IslasEnglish Julio 2007 8/19/07 10:00 AM Page 49 A r t a Arsenio Rodríguez: n d L i From Subversive t e r a t Nationalism to Prophetic u r e Transnationalism Enrique Del Risco Writer hen one thinks of the history of kick. The other is that he tried to recuperate Cuban popular music, it is diffi- his sight with help from a specialist in New Wcult to come up with a more influ- York, in 1947, and that failure prompted ential figure than Arsenio Rodríguez (Güira him to write the hopeless and most famous de Macurijes, Cuba, 1911). He is one of of his boleros [ballads], “La vida es sueño” those people who Leonardo Padura cites as [Life is a Dream]. Both events attempt to having “forged a real mythology concerning encode adversity as the point from and his person, one of the most particular against which the life of this musician was reflections of a ‘Latin American’identity— forged. for lack of a better term.”1 The few biogra- Even if none of his more than two hun- phical tidbits that consistently appear in dred compositions achieved the popularity articles, reference texts or liner and compi- of songs like “Lágrimas Negras,” by lation notes have become legend. As a blind Matamoros, or “Échale salsita,”by Piñeiro, musician with a dry and distant manner, scores of songs by this tresero [a tres player and the fact that he granted very few inter- (a tres is a guitar-like instrument with three views, ensures that his life will always bor- sets of double strings)], known as “El Ciego der on mythology—but there is certain Maravilloso” [The Marvelous Blind Man], logic to that. are part of the regular repertoire of musi- There are two key moments in the myth cians all over the world—from number like that have been created about his life, both “Bruca Manigua” to “El reloj de Pastora” directly linked to his blindness. The first is and “Mami, me gustó.”As if that weren’t that his loss of sight was caused by a mule enough, he is responsible for the greatest ISLAS 49 IslasEnglish Julio 2007 8/19/07 10:00 AM Page 50 evolutionary leap in the development of the not given to attributing to specific people ‘son,’the ‘king’of Cuba’s popular music gen- concretely determining influences in a musi- res: that leap was a switch from septetos cal evolution that has been the result of col- (originally six or fewer member son groups lective efforts, as he puts it, agrees that “the to which a trumpet lead was added, making rhythmic harmonic renewal of the son has seven) to conjuntos (which added congas two great innovators: Arsenio Rodríguez and piano), which led to a tonal, rhythmic and Niño Rivera,”and insists that: and harmonic enhancement of their sound. “We must highlight the contributions Additionally, it was in Arsenio Rodríguez’s Arsenio Rodríguez made to our popular conjunto that essential figures of Cuban and music; his influence became decisive in the Caribbean music developed, people like fusion styles that have come about from the Miguelito Cuní, Félix Chapotín, Lilí Mar- 1940s till now. He kept the tres as an essen- tínez, Chocolate Armenteros, Rubén Gonzá- tial instrument (for accompaniment or lez and Johnny Pacheco. solo). But the new format he created had It is hard to think of anyone else who various implications we should make note introduced so many enduring changes to the of: 1) the definitive inclusion of the piano as history of Cuban music. That is why it is the main harmonic instrument, instead of surprising that recognition for his great the guitar; 2) the addition of the conga achievements does not generally extend drum to the bongos… and 3) the use of an much beyond that of musicians and special- arranger (much needed with the inclusion of ists. There are not even institutions, events, three or even four trumpets), with which streets or monuments that commemorate his jazz band-like harmonies are introduced, name in Cuba (his place of birth), New York although different arrangers made their or Miami (last year, finally, the anniversary own innovations with regard to different of his birth was celebrated in an official music and formats.”2 manner). Not even his burial site, in the Radamés Giró, another musicologist, Ferncliff cemetery, has a tombstone with emphasizes that: “Arsenio makes the first his name. big change to son. From that moment on, it To attenuate this marginalization, begins an evolutionary course that is not yet which is not suffered by much less important over”. Among the contributions he attrib- personalities, one could honestly say that utes to him are having created “a new tres- Arsenio Rodríguez’s influence is so much playing style different from that of sexteto alive and current that it makes it invisible. and septeto son bands” and arrangements Yet, the explanation for this, no matter how for piano that “blend with the tres and elegant, seems insufficient to me. whose harmonies are also enriching, besides Cuban popular music experts implicitly arpeggios and ‘tumbaos’ [repeated rhythmic or explicitly agree that the history of son or patterns on bass or conga drum] that even salsa could not be written without men- today sound surprisingly vital and origi- tioning Arsenio Rodríguez’s name; his influ- nal”3. ence can be found in the least likely corners Conscious of the danger facing of the Caribbean or United States. Arsenio’s legacy from those who capitalized One of the most renown Cuban musi- on him, renowned pianist and composer cologists—Leonardo Acosta—, someone Larry Harlow recorded two albums in his 50 ISLAS IslasEnglish Julio 2007 8/19/07 10:00 AM Page 51 Arsenio Rodríguez honor after his death. One of them is Latin Popular Music, which for the moment straightforward and just titled Tribute to (and probably a long time) is the most com- Arsenio Rodríguez (1971). The second, on plete and systematic work on the musician’s the other hand, is much more symbolic: it life’s work. The lacuna it is filling is enor- includes six Arsenio Rodríguez composi- mous, thus it is likely the book will be chal- tions and is called simply Salsa (1974), a lenged often by criticisms as numerous as title that uses the name of a music style they will be unjust (for example, it should whose origins and lineage are still under be clear that although it manages to clarify debate. Thus, Arsenio goes from being hon- many obscure details about Rodríguez’s life, ored to being responsible for one of the the author’s intention was not to write a most vital music movements of the second biography, so much so that he put much of half of the twentieth century. the biographical data in the book’s margin We admirers of this man’s musical opus notes). have recently had the satisfaction of enjoy- Nonetheless, the laudable effort to ing David F. García’s book Arsenio compile information and study Arsenio’s Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of work and its impact not only on Cuban ISLAS 51 IslasEnglish Julio 2007 8/19/07 10:00 AM Page 52 music but above all on Latin culture in the tion to liturgical ceremonies or tenement U.S. seems to be unable to get away from yard parties, or to disseminate them via a that paternalistic and somewhat exoticizing touristic perspective, as did many jazz bands view with which such phenomena are treat- of the 1930s. Arsenio’s decision to express ed, due to their understanding as so-called that Africanness through the vehicle of a “marginal cultures,” a perspective that on relatively recent and rising music genre (as the one hand harms the evaluation of the son was towards the end of the thirties) tells importance of Rodríguez’s work and its us that his desire was to demonstrate the impact on the dynamic of that culture. This vitality of that music (and with it, that of perception also limits any understanding of the culture that generated it) and highlight the circumstances under which Arsenio its contemporaneity. Consciously or not, his Rodríguez’s work—not just compositions music was the product of a solid effort to and recordings, but also a specific way of update that musical tradition and expose it understanding a culture’s zone— inserted to other sounds and to claim the right of itself into those transnational flows to Afro-Cuban culture to not be marginalized which the album’s title alludes. and to incorporate, centrally, into both the García’s insistence on how the musi- national culture and the modernity of cian’s ‘Africanness’is “the core of Arsenio’s which it was a part. racial identity” is more than just notice- The fact that Arsenio’s music was ‘king’ able.4 My intention is not to minimize both at popular dances and on Cuban vitro- García’s more complex arguments about the las in the 1940s is the most directly visible evolution of Arsenio’s work and the ten- result of that effort, an effort that found, as sions that develop within it. However, is easy to imagine, quite a bit of opposition. despite the fact that the author gives a thor- His songs were called vulgar in order to ough account of Arsenió’s rhythmic and obfuscate the real origin of that opposi- harmonic contributions, repetitive state- tion: the threatening popularity that kind ments about their rhythmic naturalness and of music represented for the subtle stratifi- his respect for tradition end up creating a cation of Cuban society, a meticulous strat- much too simplistic view of the musician ification, based on economic and racial dif- who for decades revolutionized Cuban and ferences (much more complex than just the Caribbean music.