- This article is about Mambo dance and musical style. See Mambo (disambiguation) for other usages of the name.
Mambo is a Cuban dance style and musical form. The word mambo (conversation with the gods) is the name of a priestess in Haitian Voodoo, derived from the language of the African slaves that were imported into the Caribbean.
History
The history of modern mambo begins in 1938, when a danzon called "Mambo" was written by Orestes Lopez. The song was a danzon, descended from European ballroom dances like the English country dance, French contredanse and Spanish contradanza, but it used rhythms derived from African folk music. The contradanza had arrived in Cuba in the 18th century, where it became known as danza and grew very popular. The arrival of black Haitians later that century changed the face of contradanza, adding a syncopation called cinquillo (which is also found in another contradanza-derivative, Argentine tango).
By the end of the 19th century, contradanza had grown lively and energetic, unlike its European counterpart, and was then known as danzon. The 1877 song "Las alturas de Simpson" was one of many tunes that created a wave of popularity for danzon. One part of the danzon was a coda which became improvised overtime. The bands then were brass (orquestra tipica), but was followed by smaller groups called charangas.
The most influential charanga was that of Antonio Arcano, who flourished in the late 1930s. It was Arcano's cellist, Orestes Lopez, whose "Mambo" was the first modern song of the genre.
In the late 1940s, a musician named Perez Prado came up with the dance for the mambo and became the first person to market his music as "mambo". After Havana, Prado moved his music to Mexico, and then New York City. Along the way, his style became increasingly homogenized in order to appeal to mainstream American listeners.
Following in the footsteps of Prado came a wave of mambo musicians, such as Enrique Jorrin. Some experimented with new techniques, such as faster beats and the use of side steps in the dance; this latter innovation formed the foundation of chachachá, and was the result of Jorrin's experimentation. Chachachá was very pop-oriented, especially after Arthur Murray further simplified the dance. Mambo remained popular throughout the United States and Cuba until the 1960s, when a combination of boogaloo and pachanga (both modified forms of mambo) were created.
Some of New York's biggest mambo bands of the 50s included Mambo Aces, Killer Joe Piro, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina, Cuban Pete, Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Jose Curbelo.
By the mid-1950's mambo mania had reached fever pitch. In New York the mambo was played in a high-strung, sophisticated way that had the Palladium Ballroom, the famous Broadway dance-hall, jumping. The Ballroom soon proclaimed itself the "temple of mambo," for the city's best dancers--the Mambo Aces, "Killer Joe" Piro, Paulito and Lilon, Louie Maquina and Cuban Pete--gave mambo demonstrations there and made a reputation for their expressive use of arms, legs, head and hands. There was fierce rivalry between bands. The bands of Machito, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez and Jose Curbelo delighted habitues such as Duke Ellington, Bob Hope, Marlon Brando, Lena Horne and Dizzy Gillespie, not to mention Afro-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Upper East-Side WASPs and Jews and Italians from Brooklyn. Class and color melted away in the incandescent rhythm of the music. Even jazz musicians such as Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt fell under the mambo's charm, as can be heard on the many Latin recordings they made in the 1950's.
In 1954 the cha-cha-cha, a kind of mambo created by the Cuban violinist Enriqué Jorrin, a member of the Orquesta America Charanga, swept through Havana and New York. Easier to dance than the mambo, with a squarish beat and a characteristic hiccup on the third beat, it spread to Europe, before being dethroned in the early 1960's by the pachanga and then the boogaloo.
Mambo returned to prominence in the 1995 when Guinness used Perez Prado's track Guaglione in an advertising campaign. The song was released as a single and reached number 2 in the UK charts. In 1999, Lou Bega released a remix of Mambo No. 5, another Prado original, which became a hit across Europe.
Mambo dance
Mambo is rhythmically similar to the slower rumba, though it has a more complex pattern of steps. The saxophone usually sets the syncopated rhythm, while the other brass carries the melody.
There were two forms of mambo dance: single and triple (sometimes called double mambo). The former one has been retained as modern mambo; the latter one is thought to be an origin of the Cha-cha-cha.
Mambo is at the roots of the Salsa dance and is a part of the American Rhythm group of American Style ballroom dances.
The rhythm of steps is unusual in comparison to most other dances. It can be counted as "quick-quick-slow", the first "quick" is on the beat 2 of the measure and the "slow" step crosses the boundary of the musical measure and performed on counts "4", "1".
Basic pattern
The basic pattern or "Basic Step" of Mambo consists of two halves: Forward Basic and Backward Basic. When a man dances The Forward Basic, the lady dances the Backward Basic and vice versa.
The steps are performed with Cuban hip motion.
There are three steps per measure. they start on the second beat of the measure and cued "(pause)-Two-Three-Four".
Count "One" is often described as "pause" or "hold", while in fact the body motion and Cuban hip motion do not stop.
Forward Basic
- Count 2: Step forward by left foot
- Count 3: Replace weight on the right foot
- Counts 4,1: Step sideways. (Variant: Step backwards, often used by "Salsa on 2" dancers) Weight is transferred comletely on count 4.
Backward Basic
- Count 2: Step backward by right foot
- Count 3: Replace weight on the left foot
- Counts 4,1 Step sideways. (Variant: Step forward, often used by "Salsa on 2" dancers).
The footsteps of the Mambo Basic form on the floor a so-called "diamond pattern".
This step pattern is similar to that of International Style Rumba and resembles cha-cha-cha. Rumba is much slower. Cha-cha-cha uses triple step (chasse) on "4-and-1", rather than a single slow step.
The firts two steps of the Forward Basic are sometimes called "Forward Break" or "Rock Forward". The first two steps of the Backward Basic are sometimes called "Rock Backwards", rock back, back rock, or simply Rock Step.
Mambo musicians
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