Origin and Growth of Latin Jazz

Latin jazz is a style of music that is a combination of rhythms Latin and African American countries with classical and jazz harmonies from the Caribbean, Latin American, the United States and Europe. It has two main categories which are the Afro-Cuban and the Brazilian types of Latin jazz music. They have various components of this music genre since they represent their country of origin. The fusion of the two was the birth of Latin jazz which to many is a beautiful and sweet kind of music.

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Latin jazz was invented as a result of interactions between Cuban and American styles of music. Latin jazz was influenced in the 20th century; the home of the invention was New Orleans where the Latin American style was endowed with distinctive syncopated rhythmic character. Jelly Roll Morton in a comment described this Latin influence terming it as the "Spanish tinge" of jazz. At this time it was known by many and was a good pianist as well as a good composer. In this time, some musicians who were Americans were using Cuban style of habanera rhythm which was four-beat syncopated pattern while composing. An example is W.C. Handy who at that time used it to compose "St. Louis Blues" (1914).

Latin jazz was a name coined in the 1950s, and it is the American media who were responsible. It was a simplified description that was used to describe an elaborate musical which was a melting point. The pot has always contained divers cultural cauldron where Latin jazz has band leaders representing both small and big groups who still modify it by adding their traditions from different ancestral countries to add more flavor. Youngsters and veteran musicians influenced the growth since they influenced it through their originality.

In the years that were before 1940, Latin American songs and their dances advanced more towards the north into the United States; American jazz was also being spread in the areas of Caribbean, Central, and South America. Dancers in collaboration with different artists in this whole region got comfortable with the two melodic dialects, and also the large groups who were there in this times extended their frequency to incorporate both rumbas and the congas styles, which are dance music in Afro-Cuban (Washburne, & Christopher, 64). The improvements established an excellent framework to combine jazz with Cuban music which was done under the melodic directorship of Cuban known as Mario Bauza. The procedure started to work out in 1940 in New York City, and there was the foundation of both Machito and the Afro-Cubans symphony. Some jazz haters recognized Latin music in the 1940s when Bauza's tune "Tanga" was released, and they found it to be entertaining and loveable.

In 1911, a musician and his name were Bauza. Havana was his birthplace. He had the opportunity to study his music at a neighborhood studio; he joined later the Havana Symphony when he was 16 years in age. He joined a local band where he played and also developed his jazz. He then moved to the city of New York in 1930, and here he played with a colleague who was a vocalist and also a bandleader by the name Noble Sissle. He later progressed and became Chick Webb Orchestra music director; he was playing the trumpet and the saxophone too in different bands which include the group of Don Redman, the band of Fletcher Henderson, and the band of Cab Calloway.

The sound of Machito was a significant inspiration to the piano player and bandleader Stan Kenton, who started exploring different avenues regarding a blend of enormous sounds for the jazz band, studied the percussion instrument which later helped him recode both "The Peanut Vendor" and the "Cuban Carnival" in 1947. During this time, Dizzy Gillespie, who was one among the pioneers of this new jazz style at the time that was known as bebop, he decided to join the rhythm dance of Afro-Cuban with the components bebop. He depended mainly on the direction of Cuban composer, percussionist, and dancer Chano Pozo. For a brief period, Gillespie and Pozo's melodic blend was given the name Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop." In 1947 they did one of their musical collaborations which were a hit, and it was called "Manteca," and it rapidly turned into a standard in the jazz collection.

After Afro-Cuban jazz was developed, it proceeded with its growth life in the 1950s. Norman Granz who was a producer recorded a fruitful Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite in December 1950; the jazz included the Machito and it ensemble alongside Flip Phillips who was on tenor saxophone, the soloists was Charlie Parker, and he was on the alto saxophone, Harry ("Sweets") Edison was on the trumpet and Buddy Rich was on the drums, with Arturo ("Chico") O'Farrill responsible with the arrangement. Artists back in Cuba were busy developing a new style too, their leaders were musicians Frank Emilio Flynn and with his colleague Ramon ("Bebo") Valdes. Valdes' "Con Poco Coco," discharged in 1952, turned into the principal suddenly extemporized Afro-Cuban jam sessions which were of known recordings.

At this time crowds were increasing in the shows and monetary motivations for performers decreased during the 1950s, the large and known bands started to disintegrate. Afro-Cuban jazz name shifted to Latin jazz, in all probability for advertising reasons for the music and it began to be performed by individuals who were less. Piano player George Shearing together with Cal Tjader who was a percussionist became the pioneers of this pattern in Latin jazz on the West Coast of the United States. They drove little combos, delivered various recordings; they also highlighted other noticeable Latin jazz entertainers, for example, Eddie Cano who was a pianist, Al McKibbon who was a bassist, and Willie Bobo who was a percussionist.

Drummers of Afro-Cuban music assumed an inside job to improve Latin jazz years starting from the late 1940s through to the 1960s; they gave endless stream to the genre, and it developed its phrasing, rhythmic patterns, and also its styles. Bongo and conga drummer like; Mongo Santamaria, Candido Camero, Armando Peraza, Jose ("Buyu") MangualCarlos ("Patato") Valdes, and Francisco Aguabella become ever-present for Latin jazz jam sessions and also did the recordings in those years (Warden, & Nolan, 12). Percussionist and bandleader Tito Puente promoted the utilization of the vibraphone in Latin jazz and the timbales. This is single-headed drums which have a metal casing. The players playing it utilized sticks and they strike the heads as well as the metal edges and found on the sides of the instruments; this made the timbales to add distinct timbres into the rhythm of the music component.

A new musical style started arising in the 1960s from Brazil and touched base in the United States. It was called the syncopated, and it accompanied bossa nova ("new trend"). Many built up Latin jazz artists including the bossa nova tunes of Antonio Carlos Jobim to their collection. (Albeit once in a while included under the rubric of Latin jazz, this combination of the Brazilian type of music with jazzes legitimately it grew on its own and was named Brazilian jazz).

Years following the 1970s, the improvement of Latin jazzes was described by the inclusion of various customs from different nations and the way the musical connects on the borders. Upcoming musicians extended the Afro-Cuban establishment to the music by including components from other Latin American customs. Also, as an influx of youthful instrumentalists (which included entertainers on saxophone, woodwind, piano, and the trumpet) which brought out the stating and active verbalization of Cuban and the Puerto Rican themes and songs to the music and it's the style's prior reliance on percussionists started to reduce. The Cuban symphony Irakere out stood to be among the significant groups of the decade. Driven by musician Jesus ("Chucho") Valdes (child of Bebo Valdes) and including soloists like; trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and clarinetist-saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera who groups were perceived for their creative fusion of rock, jazz, Afro-Cuban, funk and classical western music.

During the 1980s, a band named Fort Apache that was based New York City which was under Jerry Gonzalez the percussionist and also trumpeter and his sibling, Andy Gonzalez who was a bassist offered audience members the return of Latin-bebop combined with the Latin jazz from jazz musician and arranger Thelonious Monk (Washburne, & Christopher J, 413). Around the end of the twentieth century, the Latin jazz soloists and instrumentalist asserted the spotlight, and at this time various extraordinary entertainers, saxophonists, and percussionists rose. In the meantime, Chucho Valdes turned into a noticeable pioneer of little troupes. Later illuminating presences incorporate piano players, saxophonist, and drummers. Latin jazz kept on picking up prominence and essential praise, and by the mid-21st century it had turned out to be a standout amongst the unique and different parts of the jazz world.

Works cited

Warden, Nolan. "A History of the Conga Drum." Percussive Notes 43 (2005): 8-15.

Washburne, Christopher. "The clave of jazz: A Caribbean contribution to the rhythmic foundation of an African-American music." Black Music Research Journal 17.1 (1997): 59-80.

Washburne, Christopher J. "Latin Jazz: the other jazz." (2002): 409-426.