HISTORY OF AMERICAN MUSIC

- The slave trade/The African Holocaust/The conquest of America

“Africans began to arrive in Latin America in the 15th and 16th centuries with slavery,
which has been the instrument par excellence to serve the labor needs of European colonists, in this
case of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. They were the workforce at the dawn of capitalism. In
our country [Argentina] they were affected by rural tasks, street sales and domestic service. (...)
Africans and Afro-Argentines actively participated in the Argentine independence struggle. During
the life of slavery, the Ransom Act required each slave owner to give 2 out of 5 for the service of
arms. And on the other hand, freedom was promised to those who spent 5 years in military service.
(...) The abolition of slavery came with the freedom of wombs in 1813 and, later, with the
constitution of 1853. (...) The abolition, although it was very important, remained a formal freedom;
Since those who had been favored by this measure were not given the necessary tools to be able to
start an autonomous life, the majority ended up returning to their previous life, subject to the power
and money of their employers, or begging in the streets.” (MATHEW, p. 8)

“The concept of the Black Atlantic was proposed by the British sociologist Paul Gilroy to
specify the commercial triangulation that Europe carried out with Africa and America between the
16th and 19th centuries, and which bled sub-Saharan Africa by about 60,000,000 inhabitants. This
trade had slavery as its dynamic axis and completely reconfigured the history of the conquest,
colonization and exploitation of America. For Gilroy, the Atlantic constituted the formative crucible
of American creolization, miscegenation and hybridization, catalyzing sui generis sociocultural
configurations, whose durability continues.” (CIRIO, p. 29)

“The Spanish Empire imposed a caste system in its colonies in America and the Philippines.
The system was designed on the basis of the ideology of blood purity, considered the antecedent of
modern European racism. The colonial stratification system classified people into three "races":
white or Spanish, indigenous and black. The blood of the people of each group was "clean", but if a
man and a woman of different "races" fathered a child, the child's blood would be "tainted", a fact
that would make him belong to a caste. (...) Spanish imperial legislation in turn classified individuals
with "stained blood" into various types of "castes" or "crosses", defined according to the "races" or
"crosses" attributed to their ancestors. . The rights that corresponded to each person were strictly
determined by their classification in a "race" or a "caste", considered superior to the peninsular
Spaniard (born in the Iberian Peninsula) and in the lowest place, to the slave kidnapped in Africa.
(...) Some of the colonial castes were: mestizo , son of Spanish and indigenous, mulatto , son of
Spanish and African, zambo , son of African and indigenous, and, of course, criollo , descendant of
Spanish born in America . (ALTAMIRANDA, p. 10)

“The formation of social relations based on this idea produced historically new social
identities in America: Indians , blacks and mestizos and redefined others. Thus terms such as
Spanish and Portuguese , later European , which until then only indicated geographical origin or
country of origin, since then also gained, in reference to the new identities, a racial connotation. And
to the extent that the social relations that were being configured were relations of domination, such
identities were associated with the corresponding hierarchy, places and social roles, as constitutive of
them and, consequently, to the pattern of colonial domination that was imposed. In other words, race
and racial identity were established as instruments of basic social classification of the population.
(...) In America, the idea of race was a way of granting legitimacy to the relations of domination
imposed by conquest. The subsequent constitution of Europe as a new identity after America and the
expansion of European colonialism over the rest of the world, led to the development of the

American music history - 1

Eurocentric perspective of knowledge and with it to the theoretical elaboration of the idea of race as
a naturalization of these relationships. colonial domination between Europeans and non-Europeans.”
(QUIJANO, p. 202)

- Music of African roots

“Throughout history people have migrated around the world and their culture, including their
music, has mixed with that of others creating new musical forms. In the USA, South America and
the Caribbean, the influence of African rhythms is particularly strong. The rhythms of rock, R&B,
jazz (USA), bossa nova, samba (Brazil), salsa (Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York), reggae (Jamaica),
calypso (Trinidad) and candombe (Uruguay, Argentina) have African origins. . (...) The islands of
the “West Indies” were among the first areas of the “New World” to be colonized by the great
European powers - Spain, Portugal, England and France. They were conquered through the
enslavement and elimination of the native peoples until the European settlers had gained control of
the areas desired for mineral and agricultural exploitation. Working the lands and turning them into
million-dollar companies required large amounts of cheap labor; that need was met through the slave
trade. Hundreds of thousands of African slaves were taken to the Caribbean islands, USA and South
America. Most came from West Africa although many were also from Central Africa. (...) Between
the 17th and 20th centuries in the colonized regions, Europeans, Africans and what remained of the
native population formed a mixture of languages, customs, religions and, of course, music.
Drumming is an integral part of daily life in Africa (...) music and dance are central to religious and
social rituals, communication and entertainment. Drums are believed to have spiritual power, healing
power, that they speak, that they move natural forces and affect human energy and emotion. The
aforementioned styles present African rhythms, harmonies and melodies derived from European
tradition and instruments from both cultures. In Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the
mixture of African rhythms and Spanish music led to new musical forms and styles usually called
Afro-Caribbean and/or Afro-Cuban .” (MOOREFIELD, p. 4)

“Popular music or mesomusic manages to be, for imperialist Europe, a magnificent

“civilizing” weapon, that is, a very effective instrument that allows cultural understandings to be
homogenized and makes it possible to standardize the market throughout the colonial territory, thus
increasing exponentially not only the possibilities of profit but also those of domination, perhaps
more important. The mechanisms preferred by the centers of power are those of the regular release of
listenable and danceable species and products. Market thinking requires the continuous renewal of
the models on offer, and this is achieved not only with the production of such models in the centers
of power, but fundamentally - since no center of power is capable of producing so many novelties on
a permanent basis - through the appropriation of music and dances of the subjected peoples.”
(AHARONIAN [2012], p. 83)

CUBA

“Under Spanish rule, Cuba became the most profitable sugar-producing region in the world.
Sugar was a highly valued commodity in the 17th and 18th centuries; Individual fortunes and
national economies were based on the sugar trade. The African slaves who worked the cane fields
were controlled by the Spanish in various ways, among other things, they were forced to speak
Spanish and embrace Christianity. However, the slaves gave their gods the names of Christian saints
and continued to worship them in their native languages. This form of worship, known as Santería ,
preserved many African religious, ritual, and musical traditions. (...) The mixture of African and
Spanish influences resulted in many new forms, one of the most important is the son . Son is the root
of most Afro-Cuban dance styles. (...) It was performed in small groups using guitar or three of the
Spanish tradition; maracas , güiro , claves and bongó for rhythm; and for the bass parts marímbula ,
an African instrument similar to a giant kalimba on which the performer sits, and botija , a type of
American music history - 2
jug on which one blows to produce bass sounds. By the turn of the century, son was already
performed in Havana, taking on an urban character and becoming more and more popular, finally
becoming a national style around 1920. The most recognized group of the 1920s was the Sexteto
Habanero, which replaced the marímbula and botija with the double bass and added a trumpet.
Ignacio Piñero's Septeto Nacional took these innovations further towards the end of the decade: its
tighter sound, higher tempi and simpler rhythms emphasized the Spanish side of the son more than
the African one, while the trumpet added a distinctive urban color. . The son was revolutionized in
the 1930s by Arsenio Rodriguez, the great tres player. Enlarging the ensemble, by incorporating
tumbadoras (congas), cowbell , piano, and two additional trumpets, he brought back the African
influence to the son while at the same time expanding the form. (...) The tumbao developed -
repeated phrases on the bass and congas. (...) Cuban son laid the foundation for the Latin jazz styles
of the 1940s, the popular orchestras of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez in the 1950s, and
the salsa ensembles of the 1960s to the present. In addition, great musicians such as Chano Pozo,
Celia Cruz, Mongo Santamaría and “Patato” Valdez helped bring Cuban music to international
recognition. Other musical styles were popular in Cuba while son was developing. Most of it was
dance music of European descent performed by small versions of the orchestras of Europe. These
groups, known as typical orchestra , performed the music that the upper classes liked in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. These dances, among which are the habanera and the contradanza . They
were very popular in Cuba; The danzón , a variation of the contradanza, was also a favorite, and in
its later versions played an important role in Cuban popular music. Reduced versions of the typical
orchestra, called charangas , came out of the contradanza tradition. Composed of violins, piano,
flute, double bass, güiro and timbales (or timbaletas, or paila , instruments derived from European
timbales), charangas became an elemental component of Cuban music; Starting in 1950, they
developed and popularized the cha cha cha , one of the many fashionable dances of the postwar
period.” (MOOREFIELD, p. 4)

DANZON

“Danzón, as a popular form of dance, developed in Cuba towards the end of the 19th century
from the contradanza, brought by French colonizers in 1790. The oldest example of Cuban
contradanza is the song “San Pascual” and it was performed by an ensemble called typical
orchestra , composed of two clarinets, cornet, figle (or ophicleido), trombone and paila (percussion
instrument similar to timbalets). The cinquillo , a fundamental rhythmic cell in the formation of
traditional Cuban music, was incorporated into the contradanza at the beginning of the 19th century,
it consists of a rhythmic pattern of five sounds brought to Cuba by migrant slaves from Haiti. The
Cuban contradanza came to be called simply dance , although there are no significant differences
between the two styles. The oldest dance is “El Sungambelo”, written in 1813, and some important
dance composers were Ignacio Cervantes and Ernesto Lecuona.

The habanera , precursor of the danzón, also derived from the contradanza, but consisted of
a slower and more delicate style of dance. The habanera was the first dance exported from Cuba to
the rest of the world. “La Paloma”, written by Sebastián Yradier, is the first known habanera and the
basic habanera rhythm replaced the Cuban cinquillo.

The habanera was replaced by the danzón in 1870. Around 1920, a scaled-down version of
the typical orchestra, called the French charanga , was developed for the performance of danzones.
The French brass band usually included flute, violins, viola, piano, double bass, timbalets and güiro.
The most important composers of the style were Manuell Saumell and Miguel Faílde, who
composed, in 1891, “Las heights of Simpson”, considered the first danzón.” (MORETTI, p. 41)

La Paloma , Sebastian Yradier

San Pascual dance / The sungambelo / The heights of Simpson, Cuban National Folk

American music history - 3

 Orchestra
The three blows / Laughter , Ignacio Cervantes
The Havana , Ernesto Lecuona

“The fact is of vital importance for the history of Cuban music, since the French contradanza
was adopted with surprising speed, remaining on the island and transforming into a Cuban
contradanza , cultivated by all the Creole composers of the 19th century, which became to be, even,
the first genre of music on the island capable of triumphantly withstanding the test of export. Its
derivations gave rise to a whole family of types, still in force. (...) From the contradanza in 2 by 4,
the dance, the habanera and the danzón, with their consequent more or less hybrids, were born.”
(CARPENTIER, p. 116)

ARE

“The son is the root of much Afro-Cuban music (...) originated in rural areas of Cuba in the
19th century, migrated to Havana at the turn of the century and was also known by the names
sabrosur , mambo diablo and they are montuno . The son was revolutionized in the 1930s by Arsenio
Rodriguez (...) who created the typical ensemble , adding trumpets, tumbadoras, piano and timbalets
to the instrumental formation. He also introduced two new son sections, the montuno and the
mambo, open sections of instrumental improvisation. (...) Son provided the basis for many styles of
Latin Music , including the Latin Jazz of the 1940s, the big bands of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito
Rodriguez of the 1950s, and the salsa ensembles of the 1960s. ” (MORETTI, p. 43)

Heart of ice / Nobody but you / I am terror , Arsenio Rodriguez

Two gardenias , Ibrahim Ferrer
Now we will be happy , Rubén Gonzalez
Mount in , Mongo Santamaría
Rhythmic 5 / Rítmica 6 , Amadeo Roldán

and the bolero?

Flavor of Me / Cinnamon Skin / La Media Vuelta , Trio Los Panchos with Eydie Gormé

MAMBO

“One of the most important dance forms that developed from son was the mambo ; a type of
up-tempo dance that mixed North American instrumentation and harmony with the son tradition. (...)
It appears at the end of the 1930s in Havana, especially thanks to the work of double bassist Israel
Cachao López. Dámaso Pérez Prado, the Cuban composer, arranger and pianist born in 1916, known
as the “King of Mambo”, popularized the style through his recordings and concerts in the US His
style was influenced by that of Stan Kenton (a great American composer and arranger [another great
American arranger of the time was Billy Strayhorn, collaborator of greats such as Duke Ellington]),
creating a bridge between mambo and American jazz big bands . . Another of the great figures of
mambo was the singer Benny Moré; “Both Pérez Prado and Moré migrated to Mexico towards the
end of the 1940s.” (MORETTI, p. 43)

Mambo nº 5 / Mambo a la Kenton / Grinding coffee , Dámaso Pérez Prado

My little girl , Benny Moré
Mambo macoco / The mambo devil , Tito Puente

CHA CHA CHA

“In the 1950s, the cha cha cha became an important component in the charanga repertoire
American music history - 4
through the music of violinist Enrique Jorrín, soon achieving great recognition and international
success thanks to recordings and television broadcasts.” (MORETTI, p. 44)

Cha cha cha / Enjoy my cha cha cha , Tito Puente

The ugly bride / Happy cha cha cha , Enrique Jorrín
Hey how it goes , Carlos Santana

BRAZIL

“It is often considered that the music of Brazil developed from three different traditions,
European, African and native, however, the music of Brazil is very varied and the origins of some
specific forms are not always known; It is convenient to think about those traditions coming into
contact and transforming each other, forming a large and diverse group of musical forms, new and
old, many of which are still valid and in continuous development, and of which samba is the best
known. (...) The specific contributions of each tradition are difficult to determine; It is known that
the music of Portugal and Spain contributed many of the melodies and melodic patterns, the folk
music of Portugal presents elements common to much of European music: responsorial singing,
polyphonic singing and the use of string instruments. Certain percussion instruments associated with
Brazilian music, including the zabumba (bass drum), the caixa (snare drum), the surdo (double-
headed bass drum played with stick and hand, there are three types) and the pandeiro , They also
come from Portugal. On the other hand, the African tradition provides the rhythmic aspect of
Brazilian music. (...) There are two characteristics that indicate African roots, a two-beat meter that
presents syncopated rhythms and the rhythmic superimposition on a firm pulse. (...) Many other
percussion instruments come from Africa: the chokelho (rectangular shaker with rattles), the ganzá
(kind of cylindrical shaker), the afoxé and the xequerê (gourds of different sizes wrapped in a net
with beads or seeds ), the caxixi (shaker), the reco reco (rayador, güiro), the agogô (instrument with
two bells, similar to the cowbell , of different size and, therefore, tuning), the atabaque (single head
drum, sacred instrument that allows communication with the Orishas, deities of the Yoruba religion)
and the berimbau (instrument similar to a bow with a metal string and a gourd at one end that
functions as a sound box, used in the accompaniment of capoeira ). (...) Mostly African styles of
dance and music, some of which go back to colonial times, are what form the bulk of Brazilian
popular music. Lundú was one of the most important (...) towards the end of the 18th century it had
become a popular entertainment among the upper classes of Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. A variation
of the lundú, the rutabaga succeeded it in fame. These two styles were the predecessors of maxixe
(also known as “Brazilian tango”) and samba .” (Some styles related by era and characteristics:
polka , chotis , choro , waltz ) (MOOREFIELD, p. 6)
SAMBA

“The best-known dance and music form of the Afro-Brazilian tradition is samba. (...) At the
beginning of the 20th century, samba as it was danced and played in Rio began to be known as
samba de morro , or samba batucada . It was already part of the street carnival celebration when the
first samba recording was made in 1917. “Pelo Telefone”, by Ernesto dos Santos, known as Donga,
became a great success, and samba became a national passion, thanks to a new technology: the radio.
This was the beginning of what became the annual tradition of recording and broadcasting sambas
specially composed for the carnival. Each samba school performs its song during the parade,
competes with the other schools and can win according to the popular vote. (...) A single samba
school can include hundreds of percussionists forming what is known as a bateria : an ensemble
composed of surdo , repinique (ringing, high-pitched double-headed drum), caixa , tumbaim (very
small single-headed drum , not to be confused with tambourine [tambourine]), cuica , agogo ,
ganzás and whistles. The best and most popular schools compete each year in the carnival parade.
(...) The quality of their music, dance, poetry and performance is judged as integral, and it is a great
honor to be the winner of the carnival.” (Carnival is a festival of pagan origin that precedes Christian
American music history - 5
Lent [time of spiritual preparation prior to Easter {commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus}],
hence its festive and permissive character). (MOOREFIELD, p. 7)

“Brazil's popular music can be understood as a mixture of African, European and indigenous
musical traditions, although the influence of indigenous music is relatively weak in contemporary
music. (...) In the 1930s, middle and upper class musicians composed, arranged and produced
sambas for radio and recordings. Samba canção developed through the work of composers such as
Noel Rosa, Ary Barroso, Ataulfo Alves and Dorival Caymmi among others. (...) The samba canção
broadcast on the radio and performed in dance clubs were orchestrated like the dance bands common
in the US, but included a typical percussion ensemble. However, smaller groups were also
enormously popular; Typical instrumentation included guitar, cavaquinho (small instrument, with 4
simple steps, similar to the ukulele ), tumbaim and pandeiro, as well as voices.” (MORETTI, p.53)

Hair telephone (1917), Ernesto dos Santos

Minha viola (1930) / Mulher indigesta (1932), Noel Rosa
Vou à penha (1928), Ary Barroso
O que e que a baiana tem (1939), Dorival Caymmi and Carmen Miranda

CHORO

Choro , popularly called chorinho , is a genre of instrumental music that emerged in the
second half of the 19th century in Rio de Janeiro as a way of interpreting and adapting European
(waltz, chotis, polka) or African (lundú) rhythms and dances. The ensemble is generally made up of
one or more solo instruments, such as the flute, sax or mandolin, and accompanying instruments
such as the cavaquinho, guitar and pandeiro. Some of the most recognized choros performers are
Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth and Pixinguinha.

Tico-tico no fubá (1917), Zequinha de Abreu

Um a zero (1919), Pixinguinha / Benedito Lacerda
Vibrações (1967), Jacob do Bandolim
Choro nº1 (1921), Heitor Villa-Lobos

And the Brazilian northeast? and the bathroom ? the frevo ? the maracatu ?

Baião malandro , Egberto Gismonti

BOSSA NOVA

“In the late 1950s, guitarist and singer João Gilberto and composer and arranger Antonio
Carlos Jobim created a new musical form, bossa nova (new wave), based on a more relaxed
interpretation of samba. (...) In 1958, the collaborative album “Chega de saudade” marked the
beginning of the bossa nova revolution in Brazil. (...) In 1962, a concert at Carnegie Hall in New
York in which Gilberto, Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and the Americans Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
participated drew the attention of the United States to bossa nova.” (MOOREFIELD, p. 8)

“The golden age of samba lasted until the end of World War II. Towards the 1950s there
were several influences that impacted Brazilian popular music. The first was a cool performance
aesthetic, popularized first by the vocal style of Frank Sinatra and then by the cool jazz of Miles
Davis. Furthermore, the growing harmonic sophistication - especially of jazz - began to find its place
in samba. Towards the end of the 50s, Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim and João Gilberto distilled these
influences and created a new type of samba, sophisticated and cool : bossa nova. Gilberto created a
new batidinha - an intimate approach to samba rhythms on the guitar, which included a way of
arranging ( voicing ) the new and sophisticated chords and synthesized the essence of the complex
American music history - 6
polyrhythm of the batucada. Jobim, being an excellent composer, created a musical repertoire in the
new style. Furthermore, through his work as an arranger and producer, he contributed profoundly to
the development and popularization of bossa nova worldwide. Until the development of bossa nova,
samba's global reach was limited by its instrumentation: playing samba required the appropriate
Brazilian instruments. In bossa nova, the samba groove was transcribed for the instrumentation
typical of the small jazz ensemble: guitar, piano, double bass and drums. This adaptation of
instrumentation allowed non-Brazilian musicians to play bossa nova and contributed to its
popularization.” (MORETTI, p. 54)

Chega de saudade , João Gilberto (Vinicius de Moraes / Antonio Carlos Jobim)

Garota de Ipanema / Desafinado , Tom Jobim
Eu sei que vou te amar , Caetano Veloso (Vinicius de Moraes / Antonio Carlos Jobim)
March Waters , Elis Regina

MPB/TROPICALIA/CLUBE DA ESQUINA

“Bossa nova had a powerful impact on the musical style that followed it. The term MPB
(Brazilian popular music) usually refers to a generation of musicians who achieved popularity after
the bossa nova generation; Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Milton
Nascimento, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Elis Regina, Gal Costa and João Bosco among others. These
musicians were strongly influenced by samba and bossa nova, but they also incorporated other
elements from both Brazil and the rest of the world into their music; pop, rock, funk, avant garde
and experimental music.” (MORETTI, p. 55)

Construction (1971), Chico Buarque

Jimmy Renda-se (1970), Tom Zé
Sad Bay (1972), Caetano Veloso
A minha menina (1968), The Mutants
Sina (1982), Caetano Veloso (Djavan)
Clube da Esquina (1972), Clube da Esquina
Tropicalia: ou Panis et Circencis (1968), Tropicalia

URUGUAY

CANDOMBE

“Candombe is a fundamental style in Uruguayan popular music. Artists from different

periods such as Romeo Gavioli, Lágrima Ríos, Pedro Ferreira, Alfredo Zitarrosa, José Carabajal “El
Sabalero”, Eduardo Mateo, Rubén Rada, Jaime Roos, Hugo Fattoruso and Jorginho Gularte - to
name the most renowned - have incorporated this rhythm native in his compositions. Candombe is
part of the African American rhythms and identifies the Uruguayan people, like samba does to the
Brazilian; the rumba, the cha cha cha and the Cuban son; thebomba and the plena to the Puerto
Rican, the merengue to the Dominican, among others. (...) In Uruguay, especially in its capital
Montevideo, the cultural contribution of African slaves from different ethnic groups arriving in the
18th century constitutes an identifying seal. Candombe is the dramatic and religious dance that
brought together slaves and their descendants. As such it disappeared at the end of the 19th century.
The candombes were celebrated on January 6 - Three Kings' Day - an action that commemorated the
coronation of the Congo kings. This ritual dance was performed in open-air places, or in religious
rooms. The instruments that accompanied the candombe were “tamboriles” with a single head nailed
to the shell of the drum and struck with a stick and hand, or hands without a stick, as well as
marimbas, chokelos, zambombas, etc. The name candombe or “tangos”, as it was called until 1830,
had different meanings at that time. Meeting places where Africans gathered were often called this

American music history - 7

way and some music and dances performed at those meetings were also called this way. Candombe
evolved and lost a large part of the elements linked to the African religion that gave rise to it,
surviving the drum as the main instrument and some typical characters, gathered in the “Black
Comparsa or Lubola” ( lubolos or black lubolos are called descendants of Europeans, white, painted
black, a phenomenon related to North American blackface ). The carnival troupe brings together
singers, dancers of both sexes and typical characters, among them the Mama Vieja , the Gramillero
and the Escobero (or Escobillero ), accompanied by the rhythm generated with the drum rope. La
Mama Vieja wears a blouse and wide skirt - usually white - with many ruffles and is accompanied by
a fan and umbrella, extending her choreographic game throughout the street. The Gramillero,
represented by an old man with a white beard, dresses in an old black tailcoat, hat, cane and carries a
briefcase with medicinal herbs. This dramatic character, in his dance includes trembling and
contortions, which symbolize the incorporation of spirits - an allegory of a religious nature. This
representation is essentially pantomime. The Broomstick is a character who juggles a small broom,
wears leather aprons and hangs bells and mirrors. His display of skill is inexhaustible. These
characters are joined by standard bearers, star bearers and the flight of flags waved from the ground,
vibrating to the beat of the drums. The comparsa has a ritual character and entails a very deep
religious symbolism, since it comes from the ceremonies of a closed and secret cult from the colonial
era. The characters that still exist today in the Montevideo carnival have their origins there. (...) The
traditional drums are the piano , repique and chico ; The grouping of at least one drum of each type
is called a drum rope . (...) The rhythmic “dialogue” that the drums sustain in a walking situation is
known as calls . “One of the most important events in the Uruguayan carnival is the llama parade .”
(MACHADO, p. 3)

Yesterday I saw you / Fingers / Candombe for Gardel / Candombe for Fatto , Rubén
Rada
The Old Mom , Eduardo Mateo
Maybe Cheché / Loving you , Jaime Roos
At the back of the net , Mauricio Ubal
You're going too far away , El Kinto

STREET BAND

“The term murga is a Castilian term of distant origin, which in the 19th century had a
pejorative value. (...) What is a murga for the inhabitant of Montevideo? If we momentarily avoid the
discussion of trends of the last four decades, we can try to freeze and analyze the apparently
homogeneous and clear model of the 1950s and 1960s (hardly that of previous decades, of which
there seems to be almost no recorded documentation, and of no way from the beginning of the
century, of which we have no idea what it sounded like). Since around 1920, it has been a small
choral group of a dozen singers (...) We can go over at least three or four characteristics that
differentiate the Montevideo murga from other cultural products: 1. The male choir is structured on a
general basis of three voices: sobreprimos , primos and seconds . Primes are subdivided into smooth
primes and high primes and seconds into proper seconds and low primes. Overcousins can segregate
the tertiary , with " a more soloist character [...] that tends to 'escape' from the chorus and
counterpoint with it ." The choral parts alternate with solo parts, giving rise to standardized
structures. And there are very specific harmonic criteria - with the main melody that is usually below
the highest voice and with voice movements that are insistently parallel (or apparently parallel, since
the voices usually intersect) - as well as a certain repertoire of contrapuntal resources. Interval
relationships can be fascinating - and very unorthodox for a conservative view. 2. Perhaps the
differentiating element par excellence is the emission of the voice, which is nasal (or nasalized),
throaty, especially in the high register, and is projected wisely over a great distance for hearing
outdoors (like that of the canillitas?). (...) 3. The Montevideo murga has a rhythm that is its own,
implicit in its way of singing, and explicit - with particular virtuosity - in the drum kit, bass drum and
American music history - 8
crash cymbals that accompanies it. (...) There are diverse influences in it, not very explicit, that
include rhythmic gestures from other latitudes of Latin America, in addition to those of the cultural
region itself (the cultural complex of milonga and tango, the Afromentevidean). 4. There is,
coincidentally, a particular, very particular body gesture, and characteristic movement -
choreographic- criteria. There is also a particularly interesting characteristic: the murga uses popular
melodies of the moment (especially those that have been circulating in the time since the previous
carnival), or from collective memory, and prefers this resource to composing new music. Creativity
focuses on the phagocytation and assembly of pre-existing melodies - which give rise to a new
syntactic process - structured by texts, these written ad hoc. This procedure has antecedents in
different cultural traditions, and can be found in various expressions of European popular culture,
although it is also linked to the Creole freedom of action regarding melodies that were considered
free to use (a tradition that was being stifled by the gradual imposition, during the 20th century, of
intellectual property laws). (AHARONIÁN (2010), p. 165)

Toast to Pierrot / Cometa de La Farola / The future murguistas / Goodbye youth /

Colombina , Jaime Roos
Laughing crying , Lack and Rest (Juan de Dios Peza)
Cuplé of Pinocchio , Araca la cana
Violence , Agarrate Catalina
Black murguera , Bersuit Vergarabat

USA

BLUES

Blues is a secular music of the 20th century, predominantly made originally by the black
population of the United States of America. Since the middle of the century it has been one of the
strongest influences on Western popular music.

The blues was from its beginnings associated with an emotional and sentimental state linked to
melancholy, sadness and longing, the presence of the "blue devils " are a constitutive part of the
genre and its interpretation codes: the bluesman He sings to get rid of the blues , to get rid of his
demons, the blues requires a specific way of singing and playing, the comment that indicates that
you can't play the blues "if you don't feel it" is common.

The African origins of the blues are almost undisputed and some elements that collaborated in
its creation are work songs on plantations, mostly in the south of the United States, songs without
accompaniment, with responsorial structures of solo singing and group response, well-known
religious songs. such as spirituals , narrative ballads in which stories are told or information is
transmitted to the community.

Let your light shine on me , Blind Willie Johnson

No Hiding Place , Norfolk Jubilee Quartet
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen , Louis Armstrong
Oh my Lord , Mahalia Jackson
This train , Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The theme of blues lyrics was usually associated with issues of crime, prostitution, gambling,
alcoholism, prisons or lost loves and often expressed the desire to move or escape, by train or road,
to an imaginary ideal land. Many blues were sexually aggressive and it is common to find elements
of frustration and oppression in their lyrics.

American music history - 9

 Talking blues , Pink Anderson
Monday morning blues , Mississippi John Hurt
Walking blues / Camp hollers , Son House
Mississippi Boweavil Blues , Charley Patton
I want to be like Jesus in my heart / Black horse blues / Matchbox blues ,
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Young Woman's Blues , Bessie Smith

At this time the guitar began to consolidate itself as a typical accompaniment instrument for
blues singers, who sometimes used open tunings and pressed the six strings of the instrument with a
knife or a bottle ( botleneck ) following traditional harmony. It has been said numerous times that the
use of the slide on the guitar strings refers to the crying, moans and screams typical of souls in pain.

Some of these blues musicians recorded their songs, either commercially or as a product of the
then emerging ethnomusicology.

Blues women also existed at this time, however, they were recognized and admired for the
"masculinity of their music": songs about prisons, prostitution, lesbianism. It was even said that she
played the guitar "like a man." Among them were Bessie Tucker, Lucille Bogan and Memphis
Minnie.

As the years went by, blues also began to be played on the piano (influenced by ragtime and
jazz) and, of course, it began to expand territorially to other cities, the most important of which were
Texas, Louisiana, Chicago, Detroit and Georgia.

A few years later and in contrast to the rural blues of the south, what is currently known as
urban blues appears in Chicago and the groups of this era begin to add wind instruments such as
trumpet, sax or harmonica. In response, but without meaning a rivalry, a new breed of rural
bluesmen emerged in the south, in the tradition of Patton and Son House, who also agreed to be
recorded. Of these musicians, the most recognized, influential and mysterious is undoubtedly Robert
Johnson, a musician who died young, shrouded in myths and rumors and who left only a couple
dozen songs recorded.

Love in vain / Me and the devil blues , Robert Johnson

Towards the end of World War II, blues recordings were in the hands of a few large
companies, but in the late 40s small companies, many with black owners, began producing
commercially. Some in southern cities such as Memphis and Houston, some in West Coast cities,
others in Chicago and Detroit. Until then, blues records were classified as race records , that is,
recordings, typically on 78 rpm records, aimed at the black public. However, at the end of the war
the term rhythm and blues was coined, free of racial connotations and based on , supposedly, on
stylistic factors. It is worth highlighting the use of the term hillbilly records to refer to and market
music by whites and for whites, mostly country music, later called country and western, C&W); At
this time, blues was hardly differentiated from country except for ethnic factors, and although the
segregation of blacks by whites was and continued to be very strong for a long time, there were also
differences between the blacks themselves, caused, for example , due to the social class of each
person.

Rhythm and blues encompassed many types of blues and some of the most important artists
were Charles Brown, guitarist T-Bone Walker, New Orleans pianist Fats Domino, the histrionic
Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Among the most notable singers are Muddy Waters,
who forms electric groups with drums producing a threatening and charged sound, a sales champion.

American music history - 10

Howlin' Wolf, a kind of follow-up to Charley Patton, Elmore James, inspired by Robert Johnson.

Call it stormy monday (1947) / Blues is a woman (1952), T-Bone Walker

Hoochie Coochie Man (1954, Willie Dixon), Rollin' Stone (1950), Muddy Waters
Dust My Broom (1951), I Believe (1952), Elmore James
The fat man (1950) / Ain't that a shame (1955), Fats Domino
Bad Penny Blues (1956), Humphrey Lyttelton

At this time, the blues incorporated an element of spectacle, the performances became more
strident in front of an audience that became increasingly larger, the lyrics became stereotyped and
ceased to be as personal as in the past.

1950: John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, Willie Dixon.

Towards the end of the decade, numerous studies appear in relation to blues, especially carried
out by Europeans, and many artists undertake international tours.

Genres such as skiffle , a white, British and therefore distorted interpretation of the blues, are
beginning to be popular among new generations of young people who in a few years, through
recordings and articles, will absorb, even unconsciously, much of the history of the blues, to then
process it in his own way and produce new popular music. It is said, for example, that one of Muddy
Waters' tours, with its electric sound, impressed many of these young people among whom the
names of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals or The Who would gradually appear.

In the following decades, years in which whites were introduced to the blues, at the same time
that the public also became mostly white, some of the most prominent black artists were BB King,
Albert King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal.

JAZZ

“ Jazz was formed through the fusion of ragtime , African-American folk music (especially
the blues ), and various elements of European music. The traditional history of jazz states that it was
born in New Orleans towards the end of the 19th century and expanded north along the Mississippi
River. Although this story is simplistic, it definitely has some truth. The first jazz recordings were
made by New Orleans musicians or their imitators. New Orleans was a unique city towards the end
of the 19th century; Their culture was based much more in the Caribbean than in the rest of the US.
Additionally, there was a strong French presence, evident in Creole (Creole) culture.

Maple Leaf Rag (1899) / The Entertainer (1902), Scott Joplin

Livery stable blues (1917), Original Dixieland Jass Band
Black bottom stomp / The chant / Someday sweethart , Jelly Roll Morton
Potato head blues (1927), Louis Armstrong & his Hot Seven
West end blues (1928), Louis Armstrong & his Hot Five
Sweet Georgia Brown (1937), Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli

Between the years 1890 and 1910, a new style began to emerge in New Orleans,
characterized by the blue notes of blues and African-American music, a polyrhythmic texture with a
syncopated melody over a firm bass and a strong pulse in 4-beat time signatures. . Early jazz also
had a swing feel , an irregular subdivision of the pulse; Instead of two equal eighth notes, a longer
and a shorter eighth note is presented. This early jazz consisted mostly of ragtime, marching, and
blues pieces and was popularized in the United States during the 1920s through phonograph
recordings. Social dancing was an important part of American culture in the early 20th century and
jazz became one of the dominant styles in clubs and dance halls.
American music history - 11
 The dance remained popular during the 1930s and large orchestras that performed jazz - big
bands - flourished. Count Basie, whose band was notable for its swing style, perfected a minimalist
piano style supported by guitarist Freddie Green's unique comping style. Drummer Jo Jones and
bassist Walter Page played swing with tightness and depth.

Lady Be Good (1936), Count Basie and Lester Young

One o' clock jump (1937), Count Basie and his Orchestra
Caravan (1936, Juan Tizol), Take the “A” train (1941, Billy Strayhorn), Duke Ellington
Sing, Sing, Sing (1935, Louis Prima), Benny Goodman
In the Mood (1939), Glenn Miller

After World War II, the focus of jazz moved toward small groups through the development
of bebop . In the mid-1940s, jazz stopped being essentially dance music and lost much of its
popularity. Freed from the burden of providing background music for dance, the style continued to
develop as musicians became more harmonically sophisticated and tempi and meters moved away
from the comforts of dance music.

Body and Soul (1939), Coleman Hawkins

Ornithology (1946) / Donna Lee (1947, Miles Davis), Charlie Parker
Groovin' High (1945) / A Night in Tunisia (1945), Dizzy Gillespie

The role of the rhythmic base in the various jazz grooves underwent profound development
during and immediately after the bebop era. The drummers, influenced by bop innovator Kenny
Clarke, were able to provide a much more fluid, less basic groove, balancing their importance with
that of the other members of the ensemble. Pianists did not have to reinforce the bass with their left
hand and new styles of accompaniment emerged, initially through the work of Red Garland and Bill
Evans. Continuing the development in the bass role begun by Duke Ellington's bassist Jimmy Blanto,
Bill Evans' bassist Scott La Faro demonstrated that the bass can be interpreted more as a horn .

Blue train (1957) / My favorite things (1961) / Acknowledgment (1964), John Coltrane
Well, you needn't (1944) / Straight, no chaser (1951) / Blue Monk (1954), Thelonious
Monk

Through these developments, classic jazz grooves and the role of rhythmic base instruments
were born. Band leader and trumpeter Miles Davis played an important role in developing the
foundation of modern jazz. His 1950 quintet, with Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and
Philly Jo Jones (drums), was widely influential until the end of the decade. In the mid-1960s, he led
another important quintet with Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams
(drums); This quintet had a much more modern rhythmic conception. Another important rhythm
section was that of saxophonist John Coltrane, formed by McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison
(bass) and Elvin Jones (drums). By the late '60s the essential grooves of jazz were well established.
Later developments in the rhythmic conception of jazz depended on fusion with other musical
styles.” (MORETTI, p. 35)

“Black people played jazz as they once sang blues or, even before, shouted songs in those
anonymous fields, since it was one of the few areas of human expression at their disposal. Blacks
who felt the impulse of blues, and later jazz, as a specific means of expression, naturally turned to
music. There were fewer social, extra-expressive considerations that could disqualify a black man
who wanted to be a jazz musician than those that existed for a black man trying to be a writer (or
even an elevator operator). Any black man who had any literary ambition, in the first half of this
century, had to develop such a powerful loyalty to the sacraments of middle-class American culture

American music history - 12

that the idea of writing about jazz was likely to horrify him. (...) Jazz, as black music, existed, until
the time of the big bands, at the same sociocultural level as the subculture from which it emerged.
The music and its sources were secret as far as the rest of the United States was concerned, just as
the real life of black people in the United States was a secret to the white American. (...)
Contemporary jazz has begun to recapture, in recent years, some of the anarchy and excitement of
the bebop era. The cool and hard bop/funk movements of the '40s seem painfully tame, even
decadent, when compared to the music that Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Cecil
Taylor and others have been making. And of the pioneers of bop, only Thelonious Monk has
managed to maintain without a doubt the vicious creativity with which he appeared on the jazz scene
in the forties. Music changed once again, for many of the same basic reasons it had changed twenty
years earlier. Bop was, to a certain extent, a reaction by young musicians against the sterility and
formality that swing had acquired when it became a formal part of mainstream American culture.
The most recent jazz known as the “new thing” is largely a reaction to hard-bop-funk-groove-soul,
which in turn seemed to protest against the appropriation of blues elements in cool jazz and
progressive jazz. Funk (groove, soul) has become as formal and trite as cool jazz or swing, and the
opportunities for creative expression within that form have been reduced to almost zero. (...) What
was happening was that, although conservative white critics had been aware of black music for only
three decades, they were already trying to formalize and institutionalize it. It's a horrible idea.
“Music was already in danger of being forced to become part of that pile of garbage and admirable
objects that the West recognizes as culture .” (JONES, p. 14)

Lonely woman (1959), Free jazz (1960/1961), Ornette Coleman

Moanin' (1959) / II BS (1963), Charles Mingus
The Creator has a master plan (1969), Pharoah Sanders
Ptah, the El Daoud (1970), Alice Coltrane

“The triumph of sensuality in jazz has been judged harshly because Westerners have often
come to consider the Dionysian virtues vile. (...) In reality, jazz, better than cubism, has managed to
address that which, in us, thirsted for vigor; better than surrealism - which was a dead end - asks,
according to an expression by Jean Paul Sartre, the freest part of ourselves. Expressing black drama,
he has represented the concerns and longings of a disturbed world.” (MALSON, p. 14)

ROCK AND ROLL

A term generally used to refer to the popular music of the second half of the 20th century but
that more specifically refers to the style of the 1950s. It appears early in the 1930s in blues lyrics
where it typically refers to carnal relations. Bill Haley and his Comets were the first group to appear
on the charts with their song "Crazy Man Crazy" (1953) and when their hit "Rock Around the Clock"
(1954) reached number one the sound of rock and roll was already everywhere. It is generally
described as a mix of black rhythm and blues and white country, with a strong emphasis on the
contributions of black musicians, however, some historians note that rock and roll really began in the
early 1950s, when many white teenagers began to play. listen and dance rhythm and blues.

Rock around the clock (1954) / Crazy man crazy (1953), Bill Haley and his Comets

Rock and roll combined boogie-woogie rhythms, blues vocal forms and styles, and elements of
gospel among other influences. The electric guitar began to replace the saxophone as a solo
instrument, the straight rhythm appeared as an alternative to swing eighth notes and at least five
subgenres or currents were established: Bill Haley's northern rock, New Orleans dance blues, country
Memphis rock (Elvis Presley and other rockabilly singers), Chicago rhythm and blues and rock vocal
group.

American music history - 13

 Don't be cruel (1956), Hound dog (1956), Elvis Presley

The development of rock and roll was facilitated by the internal migrations of millions of
whites and blacks from the southern United States. In the north and west of that country, post-war
prosperity, the emergence of local and independent record labels and the growth of mass culture and
the media, which accelerated the mixing of traditions, sounds, images and audiences. The migration
of many freed black slaves and their descendants to cities like New York, Detroit, and Chicago
meant that whites and blacks lived close together and in numbers like never before, listened to and
shared their music, and began to imitate each other.

Rock and roll arrived at a time of considerable technological change, shortly after the
development of the electric guitar, the amplifier and the microphone, as well as the 45 rpm record.
There were also changes in the recording industry, independent labels such as Atlantic, Sun and
Chess and specialized radio stations appeared that offered new music to specific and differentiated
sectors of the public.

Although segregationism was strong and kept blacks and whites separated in many ways,
radio, recordings, and television bridged distances and facilitated cultural interaction; White
teenagers found new idols in black musicians, which questioned and weakened social authority and
put rock in the crosshairs of government repression, characterizing it as the music of rebellious
teenagers, leaving aside the serious questioning that this music poses to the dominant ideas about
race, sexuality, class and social authority. In its various forms, rock brought the style and sensibility
of the working classes, black and white, to the center of American culture.

Although the term rock and roll had been used for several years to refer to the sexual act, the
religious fervor of black people or the movements of a boat in the ocean, in 1951, a radio disc jockey
from Cleveland, Alan Freed, began to use it. use it to refer to this music and its style. In that same
year a song appears that is usually considered one of the first rock and rolls : "Rocket 88" recorded
by Ike Turner and The Kings under the pseudonym of Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats.

From there the music spread rapidly throughout the world, especially but not exclusively to
English-speaking areas, most notably England. The forms, instrumentation, vocal style and rhythm
appeared without many variations but mixed with local music.

Rockabilly: Term usually used to refer to white singers of the mid-1950s, including Elvis Presley,
Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among others.

Tennessee (1955) / Sure to fall (1955) / Everybody's trying to be my baby (1956), Carl
Perkins
Whole lotta shakin' goin' on (1957) / Great balls of fire (1957), Jerry Lee Lewis

Around 1955/6, songs appeared that reinforced and confirmed the commercial and social
success of rock and roll: "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl
Perkins and "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley. It is also worth highlighting the importance of the
musicians who sang their own material on the new generations, among them the most important is,
perhaps, Buddy Holly.

Folsom Prison blues (1955) / Cocaine blues (1955), Johnny Cash

Doo Wop: Form of rock and roll where multi-voice arrangements predominate in which secondary
voices usually sing meaningless words, onomatopoeia, vowels, hence the name of the style. Many of
the groups related to this music disappeared quickly or were what is known as one hit wonder . The
most notable were The Platters and The Coasters.
American music history - 14
 The great pretend , The Platters
Poison ivy , The Coasters
Earth angel (you will be mine) , The Penguins
Why do fools fall in love , The Teenagers & Frankie Lymon

Also at this time, the idea of the cover or reinterpretation of a piece recorded by another artist
began to be strongly established: the most common were covers of R&B songs made by white artists,
many times these versions were "sanitized" in form and language. making them more suitable for
large white audiences, although eventually the original versions also managed to be disseminated.

Towards the end of the 1950s, after the deaths of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, after Elvis
enlisted in the army, after Little Richard retired to become a preacher, and after the persecutions of
Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry For different reasons, the initial boom of rock and roll was
beginning to die out. Some analysts simultaneously observe a process of "feminization of rock and
roll": the charts dominated by love ballads aimed at female audiences and the appearance of girl
groups such as The Shirelles and The Crystals.

That'll be the day (1957) / Peggy Sue (1957), Buddy Holly

Roll over Beethoven (1956) / Rock and roll music (1957) / Johnny B. Goode (1958),
Chuck Berry
Tutti frutti (1955) / Lucille (1957) / Good golly Miss Molly (1956/1958), Little Richard

During the 1950s, as a parallel process to the enormous growth of this new musical style, we
must point out the importance of some technical developments that would later occupy a central
place in the history of popular music: multitrack recording, developed by Les Paul, the treatment
electronic sound by visionaries like Joe Meek and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound .

SOUL

“ Soul music emerged from the combination of R&B and gospel (literally “gospel”). Both
styles have their roots in the music of African-American churches in the southern United States,
particularly in the Mississippi Delta area. Although the themes of R&B are secular and those of
gospel are religious, the musical characteristics of these two styles are similar. Both present a
strongly rhythmic quality, responsorial singing patterns (question and answer), vocal improvisation,
and a strong charge of emotional expression. Ray Charles, one of the first popular soul singers, has
said that some of his early compositions were very similar to old gospel songs with a change in
poetry.

I want my crown , The Pilgrim Travelers

Jezebel , Golden Gate Quartet
Georgia on my mind (1930), Ray Charles (Stuart Gorrel / Hoagy Carmichael)

Beginning in the 1940s, there was a strong market for blues and gospel music among the
African-American population. Record labels such as Chess, Atlantic, and Vee Jay recorded and
marketed black music, largely to black audiences. In the 1950s, black music began to address (in the
original crossing over ) white audiences. Atlantic Records, founded by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb
Abramson in 1947, had a series of crossover hits in the mid-1950s with artists such as Ray Charles
and La Vern Baker. In 1948, a young Billboard magazine writer named Jerry Wexler coined the term
rhythm and blues , or R&B, to describe this new music, replacing the term race music , or race
records , which was used until then. Wexler joined Atlantic Records in the role of producer in 1953
and introduced a new and highly successful approach to record production. He brought artists such
as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave south to record at Stax studios

American music history - 15

(Memphis, Tennessee) and Fame studios (Muscle Shoals, Alabama). The music they recorded was
called soul music . Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown are the most famous artists
associated with soul at the beginning of their careers.

I say a little prayer , Aretha Franklin (Burt Bacharach / Hal David)

Sitting on the dock of the bay (1967), Otis Redding

The session musicians who recorded with these artists for Atlantic had a background of
blues, gospel, C&W ( country and western ), and R&B. Stax's rhythm section was a band called
Booker T. and the MG's, with Booker T. Jones on organ, Steve Cropper on guitar, Donald “Duck”
Dunn on bass and Alan Jackson on drums. (...) Stax Records was originally called Satellite Records
and during this period it was Atlantic, under the orders of Jerry Wexler, the company that distributed
their productions. In Muscle Shoals, bassist David Hood and drummer Roger Hawkins were in
charge of providing the rhythmic foundation for Atlantic artists. “The work of these two rhythm
sections defined many of the grooves of soul music.” (MORETTI, p. 1)

Green onions (1962), Booker T. and the MG's

In the Midnight Hour (1965), Wilson Pickett

MOTOWN

“Another center of black music production was the city of Detroit. Berry Gordy created his
first record company in 1960, and by the end of the decade Motown Records, along with several
subsidiaries, was producing more hits than any other company in the United States. One of Gordy's
most important artists was Smokey Robinson, who in addition to being publicly known as the singer
of the group The Miracles was also a talented songwriter and produced hits for other Motown artists
such as The Temptations, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells.

Please Mr Postman (1961), The Marvelettes, The Beatles

You really got a hold on me (1962), The Miracles, The Beatles
Where Did Our Love Go (1964), The Supremes
My Girl (1964), The Temptations
Uptight (everything's allright) (1965), Stevie Wonder
I Want You Back (1969), The Jackson 5
Let's get it on (1973), Marvin Gaye
All Night Long (All Night) (1983), Lionel Richie

The songwriter/producer team of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier was
another important addition to the Motown production team. The team wrote and produced hits with
The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye and Martha and the Vandellas. Stevie
Wonder began his career in Motown and also Michael Jackson who was part of the Jackson 5.
Although the Motown artists' music came from the R&B tradition, it had enormous commercial
success in both the R&B and Pop markets.

One of the keys to Motown's success was the excellent session musicians who recorded with
the majority of the label's artists. Bassist James Jamerson created a new way of playing bass on
Motown records; The energy and melodic ( linear ) sophistication of his bass parts were one of the
hallmarks of the Motown sound and his style was widely imitated. Jamerson on bass and Benny
Benjamin on drums, known as the Funk Brothers, created unique, deep grooves that served as the
foundation for dozens of hits during the 60s and 70s.” (MORETTI, p. 2)

FUNK

American music history - 16

 “As early as the 1950s, the term funk was used to describe the syncopated, danceable
grooves of soul and R&B music. As a style, however, funk emerged in the late 60s and early 70s
from the combination of some rhythmic aspects of soul and R&B with a jazzy approach to melodies
and solos. Early funk harmonies were commonly based on long vamps (see ostinato , loop , riff )
over a chord, with the band's different instruments playing syncopated parts that fit into an intricate,
repetitive pattern .

The main innovator of funk was James Brown who, having begun his career in the
soul/gospel tradition, left that path aside to focus on rhythm and groove. His biggest hit was the
single “I got You (I feel good)”, from 1965; Despite being based on the 12-bar form of blues, like
much other soul and R&B music, the heavy funk groove is already present (“ heavy funk groove ”).
By 1970, Brown's music was characterized by long sections over a single chord. The tunes were
strongly rhythmic and often included call-and-response patterns involving the wind section ( brass,
horns ) or backing vocalists. Brown was well known for his rhythmic vocal sounds - growls,
screams, screams, etc.

I feel good / Bring it up / Ain't it funky now / Give it up or turn it loose , James Brown

Other bands contributed to the development of funk towards the end of the 60s. Between
1967 and 1969, Sly and the Family Stone released a series of albums combining funk, R&B and
rock. The band included Larry Graham, the bassist who is usually considered the inventor of slap .
George Clinton, who had composed for and produced some Motown artists, including the Jackson 5
and the Supremes, formed his own funk band, The Parliaments, in 1964. He later reformed the band
under the name The Funkadelics. His idiosyncratic way of producing and performing live (P-Funk,
Parliament-Funkadelics) was widely influential during the '70s.

Dance to the music (1968) / Family affair (1971), Sly and the Family Stone
Superstition (1972), Stevie Wonder
One Nation Under a Groove (1978), Funkadelic
Give up the funk / Mothership connection (1975), Parliament

Two '70s bands, Tower of Power and Earth, Wind and Fire, played sophisticated, refined
funk with very tight arrangements. Earth, Wind and Fire was known for its careful, delicate vocal
arrangements and complex harmonic writing. The music of Tower of Power featured complex
arrangements in the wind section with independent lines on the baritone sax that refer to early James
Brown and New Orleans funk. (...) Many other artists released funk albums in the 70s; Stevie
Wonder, The Commodores, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Ohio Players and Michael Jackson. At
the same time, funk was having a strong impact on jazz, and players like Herbie Hancock, Grover
Washington, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis were making records that mixed funk grooves
with jazz harmony and improvisation. Hancock's albums Head Hunters (1973) and Thrust (1974)
were hugely influential in funk and jazz circles. (...) Funk music is a vital influence on pop music
and an important component of the styles of many artists, furthermore, much of early funk,
particularly James Brown, has been widely sampled by hip hop artists since the 1970s. 80.”
(MORETTI, p. 9)

Tower of Power (1973), Tower of Power

Shining star (1975), Earth, Wind and Fire
Miles in the sky (1968) / On the corner (1972), Miles Davis
Head Hunters (1973) / Future Shock (1983), Herbie Hancock
Give It Away (1991), The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Flu (2002), Lettuce

American music history - 17

HIP HOP

“ Hip hop is a movement that encompasses various artistic and cultural aspects and emerged
in New York City in the early 1970s, especially in the Bronx, Harlem and Brooklyn. Music, which
includes rap and turntables , is perhaps the most important and visible expression of hip hop culture.
However, there are other important aspects: graffiti , breakdance , beatbox , fashion and even its own
vocabulary.

In its early stages, hip hop musicians created rhythm loops with two decks taking soul, funk,
R&B and rock records. They selected breaks (short segments in which the drums play a base) from a
wide variety of sources and created long grooves from these small fragments. Finding rare and little-
known breaks was an essential part of the job of a DJ (disc jockey). Later, the MCs (the “emcee,” the
rapper) began rapping over the groove created by the DJ. Jamaican DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell)
is recognized as one of hip hop's earliest innovators.

The work of many artists contributed to the expansion of hip hop and rap outside of New
York, attracting the attention of the US music industry. and, later, the rest of the world. The song
“Rapper's Delight” (1979), by The Sugar Hill Gang, is perhaps the first rap recording released
commercially and was a great success in 1980, reaching platinum status and obtaining a lot of airplay
in different markets. The influential album “Planet rock” (1982), by Afrika Bambaata, integrated
synthesizers and electronic textures into hip hop.

By 1985, hip hop had achieved worldwide popularity and a number of sub-styles had
developed. Run DMC brought rap to white audiences with the album “Raising hell” (1986). The
Beastie Boys, a trio of white rappers, had a No. 1 album, “License to Ill,” in 1986. “Bigger and
Deffer” (1987), by LL Cool J, also reached a large audience. “Fear of a black planet” (1990), by
Public Enemy, took gangsta rap to the mainstream. Other rappers more linked to the mainstream
also had hits in the 90s: MC Hammer (Stanley Burrell), Dr. Dre, Ice T, Easy-E, MC Ren and
Notorious B.I.G. among others. Contemporary hip hop has mixed and fused with a wide variety of
styles, including jazz, funk, rock and world music . (MORETTI, p. 19)

Rapper's Delight (1979), The Sugar Hill Gang - Good Times , Chic - Another one bites
the dust , Queen / The deuce (1981), Kurtis Blow / Planet Rock (1982), Afrika Bambaata / The
message (1982), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five / Raising hell (1986), Run DMC / License
to ill (1986), Beastie Boys / Fear of a black planet (1990), Public Enemy / Cypress Hill (1991),
Cypress Hill / The chronic (1992) , Dr. Dre / Me against the world (1995), 2Pac / The Slim Shady
LP (1999), Eminem / Miss E... so addictive (2001), Missy Elliot / Speakerboxxx/The love below
(2003), Outkast / Donuts (2006), J Dilla

JAMAICA

REGGAE

“Jamaica has a history similar to other colonies in the New World . Christopher Columbus
proclaimed Jamaica, then called Santiago, as a Spanish colony in 1494. The island became a British
crown colony in 1665 and achieved independence in 1962.

Reggae emerged in Jamaica in the late 1960s, from the fusion of R&B and different Jamaican
styles. The poor residents of Trenchtwon, an important neighborhood in the capital city Kingston,
listened to American music on the radio at the same time as vernacular music was part of their daily
lives. Ment was popular in Jamaica in the early 50's. As the role of the bass became more important
within mento ensembles, a new style emerged towards the beginning of the 1960s, called ska , which

American music history - 18

reflected the optimistic and hopeful attitude surrounding the country's independence. Many early ska
musicians, including Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, played instrumental roles in the development of
reggae. In the mid-1960s, a variety of social issues led young musicians to write allusive and critical
lyrics, while at the same time, American soul music became enormously popular in Jamaica. From
these influences, ska transformed into rocksteady, a variation with slower tempos.

Not me (1953), Hubert Porter

Doctor (1957), Count Lasher
Lee Harvey Oswald (1965), The Skatalites
Cry tough (1967), Alton Ellis & The Flames
Ba Ba Boom (1967), Jamaicans
I am the upsetter (1968), Lee Perry

The first reggae recordings were made in the late 60s, in some, such as “Nanny goat” by Larry
Marshall and “No more heartaches” by The Beltons, the tempos were lowered even more than in
rocksteady and a new rhythmic conception appeared. . Chris Blackwell, the producer who founded
Island Records in Jamaica in 1960 and moved to England in 1962, was highly influential in the
development and spread of reggae. The Wailers, a band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and
Bunny Wailer, began as a ska band, then produced rocksteady albums and in 1971 released their first
reggae album, “The best of The Wailers.”

Nanny Goat (1968), Larry Marshall

No More Heartaches (1968), The Beltons
Soul shakedown party (1970), The Wailers
Concrete jungle (1973), The Wailers
Legalize It (1975), Peter Tosh

Reggae became popular in the US in 1972 through the film “The Harder They Come,” which
includes music by Jimmy Cliff, and in 1974 through Eric Clapton’s recording of the song “I Shot the
Sheriff,” by Bob Marley.” (MORETTI, p. 73)

The Harder They Come (1972), Jimmy Cliff

I shot the sheriff (1973), Bob Marley, Eric Clapton
Police and Thieves (1977), The Clash (Junior Murvin)
Walking on the Moon (1979), The Police
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1980), Black Uhuru
Red Red Wine (1983), UB40 (Neil Diamond)

and the dub ?

Black panta (1973), The Upsetters

King Tubby meets rockers uptown (1976), Augustus Pablo

- The key
The concept of rhythmic key has its particularities; It consists of an omnipresent rhythmic
pattern, a kind of musical DNA, that organizes all sound phenomena without the need to be
expressed in any particular instrument (despite which, it is sometimes marked on an instrument
called, precisely, keys ). Regarding Afro-Cuban music: “The rhythms of all the elements of the
ensemble exist in an important relationship with the key. Not only does it control the percussion
instruments, the bass lines, the piano montunos and the accompaniment rhythms, but it also controls
the melodic rhythm, the solos, the fills and the background lines: everything must be in key .”

American music history - 19

(MORETTI, p. 43)

Although there are different keys, the most widespread on the American continent is the son
key , coinciding with the candombe key and even with the Bo Diddley Beat : it consists of a sequence
of 5 sounds organized in two unequal parts, the first of three sounds (sometimes considered strong ,
open or antecedent ; also called Cuban tresillo or, colloquially, 3 3 2 ) and the second of two ( weak ,
closed or consequent ).

The key is one of the great musical mysteries of the world, its origins, its history, its global
omnipresence and its way of functioning musically are the result of numerous studies. However, the
concern for the key and the idea that the study of music corresponds to the study of a rhythmic
formulation seems to be quite recent and, above all, North American.

According to the great musician Mongo Santamaría “in Cuba we simply play, we feel, we don't think
about it. We know that we are in key , because we know that you have to be in key to be a musician.”

Green guava / Don't fence her in / Limbo , Harrold Richardson (Lord Tickler)
Gal a gully , Lord Composer and the Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra
Nebuchanezer , Laurel Aitken
Bo Diddley , Bo Diddley
Willie end the hand jive , Johnny Otis
Not fade away , Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones
Tula's room / Chan chan , Buena Vista Social Club
Candombe , The Shakers
At the back of the net , Mauricio Ubal
Candombe for gardel , Rubén Rada
The Old Mom , Eduardo Mateo

- The “3 3 2”
This small but powerful rhythmic configuration, associated with the first part ( strong ) of the
key of son, candombe, bossa nova, also associated with the rhythms of tango, habanera, milonga,
reggaeton ( dembow ), rock music , among many other musics, presents a “double subdivision of the
binary metric unit, into two halves of four sixteenth notes on one side and into three unequal thirds of
three, three and two sixteenth notes on the other.” (AHARONIÁN (2010), p. 49)

Depending on the notation, it can also be understood as a set of quarter note with dot, quarter
note with dot, and quarter note.

Clocks (2002), Coldplay

Soloist's Milonga (1959), Atahualpa Yupanqui
Goodbye Nonino (1959), Astor Piazzolla
What happened happened , Daddy Yankee

From this figuration, which hides an asynchronous accentuation and suggests a superposition
of unequal meters related to what is called hemiola , boycotting the regularity of the periodic pulse
but suggesting it by absence, a kind of “extended version” usually appears, very commonly used in
cuts , breaks , endings and introductions: a configuration of 3 3 3 3 2 2.

Rock and roll (1971), Led Zeppelin

Beautiful day (2000), U2

American music history - 20

- The “folklores”
Around 1840 approximately, the British William John Thoms (1803 - 1885) coined the term
folklore , Spanishized folklore , to refer to the set of knowledge of the people , a set composed of
music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, recipes, beliefs, customs and cultural traditions. Certain
characteristics of folklore are usually highlighted, such as its anonymous origin and its popular and
traditional condition. In the negotiation of culture (in a broad sense of the word), folklore operates by
regulating the acceptance of new elements and adapting to changes; nothing is folklore in itself, but
rather becomes folklore due to cultural assimilation; It is a process, not a static and immutable fact,
in fact, many of the elements that constitute a folk culture come from previous civilizations and
cultures.

However, “the concept of folklore has been harshly questioned in recent decades (...)
Musicologists generally prefer to talk about popular music, because its condition as such is more
relevant at the level of its study than its condition as folklore. or not. (...) [Lauro] Ayestarán defined
Folklore as «the science that studies the cultural survivals - spiritual and material - of disintegrated
heritages that coexist with existing or current heritages (...) The “ basic note” of folklore -and , of
course, of folk music as a consequence - is the fact of survival . The other characteristics usually
used to define the terrain may or may not exist: a survival can be a traditional , oral , functional ,
collective , anonymous , spontaneous , vulgar fact. But the fundamental thing is that: survival.”
(AHARONIÁN (2010), p. 71)

The theorist Simon Frith attempts another classification, “he defined three stages in the study
of the relationship between music and technology according to the different forms of storage and
retrieval. In a first “ Folk ” stage, the music would be stored in the body and in the musical
instruments and can only be recovered through face-to-face performance. In the second or “ Art ”,
notation intervenes as a form of storage and, although it must be executed for recovery, there it
acquires a new kind of imaginary or ideal existence. In the final or “ Pop ” stage, the music is stored
on phonograms, records or cassettes and recovered mechanically, digitally or electronically. (DI
CIONE, p. 171)

For different reasons, not always clear, on the American continent some music is considered
folklore and others are not (or perhaps they are simply called folklore ), and as expected, there is no
pattern of influences, appropriations and circulation that is omnipresent and explain each situation;
Each case presents its particularities and requires a specific study. In some music the indigenous
component is clearly stronger, in others it is the European component that predominates, sometimes
the rural context is what establishes the differences, and other times, access to certain instruments or
the prohibition of some others is what determines the profile of each music. In any case, such
musical diversity, a product of miscegenation, cultural fusion and contrast, misunderstandings and
even looting, is what leads many to prefer to avoid the term American music (or for that matter
Argentine music , or any other nationality) and favor the plural idea of music in America .

How to determine, if it were possible, the nationality of a music, is a complicated matter, and
such an operation probably responds to factors that are not strictly musical (although in truth we are
not sure that such factors exist either); It is known that the socio-political-economic borders (if in
this globalized planet, or globalized , these categories typical of the nation-states of modernism
continue to be applicable) do not always coincide with the musical borders.

“That is why I repeat that we should not fear and that we should think that our heritage is the
universe; rehearse all the themes, and we cannot confine ourselves to what is Argentine in order to
be Argentine: because either being Argentine is a fatality and in that case we will be so anyway, or
being Argentine is a mere affectation, a mask.” Jorge Luis Borges

American music history - 21

- A brief (and not very rigorous) tour of some folk (or not so folk) music from the
American continent:

- Joropo: popular musical and dance style in Venezuela and Colombia. Cultivated by Creoles,
mulattos, mestizos and indigenous people, its musical roots are considered to be in the Spanish
fandango and, in part, in the waltz . The traditional instruments in their interpretation are the llanera
harp, the bandola (string instrument, there are different varieties: four simple orders, six doubles,
four triples and two doubles, etc.), the cuatro (string instrument with four orders simple) and
maracas. In the past, the term joropo was used to refer to parties and social and family gatherings.
There are also different types of joropo according to geographical regions.

Green Bird , Cecilia Todd

- Vallenato: it is an indigenous Colombian genre and is traditionally performed with a diatonic

accordion (of Austrian origin), guacharaca (kind of striper) and vallenata box (single-head drum, of
African origin). There are different airs or vallenato rhythms: the stroll, the merengue, the puya, the
son and the tumbara.

A thousand loves , Beto Zabaleta and Emilio Oviedo

- Cumbia: traditional music from Colombia and Panama, the result of the syncretism of three
cultural aspects: the indigenous, the African and the European (Spanish), although also the subject of
dispute between indigenous and Africanists. Like many others, the term cumbia is assigned various
original meanings: “black party and dance,” “rejoicing,” “drums,” etc. Among the most traditional
instruments that appear in cumbia we can find a set of drums ( caller , alejandro , tumbara ), cana
de millo or gaitas (aerophone blowing instruments, not to be confused with the European bagpipe),
maracas and guache (percussion instrument cylindrical, its sound is close to that of the maracas or
the rain stick). Since the 1940s, cumbia has opened its doors in much of the center and south of the
continent, developing new cumbiero sounds in different countries, for example Peru (even with a
psychedelic side, linked to the electric guitar and rock of the 1960s, chicha ) or Argentina.

Planting coffee , Alberto Pacheco and his group

Cumbia is calling , Gastón “El isleño” with Jaime Simanca's El Conjunto
Amazonian sound , Blackbirds
Linda Nena , Juaneco and their combo

- Carnavalito: is a traditional dance and music from northern Argentina, part of Bolivia, Peru and
Chile among other countries. It existed before the arrival of the Spanish to the continent, although it
later adopted some features from other dances. The instruments traditionally used are the quena (a
blow aerophone, the pinkullo , the tarka and the anata may also appear), the charango (a plucked
and strummed string instrument with five double orders), the erke (a large blow instrument, kind of
large cornet, similar to the Mapuche trutruca and the Alpine horn ) , the erkencho (small blowing
instrument), the chayera box (double-headed percussion instrument, with “bordonas” on the lower
head [not percussed] ), the bass drum and the siku (a pre-Inca aerophone instrument, consisting of
two rows of reeds of different sizes, familiar from the zampoña [not to be confused with the hurdy-
gurdy , a European bowed string instrument] and many other Andean instruments such as the antara
and the rounder , European or Asian [they are usually called pan flute ]).

The Humahuaqueño , Edmundo Zaldivar

- Paraguayan polka: although it takes the name of the European polka, it is not related to this genre.
The Paraguayan polka is traditionally performed with guitar and Paraguayan harp (diatonic), its first

American music history - 22

appearances date back to the 19th century and it is usually considered reminiscent of the music of the
Guaraní indigenous people but also of the music performed by the Jesuit missionaries of the colonial
era (evangelizers). sent by the religious order Company of Jesus). The Paraguayan polka finds its
slow and melancholic version in the guarania, created in 1925, and its most current drift in the
advanced, created in the 1980s and incorporating influences from bossa nova.

Memories of Ypacaraí , Trio Los Panchos

- Some other American music:

Bolivia: Bailecito, Tonada, Cueca, Caporal

Colombia: Paseo, Chotis, Corridor, Bambuco, Merengue
Peru: Landó, Marinera, Zamacueca, Festejo, Peruvian Waltz
Costa Rica: Guanacaste Point, Tambito
Mexico: Sinaloan band, Northern ensemble, Ranchera
Puerto Rico: Full, Bomb
Dominican Republic: Bachata, Merengue
Cuba: Bolero, Salsa, Rumba
Jamaica: Dub, Mento, Rocksteady

- The nationalisms

Along with the independence movements and the creation of nation-states, since the beginning
of the 19th century there has been a phenomenon of musical nationalism in many regions that
recovers and tries to put in the foreground, within the tradition of cultured (or written) music , or
academic, or continental European), regional elements linked to vernacular traditions. It also works
as a reaction to Germanic supremacy in the musical field.

Nationalisms operated in different ways depending on the region and found different solutions
to the problems posed over time. In the case of the Hungarian Béla Bártok, for example, there was
talk of imaginary folklore .

“The largest geographical area added to the European scope is the American continent. The
three centuries of conquest and colony and the subsequent period of neocolony have not only
destroyed the aboriginal cultures, but have produced a strange mixture of three major aspects: the
indigenous, the Western European, and the aguisimbia - whose immigration was forced by the cycle
of slavery means another ignominious page in the history of expansionism. America is therefore
musically a mixture of three very differentiated and very varied aspects, and it is also a
heterogeneous mixture, in which the proportions of one aspect and the other are always different in
each place, although in all cases the model imposed as a reference It is the European. By 1900,
America had already gone through the long process of forced acculturation established since the 16th
century, it had faced the cultural vacuum generated in the revolutionary Creoles by the confrontation
with the European metropolis, and it had entered a neocolonial stage in which Europe had returned to
impose itself as a cultural reference in the face of the generation of substitute models by the
intelligence of the new states. In other words, around 1900, America was a territory won for the
music of European culture at all levels, with particularities inherent to its mestizo condition that
would in any case be subject to the European rules of the game. A final process will cause some
internal differentiations: the United States of America will gradually choose to assume a continuation
of the political-economic role of Europe, which will separate them from the so-called Latin America
not only on that level but also, in some way, in the cultural. (...) This panorama will be different in
the field of popular music, in which, after the Second World War, the United States will try to

American music history - 23

become the generating center of world models par excellence, gradually displacing the old and crafty
Europe.” (AHARONIÁN [2012], p. 93)

“As the 19th century progresses, we can distinguish with increasing clarity two bodies of
American music and two attitudes towards music: the cultured and vernacular traditions begin to be
seen in a differentiated way and over time a profound split occurs in musical culture. from the USA
Thus, on the one hand, a vernacular tradition of utilitarian and entertainment music continues to
develop, which remains distant from philosophical artistic idealism; a music based on a firmly
established or recently disseminated American raw material; “popular” music in the broadest sense
(...) On the other hand, a cultured tradition of artistic music emerges that maintains a significant
relationship with moral, artistic or cultural idealism; a music based almost exclusively on continental
European raw materials and patterns, considered with respect (...) The United States of the early
nineteenth century was ripe for romanticism (...) The average American may not have realized the
concepts philosophical aspects of romanticism - idealism, imagination, limitless horizon, personal
freedom, individualism - but his entire way of life and his thoughts reflected them. And his musical
attitude was equally ready to be molded by romantic lines.” (HITCHCOCK, p. 60)

“A nationalist work would be, in short, the product of the voluntary conjugation of the
academic musical tradition of the West with the popular - or popular - (traditional rural, urban
popular or indigenous) of a given country.” (PLESCH, p. 198)

- Some pending issues

The history of record companies. The ban on drums. The instruments of the big bands. The
dances. The vocal ensembles. The singer-songwriters. The new Latin American song.
Fusion/projection music. Cult music. Colonial music. Pre-Columbian music. The new immigration
waves of the late 20th century. Rock and dictatorships. Rock and Malvinas. The idea of Latin music .
Urban music. Internet and the mp3 format.

American music history - 24

- Bibliography

- AHARONIÁN, Coriún. “Introduction to music.” Tacuabe. 2012 [1981].

- AHARONIÁN, Coriún. “Popular music of Uruguay”. Tacuabe. 2010 [2007].
- ALTAMIRANDA, Manuel. The caste system , in “Afro-descendant Dignity”, year 1, no. 7. 2014.
- CARPENTIER, Alejo. “Music in Cuba.” Cuban Letters Editorial. 1988 [1945].
- CIRIO, Norberto Pablo. Absent with notice. What is Afro-Argentine music? , in “Popular music:
Theoretical, methodological and analytical approaches in Argentine musicology. UNC. 2008.
- DI CIONE, Lisa. An alchemist of success? The process of consolidation of the artistic producer
as a key figure of rock in Argentina , in “Revista Argentina de musicología”, No. 10. 2009.
- HITCHCOCK, H. Wiley. “Music in the United States of America.” Victor Leru Editorial. 1972
[1969].
- JONES, Leroi. “Black Music.” Black Box. 2014 [1959]
- MACHADO, Hugo (et al). “The touch of candombe”. Mel Bay Publications. 2002.
- MALSON, Lucien. “The masters of jazz.” University Publishing House of Buanos Aires. 1961
[1950].
- MATEO, Luz Marina. In the line of fire: black people and the policies of denial , in “Afro-
descendant Dignity”, year 1, no. 7. 2014.
- MOOREFIELD, Emily. Introduction , in “Afro-Cuban rhythms for drumset”. Alfred Music
Publishing. 1994.
- MOOREFIELD, Emily. Introduction , in “Brazilian rhythms for drumset”. Alfred Music
Publishing. 1993.
- MORETTI, Dan (et al). “Essential Grooves”. Sher Music. 2010.
- PINTOS, Arnoldo. “Teaching of quena, pinkullo, siku and other instruments from northern
Argentina.” Arnoldo Pintos Editions. 1992.
- PLESCH, Melanie. The abandoned ranch. Some reflections on the beginnings of musical
nationalism in Argentina , in “Proceedings of the IV Conference on Theory and History of the
Arts.” 1992.
- QUIJANO, Anibal. Coloniality of power, Eurocentrism and Latin America , in “The coloniality
of power: Eurocentrism and social sciences. Latin American perspectives.
UNESCO/CLACSO. 2000

American music history - 25