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Arsenio Rodríguez: n d

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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, , 1911). He is one of of his [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 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

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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 (which added 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 that essential figures of Cuban and music; his influence became decisive in the 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 . 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 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 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 recorded two albums in his

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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

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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. He comes off as a sort of simplifying division of blacks and whites, guardian of authentic Cuban musical tradi- rich and poor), that was threatened by tions. This image is irreconcilable with that music that was bent on overcoming those of a man who using his deep cultural her- barriers. Both Arsenio’s music and the ver- itage constantly experimented with rhythms bal aggressiveness of his lyrics (with their and formats distant from those traditions. explicit sexuality and unbridled machismo, As García’s book highlights, Arsenio practically the only way poor black men never hid his African heritage and he could express any superiority) possess a res- brought new dignity to it, avoiding the olute attitude to not be apologetic for being impoverished, folkloric versions that who he is, to not domesticate the public face became the fashion of the thirties. The of that culture. rebellion he spearheaded went precisely His insistence on keeping the son mon- against any attempt to limit African tradi- tuno as the basis for his music could be seen

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as traditionalist, but there are three main why his band in Cuba only played for blacks points that could be used to argue against at places such as the Tropical and others. He this elementary perception: one, that the chose to never speed up his rhythm; that is rural adjective ‘montuno’ was deceptive. why he never achieved the success he Despite its rural origin, the son montuno deserved here (in the United States).”5 developed in urban centers. Another objec- Yet, that inability to adapt to a new tion is that Arsenio’s decisive contribution market could be read very differently. We to the development of the son montuno (and should first consider Arsenio’s own three the role of the tres within it) says more limitations: his blindness, his lack of formal about an enriching break with past para- music training and the limited appeal and digms than a strict observance of them. applicability of the tres, his music’s main Thus, when Arsenio spoke about the son instrument. In an era when all the musical montuno he was not referring to an ances- styles of dance music were increasing and tral form, but rather a product of it that he expanding, at that time Arsenio found it and others had tirelessly enriched and mod- increasingly difficult to handle an orchestra ified. The third objection is that despite that went way beyond the manageability of Arsenio’s entreaties to that so-called para- a conjunto. To this, one must add that the digm, he also continued to experiment with sound of a larger orchestra almost totally musical forms increasingly distant from eclipsed the sound of his very own instru- their origins. ment. There is even evidence of experiments Like it or not, it seems to me that with larger formats that Arsenio carried out Arsenio Rodríguez is the embodiment of and then abandoned, unhappy with the the Cuban musical tradition’s principal results. His resistance to accelerating the virtues (a virtue that Cuba, by the way, rhythm of his music, a relatively simple shares with other countries whose tradi- change, could be explained more by keeping tions are essentially modern, like Brazil or in mind his personal conception of this even the United States): turning the conflict music and his way of innovating, rather between tradition and modernity into the than by any desire to preserve inherited tra- focus of its creativity, based more on a per- ditions that he, himself, took charge of sistent desire to create new paradigms than modifying. Arsenio was more inclined to on any wish to slavishly venerate those of impose tendencies than to follow them; he the past. simultaneously called for a need to preserve Arsenio’s inability to adapt to the U.S. the son montuno and took on experiments music market, once he decided to perma- with blues or , whose styles are nently reside there, has no doubt con- totally foreign to Cuban music. The evi- tributed to fixing his image as a musician dence of this can be found on his albums rooted in tradition and even as someone Arsenio Says and Quindembo. against the commercialization of his music. It is precisely David F. García’s misun- Mario Bauzá, one of Afro-Cuban jazz’s pio- derstanding of this last record that reveals neers, said in an interview that Arsenio the especially sharp and limited nature of “played with a tempo that one had to be his analysis, particularly when he evaluates Cuban, a dancer and even black to follow, its technical or social aspects. García calls because it was too slow. That is the reason Quindembo a musically naïve album that

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“does reflect a certain sense of indirection Instead, he was trying to take advantage that…characterized Latin popular music in both of commonalities and differences general in the 1960’s.”6 between Afro-Cuban and African-American Conversely, in an interview with the music to create something totally different. book’s author, García, Panamanian musi- The album’s commercial failure may have cian Mauricio Smith, who transcribed the discouraged Arsenio from continuing to music and created arrangements for that work along those lines. As his few interviews recording, said: “When I heard it the first reveal, the Cuban musician did not disdain time it was kind of funny to me. But it was success and recognition: to the contrary, he swinging. It was really swinging…. He did- anxiously sought them. n’t say anything about trying to crossover. It is paradoxical that García was not He was just going for something totally dif- able to see the value of this album. There is ferent” [Cuando primero oí la música, me no better example of the transnational sonó algo rara. Pero tenía swing. Tenía nature of Arsenio’s music than Quindembo. tremendo swing…. No dijo nada él de Musically, though, the book limits this tratar de cruzar su estilo cubano con otro transnationality to a Caribbean and Latin (hacer un crossover) para tener éxito en el context. García’s book contains an anecdote marcado estadounidense. Sólo estaba bus- that could allegorically represent Arsenio’s cando algo completemente diferente].7 The musical career. The story, although quite album was a commercial failure but stood as incomplete, tells of how on one occasion an example of just how far Arsenio’s creative Arsenio, who with his conjunto was playing imaginings could go. to a non-existing audience at the Hotel Quindembo may be Arsenio’s least Alexandria in Los Angeles, left the stage sonero sounding record, but it is the most with all his band members and went to the Afro-Cuban one (with the exception of Palo place where the was play- Congo, with Sabú Martínez). It is also, ing, explaining that his motive was to wel- without a doubt, the most African- come them. The real purpose or at least American. It uses an unprecedented format what resulted, was an attempt to draw the by including two saxes and eliminating the audience that had gone to see the Sonora piano and his tres. The result was a tremen- Matancera to his venue, evidently convinced dously interesting hybrid of ritual music of of the seductive power of his own music. African origin and blues (especially in num- This anecdote serves to illustrate two main bers like “Hun Hun” and “Oración things about his personality: his non- Lukumí”) that could easily be seen as pre- acceptance of the marginalized position to cursors to the work of the great African which he was supposedly condemned blues man Ali “Farka”Touré, among others, because of his race, culture, economic situ- and of fusions today, commonplace in ation and physical disability, and, his that in Arsenio’s era were boundless energy for doing just so (except unthinkable. for that which he spent staying faithful to Smith’s above cited observation is par- his own musical search and accomplish- ticularly important: Arsenio was not trying ments). In some way, in the 1940s, he had to cross over, that is, to simplify his music to already achieved this in Cuba. He later tried make it more palatable for the U.S. market.

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to do the same in the United States over the beyond an elementary and bucolic under- following two decades. standing of what is African or rural. Afro- García’s well-intentioned insistence on Cuban culture’s vitality derives, in good the authenticity of Arsenio’s music leads us measure, from the balance of its loyalty to to believe in an affection for traditions (on its traditions and its ability to adapt and Arsenio’s part) that does not adequately renew; in its insistence on occupying an explain his musical evolution. In the book, increasingly central place in Cuban culture, the author insists that “what made the con- despite the resistance it met (and meets) and junto and son montuno style so innovative its refusal to allow itself to be shut up in the was in fact Arsenio’s and his musicians’deep ghetto of folklorization. That is the only knowledge of aesthetic principles and per- way we can ever truly and deeply understand formance procedures rooted in Afro-Cuban Arsenio Rodríguez’s legacy. traditional music, in which Arsenio had I have not mentioned the more immedi- been immersed as a youngster in rural areas ate presence of that legacy, which can be of Matanzas and La Habana.”8 The author’s seen in the boom Cuban dance music experi- dogged persistence in the fact that Arsenio’s enced at the beginning of the last decade childhood environment was rural seems to and even in the many singer-songwriters want us to indirectly accept his main thesis: who tried to shake off the seriousness of that his musical achievements can be attrib- their predecessors. It is no coincidence that uted to his musical purity—musical purity this boom happened concomitantly with the in the face of urban displacement.9 rediscovery and reevaluation of Arsenio, his My study of his music has led me to music and its merit. There began to be trib- believe that the singularity and value of utes to him. The music of NG La Banda, the Arsenio’s music rests in his having achieved group that signaled this change, contains a wise balance between a respect for that many revelatory details of Arsenio’s influ- tradition and the greatest possible freedom ence: from the inclusion in their playlist of in its expression. If it is true that he was traditional Afro-Cuban songs and the com- inspired by the aesthetic principles of tradi- plexity of their brass percussion arrange- tional Afro-Cuban music, he also incorpo- ments, to their search for a better connec- rated instruments and harmonic complexi- tion with the dancer through aggressive, ties already used in jazz. He integrated suggestive lyrics and constant references to rumba and guaguancó rhythms into the son, ’s barrios. the same way he used swing, as he does in a Not unlike Arsenio in his time, these number called precisely “Swing y Son,” musicians have also been accused of vulgar- superimposing a son montuno on the Glenn ity in the name of “the original culture and Miller classic “In the Mood.” values of our national identity, which were If we want our understanding of cultivated for many years by our best Arsenio and his work to go beyond certain artists.”10 There is no doubt whatsoever that historical and cultural frameworks, if we Arsenio Rodríguez’s music is as current want to accept him as something more than today as are the problems that he had to face a preserver and propagator of an ideosyn- in his time. cratic way of understanding culture, we should seek out his virtues somewhere

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Notes and Bibliography

1.- Padura, Leonardo. Los rostros de la salsa (México DF: Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 1999): 15. 2.- Acosta, Leonardo. Raíces del jazz latino. Un siglo de Jazz en Cuba (Barranquilla: Editorial La Iguana Ciega, 2001): 88. 3.- Giró, Radamés. Panorama de la música popular cubana (La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1996): 228. 4.- García, David F. Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006): 12. 5.- Padura, Leonardo. Ob. Cit., 43. 6.- García, David F. Ob. Cit., 96 7.- Ibid, 97. 8.- Ibid, 41. 9.- The ruralness of Arsenio Rodríguez’s childhood environment is very questionable. Even if Güira de Macurijes, his birthplace, had only 1,333 inhabitants, according to the 1919 cen- sus, the same census shows that Güines, where Arsenio moved when he was four years old had 13,679 inhabitants at a time when the total population of the country was less than 3 mil- lion people (2,889,000). The town’s number of inhabitants was comparable to that of Guántanamo (14,762), Pinar del Río (13,728) and Holguín (13,768), all provincial capi- tals today. At least that is the opinion of their populaces: the Radio Güines website tells us that Güines is “a city marked by a historical process the wise Fernando Ortiz defined as tran- sculturation”(http://www.mayaweb.cu/secciones/ tradiciones/caminoshango.htm). 10.- Hernández, Michel. Nocao en el primer round. Granma: http://www.granma. cubaweb.cu/2007/04/06/cultura/artic02.html

Other Sources

-Acosta, Leonardo. Otra visión de la música popular cubana (La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1996). -Blanco Aguilar, Jesús. Ochenta años del son y los soneros del Caribe, 1909-1989 (: Fondo Editorial Tropykos, 1992). -Boggs, Vernon. Salsiology: Afro- Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in (New York: Excelsior Music, 1992). -Davies, Richard Arthur. Cuban trumpet playing: the solo performance style of Alfredo “Chocolate”Armenteros. Ph. D. Thesis—New York University, School of Education, 1999. -Davies, Richard Arthur. Trompeta: Chappottín, Chocolate, and the Afro-Cuban trumpet style (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003). -Quintero Herencia, Juan Carlos. La máquina de la salsa: tránsitos del sabor (San Juan: Ediciones Vértigo, 2005).

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