Mambo Kingdon: Latin Music in New York

by Max Salazar

Overview

Shortly after Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, they began moving into an uptown Manhattan neighborhood that would become known as "Spanish Harlem." By 1930, Afro-Cuban music had gained a firm foothold in the city, setting the stage for the mambo, boogaloo, salsa and Latin-jazz scenes that followed. In this collection of profiles and essays, Max Salazar, perhaps the most eminent Latin-music historian in the United States, tells the story of the music and the musicians who made it happen, including Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodriguez, Charlie and Eddie Palmieri, Hector Lavoe and many others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857125026
Publisher:	Schirmer Trade Books
Publication date:	10/07/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	309
File size:	6 MB

Table of Contents

	Foreword	V
	Preface	IX
	The Development of Latin Music in New York City	1
	Rafael Hernandez	13
	Gabriel Oller	19
	Conjunto Caney	27
	Alberto Izanaga	31
	Miguelito Valdes	37
	Alberto Socarras	51
	Anselmo Sacasas	59
	Marcelino "Rapindey" Guerra	63
	Noro Morales	69
	Joe Loco	75
	Federico Pagani	81
	The Palladium	87
	Jose Curbelo	95
	Monchito Munoz	101
	John "Big Daddy" Rodriguez	105
	Tito Rodriguez	111
	Tito Puente	125
	Jimmy Frisaura	133
	Frankie Colon	139
	Vicentico Valdes	143
	Vitin Aviles	147
	Gilberto Monroig	151
	Santitos Colon	155
	Tony Molina	159
	Orlando Marin	163
	La Lupe	169
	Two Centuries of Charanga	175
	Jose Fajardo	187
	Charlie Palmieri	193
	Joe Quijano	205
	Eddy Zervigon	209
	Hector Rivera	219
	Tony Pabon	223
	Joe Cuba	227
	Willie Torres	239
	Cheo Feliciano	243
	Joe Bataan	249
	Salsa Origins	255
	Jerry Masucci	261
	The Corso	265
	Willie Rosario	269
	Hector Lavoe	273
	Willie Rodriguez	279
	Index	283

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
No other American music has been so haphazardly documented as Latin music. Yes, you read that sentence correctly -- this music, whose roots run back to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Africa, is American music. But unlike jazz, soul, blues, or rock 'n' roll, you have to look hard to find any authoritative work on this sound that grew out of the melting pot of New York City. That's where historian Max Salazar's Mambo Kingdom begins, and through dozens of interviews with figures great and small, the book traces the arc of Latin music from its inception at neighborhood socials in turn-of-the-century East (Spanish) Harlem through the glitzy mambo era to rise of salsa in the gritty '70s. A journalist and radio show host intimately connected with the music for more than 50 years, Salazar draws upon primary sources to get at the daily details of the development of the music that was to take over the globe. The 40-plus chapters are reprinted from Salazar's articles for Latin Beat and other magazines, mostly from the late '90s. But the interviews themselves stretch back three decades or more. Through his friendship with bandleader and vocalist Frank "Machito" Grillo, Salazar learned stories of the music's early days from those who were there -- Miguelito Valdes, onetime vocalist with Xavier Cugat's orchestra and one of the first Latin heartthrobs to find fame in the U.S.; Alberto Socarras, one of the most sought-after Latino musicians of the 1930s; Gabriel Oller, proprietor of El Barrio's venerable Spanish Music Center record shop; and many others. His own recollections of the Palladium, the dance hall that defined Latin music in New York during the mambo era in the '50s, and later trends in the music lend the weight of experience to his observations. He speaks with the wife of famed vocalist Tito Rodriguez, the longtime director of the Tito Puente orchestra, and sidemen who relay the unvarnished truth about the big stars and big rivalries. Best of all, Salazar is a gracious interviewer who lets his subjects speak for themselves, and often. The only caveat with Mambo Kingdom is that it only occasionally follows up on its subjects, many of whom have passed away since the original printing of these articles. But the value of the documents that result from Salazar's labors -- rare English-language primary source material -- makes them invaluable to both the scholar and the casual fan of Latin music. Mark Schwartz

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