Cuban Fire: The Story of Salsa and Latin Jazz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826455867 ISBN 13: 9780826455864

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2002

This title tells the saga of popular music of Cuban origin, and its major artists from the 1920s to today. Afro-Cuban music derives its richness from the fusion of various cultures. On the island of tobacco, rum and coffee, the marriage of sacred and secular African musical genres with Spanish and French melodies has given rise to numerous genres which have gained international fame: son, rhumba, guaracha, conga, mambo, cha-cha-cha, pachanga, nueva timba. In the US, Cubans have settled alongside other Hispanic communities. In New York, the boogaloo, salsa and Latin jazz, created by musicians such as Machito, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo emerged from contact with Puerto Ricans and African-Americans, and the rhythms of Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo were integrated into salsa and Latin jazz.

About the Author:

Isabelle Leymarie, a pianist and musicologist, has been involved with jazz and Latin music for many years. She has taught at academic institutions. She has co-directed and written documentaries, produced radio shows in Europe and Canada and written books including Cuba and Its Music (Le Chene, Paris, 1999) which won the French 'Prix des Muses' prize.

From Library Journal:

Cuba's unique blend of African, Spanish, and French cultures has produced an international musical legacy of unparalleled popularity. An award-winning author and a documentary filmmaker, Leymarie traces the history of Cuban music and its major artists from the 1920s to today with ardor and verve. Sections on musical roots, the 1940s and 1950s ("The golden age of Cuban music"), the 1970s to today, and more describe the development of distinct genres like the rumba, conga, and pachanga in Cuba, as well as in expatriate communities in the United States and Puerto Rico. Other recent excellent books on Cuban music include Sue Steward's ­Musica!: The Rhythm of Latin America; Salsa, Rumba, Merengue, and More, which is more of a coffee-table book (but with a good discography) and doesn't quite match Cuban Fire's scholarly, sequential style. Scott Yanow's Afro-Cuban Jazz is reasonably scholarly, but the scope is not as broad. Cuban Fire occupies the middle ground between those two otherwise terrific books and is the one to choose if you can't afford all three. Essential wherever books on popular music are collected.
Dave Valencia, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.