Changüí in Guantánamo: A Company Memory

Our relationships in Cuba are part of how we learn. Adrian Valdivia recorded this visit to Guantánamo, with Amanda Gill, Paul and other principal DC Casineros dancers present. Adrian remembers the song as an homage to Haiti and its people’s struggle—a reminder that music also carries solidarity and community memory.

Son Cubano: The Genre and Its Dance Traditions

Son Cubano is a musical genre. Its dance traditions include rural Son practices, Son Tradicional, Son Urbano and Casino, each with its own history of movement and social exchange.

Casino belongs to the Son dance lineage and also carries relationships with earlier Cuban partner dances, including danzón and cha-cha-chá. The dance, the music accompanying it and the commercial category salsa describe different aspects of this history.

When a couple dances Casino to an Arsenio Rodríguez Son, Son names the music and Casino names the dance. With Los Van Van’s songo or a timba performance, the musical name changes while the couple may continue dancing Casino. Naming the orchestra, rhythm and dance separately clarifies that relationship. Follow Casino’s dance history. ¹⁶

1939: Aragón, Cienfuegos and the dance clubs

Orquesta Aragón built its early audience in Cienfuegos. Its first dance engagement was on October 9, 1939, at Ramón Rodríguez’s house. The orchestra went on to play at Sociedad Minerva, a Black and mixed-race association, and at the Club de Estibadores, Club Progresista and other local venues. Under Orestes Aragón, its early repertoire included danzones, waltzes, danzas, pasodobles, guarachas and boleros. Regional dance communities helped sustain the orchestra before its success in Havana. Aragón’s history, 1939–1959, by Alegna Jacomino Ruiz and Eduardo Torres-Cuevas.

A history of Cuban music also follows the people who organized dances, filled the floor and supported musicians. Black social associations belong in that history alongside the orchestras. Explore race, class and access to the dance floor.

Miguelito Cuní and Félix Chappottín: the voice and trumpet of Son

In the early 1950s, trumpeter Félix Chappottín took the lead of the Havana conjunto that continued Arsenio Rodríguez’s work after his departure for the United States. Singer Miguelito Cuní and pianist and arranger Luis “Lilí” Martínez Griñán helped give Chappottín y sus Estrellas its distinctive sound: the trumpet’s ringing phrases, Cuní’s sonero voice and Lilí’s piano and arrangements.

Their music remained central to Cuban dancing through the 1960s and 1970s. El Carbonero, by Iván Fernández, belongs to that repertoire, alongside La Guarapachanga and Alto Songo. Explore the recordings and composer credits.

1953: Enrique Jorrín, the orchestra and the dancers

In 1953, Orquesta América recorded Enrique Jorrín’s La Engañadora and Silver Star for Panart. In his June 17, 1987 conversation with Fabio Betancur, Jorrín explained how dancers sang with the orchestra and how unison vocals gave its music a distinct timbre. He recalled different charanga voices—Arcaño, Fajardo, Cheo Belén Puig and Antonio María Romeu—recognizable through flute, piano and arranging. Jorrín’s 1987 interview.

1950s: one party, several ways of dancing

A fiesta de quince could bring rehearsed choreography and spontaneous social dancing into the same celebration. Young people prepared formations in couples, lines and circles, then danced to the popular music of their time. The organized birthday presentation and the dancing that followed gave them different ways to coordinate with a partner and a group. Quince parties and their choreography, from 21:37.

The soundtrack ranged across danzón, Son, guaracha, cha-cha-chá and bolero, alongside imported rock and roll and swing. A change of music could call for a change of step, hold or accent. Casino emerged among people who already moved between these dances, bringing familiar figures into new relationships with a couple and a rueda. Ayllón on the party repertoire, from 3:23.

Records and radio carried the music into homes, while television supplied movements to imitate. Young people could practice with relatives and bring the steps to their next party, so learning continued between public performances, family gatherings and the dance floor. Home listening and learning, from 22:41.

Late-1950s Havana: a tiempo and contratiempo

The first-generation dancers on Otros tiempos recall a distinction in Havana in the late 1950s and early 1960s: their early Casino was danced a tiempo, alongside Son bailadores who danced a contratiempo. They also discuss regional differences in Son. Their account connects the placement of the steps with particular dancers and communities.

In the demonstration, the partners compare these two ways of placing their steps against the musical pulse. Watch when each dancer transfers weight and how the couple maintains its connection. Watch the a tiempo / contratiempo demonstration, from 11:57.

Continue with the dancers’ account of danzón, fiestas de quince and the spontaneous social rueda.

Different paths inside and outside Cuba

In Cuba, Son, changüí, rumba and Afro-Cuban religious traditions formed part of a musical life shared by instrumentalists, composers and dancers. Orchestras created from that environment and developed individual identities: Aragón’s charanga, Revé’s orchestral changüí, Los Van Van’s songo and Irakere’s combinations of jazz, funk and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Listening to their arrangements reveals those differences.

Outside Cuba, much of the early repertoire marketed as salsa was built by re-recording Cuban songs and reproducing established ensemble models. La Sonora Matancera was a particularly influential model. In his 1995 interview with Leonardo Padura, Pacheco explained that fewer arriving Cuban musicians had made it difficult to find violinists with the rhythmic training needed for charangas. He also acknowledged that his conjunto, which became his focus in 1964, played in the styles of La Sonora Matancera, Arsenio Rodríguez and Chapotín. ³⁶

1977–1978: new repertoire and distinctive voices

Rubén Blades and Héctor Lavoe brought new writing and distinctive interpretation to the repertoire circulating as salsa. Blades wrote El Cantante in New York in 1977; Lavoe recorded it for Comedia in 1978, with Willie Colón producing. ⁴⁸, ⁴⁹

Blades later explained how Lavoe’s interpretation connected the song’s account of a singer’s life with personal experience, giving the new composition its emotional immediacy. ⁴⁸

Recordings from abroad also reached listeners in Cuba and became part of the island’s listening culture. Cuban musicians listened outward too: in 2000, Leonel Limonta named Gilberto Santa Rosa, Oscar D’León and Grupo Niche among his songwriting influences. The exchange involved new compositions, interpretations and arranging ideas as well as older Cuban repertoire. ⁴³

Timba: Cuban orchestras and the Special Period

Timba grew from decades of innovation within Cuban popular music. Ritmo Oriental, Los Van Van and Irakere helped create its foundations before the economic crisis of the 1990s. During the Special Period, a new generation developed those ideas into distinct orchestral sounds. ¹¹

The 1970s: Ritmo Oriental and Irakere

Ritmo Oriental belongs among timba’s formative orchestras. Its charanga sound combined melodic bass lines with tightly coordinated rhythmic breaks, or bloques. In Sabroseao con la Ritmo, Humberto Perera’s bass anchors the groove; the band also stretches and changes tempo in passages played con efecto. These collective changes of rhythm and tension anticipated important features of later timba arranging. ²⁶, ²⁷

Chucho Valdés founded Irakere in 1973. The ensemble combined Afro-Cuban rhythmic traditions with jazz, funk, electric instruments and classical music. Percussionist and singer Oscar Valdés helped shape a rhythm section bringing batá, congas and drum set together. Bacalao con pan, included on Irakere’s first LP in 1974, offers an early point of entry into its dance music. ²⁸, ²⁹, ³¹

Bebop horn writing and the route to NG La Banda

Chucho described his approach as combining Afro-Cuban music and bebop, and named Dizzy Gillespie’s musical vocabulary as a major influence. Irakere’s musicians transformed that vocabulary through Cuban rhythm and arranging. ³⁰

Irakere’s Chékere-son (1976) rearranged phrases from Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce (1945) around clave. That agile horn language continued in NG La Banda in the late 1980s, led by former Irakere flautist José Luis “El Tosco” Cortés, with former Irakere horn players including Carlos Averhoff, Germán Velazco and José Miguel “El Greco” Crego. ³¹

NG La Banda became a major point of departure for 1990s timba. Giraldo Piloto and Issac Delgado carried experience from NG into their own projects. Lázaro Valdés also traced Bamboleo’s beginnings to a project directed by Cortés. These connections link the orchestras while leaving room for each group’s own musical language. ³⁹, ⁴¹

1991–1992: Charanga Habanera’s own approach

David Calzado, formerly a Ritmo Oriental violinist, and pianist-arranger Juan Carlos González developed Charanga Habanera’s new direction in 1991–1992, combining son and rumba with funk, R&B and pop influences. In Giraldo Piloto’s Me sube la fiebre, recorded for Fiebre de amor (1992), González used unison horn passages inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire. He also developed complementary piano and synthesizer patterns, drawing on funk-guitar phrasing. Calzado shaped the choreography and stage presentation. ³⁴

1992–1997: Paulito FG and his Élite

Paulito FG and saxophonist, arranger and musical director Juan Manuel Ceruto began their partnership in 1992. They developed songs through rehearsal and public performance before completing the recordings. ³²

On Con la conciencia tranquila (1997), Ceruto’s horn arrangements meet Alexander Abreu’s trumpet, Sergio Noroña’s piano, Joel Domínguez’s bass, Tomás Cruz’s congas and Yoel Páez’s drums. Cruz develops conga patterns tailored to individual songs, while Noroña’s piano and Domínguez’s bass form interlocking rhythmic lines beneath the horn arrangements. ³², ³³

The 1990s and beyond: selling an image of Cuban music

Tourism markets an image of Cuba along with its music. During the 1990s, timba’s contemporary urban energy and the nostalgic presentation associated with Buena Vista Social Club offered international audiences very different pictures of the island. Those competing images could shape what visitors expected to hear and which musicians became visible abroad. Music and tourism in the 1990s, by Vincenzo A. Perna.

In Decadencia, Luis Ayllón follows that commercial logic into the dance class: a school abroad could attract students through the already familiar word salsa, while the name Casino required explanation. His concern is how a name and a teaching method travel together, passing from teachers to students who may later become teachers themselves. The label can circulate faster than the history of the dance it sells. Teaching across generations, from 7:32 · The marketable name, from 9:14.

His account also returns to Adalberto Álvarez and the participating public: the orchestra, the couple and the rueda brought back into the same television encounter. The revival discussion, from 9:48.

Explore commercialization, dance teaching and cultural erosion in the dance history.

2003–2006: Adalberto Álvarez and the bailadores

Adalberto Álvarez, El Caballero del Son, made music for a participating public. In a 2021 interview, he described his greatest satisfaction as seeing a full dance floor and the joy, expressions and movements of the bailadores. The musicians’ work found its response in the people dancing. Adalberto on Son and his dancing public.

After the timba boom of the 1990s, he helped renew the visibility of Casino and partner dancing. His 2003 album Para bailar casino joined a television initiative developed with Víctor Torres, bringing live orchestras and ruedas together. The program put the dancers and their Cuban tradition at the center of the musical encounter. The 2003 television project.

In the following demonstration, Pepe Argote leads casineros from different generations, linking older dancers with adults and children learning the same shared vocabulary. The music accompanies a tradition transmitted through families, neighborhoods and the rueda.

Follow the dance history: the 1978 program, Rosendo and Caruca, Los Hermanos Santos and Adalberto’s later revival.

Monguito “El Único”: Son has its own name

Ramón Quián, known as Monguito “El Único,” carried Son from Cuba to New York. He worked with Arsenio Rodríguez and Johnny Pacheco, bringing a singing style rooted in Cuban Son Montuno. Read more about Monguito’s musical career.

On his 1982 LP Monguito (Toboga 613), he rejected replacing Son’s name with “salsa.” No le llames Salsa a mi Son makes the music itself a defense of its Cuban name and identity. Díaz-Ayala discography, Florida International University.

Juan Formell and Adalberto Álvarez: call the music by its name

Juan Formell also challenged the salsa label. In an archived discussion on the Cuban television program Mi Salsa, he said: “Mi trabajo, el que hago yo, no se llama salsa.” He objected to a commercial name being applied to his work and insisted on identifying it as Cuban music. Read the account of Formell’s television discussion.

Adalberto Álvarez called on DJs, radio announcers, television presenters and dance teachers to name Son Montuno, Guaracha, Mambo and Cha-cha-chá accurately. In June 2020, he made that appeal as a way to do justice to the rhythms’ creators and their history. Later that year, he rejected treating salsa as a genre and emphasized Son’s foundational place in Cuban music. His June 2020 appeal · November 2020 OnCuba interview.

Orchestra reference: distinct sounds across generations

Son ensembles, conjuntos, charangas and big bands developed distinct sounds in Cuba. Arsenio Rodríguez, La Sonora Matancera, Beny Moré, Aragón, Revé and Los Van Van shaped changes in instrumentation, rhythm, arranging and repertoire.

Influence travels through musicians, compositions and arranging ideas. These orchestras reshaped the relationship between horns, piano, bass, percussion and voices, giving Cuban dancers distinct musical possibilities across generations.