is expressly linked to the composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. He was playing bandoneon for Troilo until 1944 when he formed his orchestra from 1944 and disbanded it in 1949 deviating from the Tango played in the days in terms of rhythm and harmonic complexity. Tango Nuevo started after Astor returned from Paris in1955 where he had gone for further studies in music. He formed Octeto Beunos Aires, where he began composing and directing Tango Nuevo. This involved a blend of traditional Tango, classical music and jazz, which led to controversies among the traditional Tangueros. They denounced Astor’s compositions as a corruption of the original Tango.
For example, “The New Tango” which is an album recorded at the Montreux festival in 1986 was a collaboration between Astor Piazzolla and American vibe master Gary Burton. Astor expressly wrote the whole composition and combined with a special composition of Vibraphonissimo, which was expressly written for the usage by Burton. However, the album presents a virtuous and a coherent presentation to the listeners as the vibraphone is suited to the Tango perfectly. The composition of the album does not disappoint the listeners as special attention has been given by Astor Piazzolla to every detail of the album. The album presents versatility of the vibraphonist showing the different dialects of the music. This presented a whole different presentation from the traditional Tango. However, it is imperative to note that the new Tango has a wider audience as compared to the traditional Tango as jazz and classical fans also find the music appealing.
Astor Piazzolla piano works have also played an imperative role in Tango Nuevo working as a solo pianist in the three preludes Leijia’s game-Tango, Flora’s Game-Milonga and Sunny’s Game-Valse preludes. His significant efforts have transformed the Tango, making him among the most influential figures in the history of Tango and promoting Tango globally. Astor was very prolific in his work and his oeuvre comprise more than a thousand works, although his pieces are shorter in length.
Brazilian Bossa Nova Movement
The Bossa Nova Movement was led by Joao Gilberto a vocalist and guitarist and Antonio Carlos Jobim who was the composer bringing about innovations, in the style of performance and structural modifications. The majority of the people viewed Bossa Nova as a replacement for the to the traditional Samba, but it was a new way of playing and singing Samba, through incorporation of jazz music elements with pronounced softness, incorporating musical and poetic presentation. Initially, it was highly criticized by influential Brazilian critics and cultural leaders, which might be hard to comprehend currently due to the influence of Bossa Nova. They adopted dissonant chords and typical jazz incorporating them with the traditional Samba. However, Joao Gilberto’s low-key, filled with small details and nuances was perceived highly provocative breaking completely from the singing traditions of Samba characterized with loud voices and flamboyant presentations. The lyrics of the early Bossa Nova compositions composed highly poetical contents, which stood apart from the traditional popular music in Brazil.
Therefore, Bossa Nova is a modernization of the Latin America popular music due to its influence in other nations particularly United States. Bossa Nova is well understood against the backdrop of Samba the traditional Brazilian music, where the majority of the working class and slum dwellers consumed carnival type of traditional music. They emphasized percussive accompaniment with a lyrical outlook. The compositions comprised of simple catchy tunes with standardized harmony. The vocal performance was emphatic and the majority of the texts has been frequently melodramatic and sentimental. It did not replace the traditional Samba, rather, it altered various stylistic parameters dynamically integrating melody, harmony and rhythm. The new composition de-emphasized the vocalists as the center of attention adopting a diversified syncopation rather than the traditional Samba beat. Therefore, the traditional rhythmic foundations of drums and bass were complemented by syncopated acoustic guitar chords plucking.
This presented new patterns of harmony and chord altering the chords associated with jazz frequently. The melodic lines in Bossa Nova were sparse and chromatic in most of the times proving difficult to an unatunned ear. The majority of the compositions resembled those of cool jazz on the West Coast of the United States. The performance of the mainstream Bossa Nova presented vocal music presented in a controlled and intimate manner. There was high high improvisation of the instrumentals within the Bossa Nova movement comprising of Jazz like pieces and other originally written pieces for vocal performance. The performances and lyrics avoided the melodramas and tragic outlooks of Samba-Cancao reflecting on the middle life amenities through colloquial tone. This corresponded to a speech like mode of singing.
The emergence of Bossa Nova came at a time when Brazil society was undergoing profound changes under the influences of modernization. There were tremendous development under the leadership of president Juscelino Kubitscheck that threw the country into a frenzy making Brazilians to have faith and confidence in their culture. During the period, Bossa Nova was the perfect soundtrack. Joao Gilberto produced various albums and singles such as chega de saudade as well as interpreting several older songs by other composers such as Ary Barrosso and Dorival Caymmi. Later, in 1961, Joao shifted to the United states where the popularity of Bossa Nova was growing rapidly, particularly among jazz musicians and fans. When they moved to the US his wife also launched her musical career as a single artist based on her ability to sing songs in English. For example, she sang the song ‘The girl from Ipanema’, which was originally known as ‘A Garota de Ipanema’ the recording became among the most famous songs in Brazil at the time. However, Joao played a fundamental role in the origin of Bossa Nova as he gave the genre the low-key approach to singing. Although Bossa Nova is a blend of different music from different cultures such as jazz and Samba, it cannot be simplified as a crossing of Samba and jazz as it is a fluid music concept on its own.
Afro-Cuban Music
The Afro-Cuban music, which is a fusion of music from African descendants and North America changed the direction of popular music creating a new style. There has been numerous famous players who played an imperative role in the development of the genre such as Bauza. For example, Bauza created the Afro-Cuban jazz characterized with poly-rhythms and repeated bass figures, which were introduced into jazz for the first time in the 1950’s. This had a permanent effect on North American music. Bauza was a director the co-founder of Machito playing an imperative role in the popularization of Cuban dance styles like rumba, mambo and cha-cha-cha in the mainstream America and Europe. The Afro-Cuban music presents a cross-cultural convergence of of different cultures presenting the diversity of Afro Latin jazz.
The mention of Afro-Cuban jazz brings into attention the likes of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez among a string of other artists such as Chico O’ Farrill. He was the composer and arranger of various famous bands such as Gillespie, Stan Kenton and Machito. However, he also led his own band devoted to Afro-Cuban music, which performed in various renowned clubs such as Lengendary jazz club and Birdland. The band performed the gig for a long period approximated at 14 years under which 10 years were under the leadership of his son Arturo. In 2011, Chico O’Farrill the Afro-Cuban orchestra, which was directed by Arturo performed its final performance, which was preserved for the album Final Night at Birdland. The album was released in august and it showed how far the Afro-Cuban has developed in the past century.
The performance of the Afro-Cuban music at Carnegie Hall by Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba from Cuba Danilo Perez from Panama and Egberto Gismonti from Brazil in 2012 shows the influence of Afro-Cuban music. The performance was part of Carnegie Hall’s series of the Voices from Latin America presenting a night of hyperactive improvised freedom based on deep musical erudition. The program comprised of four solos, two duets and one quartet presenting a friendly competition as the performance started. The performance was started off by Perez with his solo, reaching out on the piano and damping the string in such a way that the tapped note suggested a drum. Mr Rubalcaba on the other hand summoned the elegance of old Cuban music splintering it in numerous ways characterized with whimsical stops and starts and argumentative bursts of dissonance. Mr Valdes on the other corner played the flirt and the speed demon moving the Cuban Guajira in and out to quote Bach, strewing two fisted dissonances up and down the keyboard. Mr. Gismonti set a luminous rippling pattern of melodies that peeked up gradually few notes being added gradually at a time and swerving in and out of the percussiveness and spikier harmonies.
Therefore, the Afro-Cuban music has had a great impact on the North American music based on the intercultural blend of different cultures. This has also spread into the mainstream American and European societies as the Latin America music becomes global. Timba also forms the largest genre in the Cuban music with various artists such as David Calzado and Charanga Habanera being on the cutting edge. The complexity of Timba presents a phenomenon where tracking down the African roots in the genre and presentation of Cuban identity. The emergence of Timba is also associated with government economic reforms and the increased tourism experienced in Cuba. The new market led to the emergence of new bands such as La Banda La Charanga Habanera, which became symbols of the market oriented practices of music.
Works Cited
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PARELES, JON. "You Can Dance to It: Roots of Tradition With Improvisational Freedom." 5 December 2012. 11 November 2013 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/arts/music/chucho-valdes-and-gonzalo-rubalcaba-at-carnegie.html?_r=0>.
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