chirimía, and related genres also broadened awareness of Pacific culture as did
the release of albums of urbanized versions of Pacific genres by Grupo Saboreo,
singer Markitos, and others, in the late 1990s. By 2009, the “Petronio” was being
broadcast nationally, reflecting an emerging national presence for Pacific musics.
Los Llanos, Colombia’s eastern Orinoco Plains region, is more closely tied to
the southern grasslands of Venezuela than to the rest of Colombia, both in terms
of geography and culture. The two nations share a cowboy-based culture and the
string-based conjunto llanera, Los Llanos ’s most representative ensemble. The
música llanera of the conjuntos includes genres such as joropo , the polyrhythmic courtship dance, as well as the galerón and the corrido . Never having achieved
national status, música llanera nevertheless remains an important regional style.
A number of different styles of international music have developed significant
regional followings within Colombia, which have been instrumental as markers
of regional and subcultural identity and have led to locally produced varieties. In
Medellín, genres such as Mexican ranchera and especially Argentinean tango
have long enjoyed great popularity because they are said to resonate with the local
104 | Colombia
existential sense of despecho (tragic anger and despair). Singer Carlos Gardel ’ s
1935 death in a plane crash in Medellín has been a significant factor in the enduring
popularity of tango and of Gardel himself in the city. Local musicians have distilled
these genres into the accordion -based música de carrilera (railroad music) named
for the railroad workers who disseminated it to the surrounding areas of Antioquia
province.
Since the 1950s, rock has come to represent cosmopolitanism and rebellion
for many middle-class youth. While this is a countrywide trend, rock-based cul-
ture has largely centered around Bogotá and, to a lesser extent, Medellín. After a
number of groups experimented with adding rock elements to música costeña, the
first Colombian rock bands, including Los Flippers, Los Speakers, and Los Yetis,
appeared in the mid-1960s. The nation’s rock movement has branched off into the
subgenres of punk with bands including La Pestilencia and I.R.A., heavy metal
including bands such as Kraken and Masacre, and ska with 1.280 Almas and Dr.
Krapula. The Bogotá-based group Aterciopelados has also attained international
popularity and acclaim.
Salsa became an important symbol of local identity in Cali beginning in the
1970s. The genre’s antecedents, particularly Cuban son, were popular among
working classes in Cali and in the coastal regions of the nation, and the first Co-
lombian salsa orchestras, such as Fruko y Sus Tesos and Joe Arroyo y La Verdad,
emerged elsewhere. Despite this, it was Cali that became most associated with
the genre, as it reflected the local image of carefree dancing, partying, and drink-
ing. What began as a grassroots movement in the 1970s blossomed into the city’s
emergence as a center for salsa consumption and production during the 1980s and
1990s with groups such as Grupo Niche, Orquesta Guayacán, and La Misma Gente
all based in the city.
In Cartagena, African genres such as highlife and soukous, and Afro-Caribbean
genres such as reggae , zouk , and soca became popular among working class Afro-Colombians beginning in the 1970s. This popularity expanded to other areas of
La Costa, and, in the 1980s, musicians developed a local style called chapmeta or
terápia (therapy). This regionally derived variant has been viewed as a vehicle for
Afro- costeños to reassert their blackness after the national appropriation of other
Afro-derived Costeño genres.
While some Colombian artists and groups such as Bermúdez, Galán, Arroyo,
Grupo Niche, and the cumbia group La Sonora Dinomita had achieved some in-
ternational success, the breakthrough for Colombian artists in the international
market occurred in 1993 with Carlos Vives’s album Clásicos de La Provincia.
Vives’s music was a unique fusion of vallenatos from the 1950s and 1960s with
musical and esthetic elements borrowed from rock, jazz, merengue, and folk-
loric costeño styles. His success had two major ramifications for Colombian
Conga | 105
popular music. It paved the way for Colombian artists to enter international
markets including musicians of traditional costeño folkloric music such as Totó
La Momposina and Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto as well as singer-songwriters
such as Shakira and Juanes. Additionally, Vives’s successful use of fusion styles
encouraged other artists to create hybrids of Colombian and North American
genres. This was first evidenced by the pop tropical trend of the 1990s and
then in the 2000s by fusions of folkloric rhythms from various regions—but
predominantly the Caribbean and Pacific coasts—with rap (Bomba Estéreo,
Choc Quib Town), funk (Mojarra Eléctrica), salsa (La Republica), electronica
(Sidestepper), jazz (Puerto Candelaria, Grupo Bahía), and rock (Tumbacatre,
La Revuelta).
Further Reading
Wade, Peter. 2000. Music, Race, and Nation: Música Tropical in Colombia. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Waxer, Lise. 2002. The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves and Popular
Culture in Cali, Colombia. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Ramón Versage Agudelo
Comparsa. See Conga .
Conga
The words conga and comparsa are used interchangeably to refer to an Afro-
Cuban Carnival band as well as a stylized type of street music and dance. Some
of the musical rhythms and dance movements used in conga performance have
become simplified into a novelty dance that was incorporated into depictions of
Afro-Cuban culture and Hollywood movies. One of the most significant names as-
sociated with this dance style is Desi Arnaz, Jr., who many inaccurately believe
created the conga line.
Congas were street processions with roots in African slave processions. They
were originally part of a pre-Lenten Carnival celebration or a Christmas time cel-
ebration performed by Afro-Cuban cabildos, or social associations. As a result of
the raucous singing, dancing, and requisite revelry characteristic of the conga, the
processions were considered vulgar by polite white Cuban society and were banned
from 1900 to 1937. After its reintroduction in the late 1930s the conga was enjoyed
by both blacks and whites alike who invested time and resources into clubs and
social groups.
106 | Conga
At around the same time, a nightclub or dancehall conga gained international
popularity. Initially it spread with performances abroad by Eliseo Grenet, Xavier
Cugat, and Desi Arnaz, Jr., to American and European ballrooms. These conga per-
formances relied on a highly stylized yet simplified version of the music and dance.
International publishers and record companies released many commercial record-
ings of popular conga tunes. Many popular composers responded to the demand for
the conga with their own compositions. Eventually, the ballroom conga made it to
Hollywood where it was used in motion
pictures, most notably with Cugat and Arnaz.
Famous examples of congas from the late 1930s and 1940s include “Bim Bam Bum”
by Rafael Hernadez, “Uno, dos, y tres” by Rafael Ortiz (which was later, and more
famously known as “1, 2, 3, Kick”), and “Se Fue La Comparsa” by Ernesto Lecuona.
As a dance, the urbanized conga became more of a simplified version of its street
procession forerunner. Because of its rhythmic simplicity, the conga is relatively
easy to learn and participate in. Though it could be danced alone, it is most com-
monly performed in a conga line as an imitation of the Carnival trenes (trains).
Holding the person in front of them by the waist or the shoulders, dancers step to
a four-pulse rhythmic pattern that coincides with a 2–3 clave. The train of dancers
moves either forward or backward to the syncopated rhythm, alternating left-right
steps on the beat of the first three pulses, and kicking in anticipation of the fourth
pulse, hence the mnemonic directive or “1–2-3-Kick” (where the English translation
of the conga “Uno, dos, y tres,” comes from). As quickly as the conga rose to popu-
larity, it was replaced in the 1950s by the more modern mambo and cha cha chá .
The conga has been referenced in popular music. Chuck Berry mentioned it in
his 1957 hit “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” where Berry uses the line “It’s way too early
for the congo (sic)” in order to set up his preference for rock ‘n’ roll music in the
chorus. His use of the word congo is a phonetic corruption of conga. Gloria Es-
tefan and the Miami Sound Machine also had great success with their 1985 song
“Conga,” which invited listeners to surrender to the allure of the conga rhythm.
But it is perhaps Desi Arnaz, Jr. who was most closely associated with the conga.
Further Reading
Moore, Robin D. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in
Havana, 1920–1940. Pitt Latin America series, edited by Billie R. DeWalt. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997.
Roberts, John Storm. The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the
United States Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Sublette, Ned. Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chi-
cago Review Press, 2004.
George Torres
Conga Drum. See Tumbadora .
Conjunto
Cubano
|
107
Conjunto
Conjunto in Spanish-speaking regions of Latin America is a generic word for a
musical ensemble or group. Within this broad classification, several prominent
genres of Latin American popular music have used the term conjunto as a refer-
ential designation that goes beyond the generic to connote specific musical styles
and instrumentations. There are two popular genres known specifically as conjunto.
The first is the Cuban conjunto cubano , a genre credited to Arsenio Rodríguez,
who added piano and several trumpets to the traditional son cubano instrumentation. The other is conjunto tejano or tex-mex conjunto, which refers to the style of
music and instrumentation of southern Texas that was influenced by the northern
style of Mexican music, or música norteña. The core of these ensembles consists of
a button accordion , and a bajo sexto (six-course bass guitar ), to which the electric bass and drum set have later been added. The mainstays of this genre’s repertoire
include the polka, canción, and vals . Early pioneers in this genre, such as Raul “El Ruco” Martinez’s “Dueto Alegre,” were responsible for influencing later generations of norteño superstars such as Los Tigres del Norte and Flaco Jimenez.
Further Reading
Peña, Manuel. The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1985.
George Torres
Conjunto Cubano
Conjunto is a type of Cuban popular music ensemble characterized by the perfor-
mance of son as its central musical genre. As early as the 1920s there is evidence
of the occasional presence of the conga drum, piano, and trumpet in recordings
of groups that regularly performed the son ( sextetos and septetos ), but the conjunto was not established as a fixed form until the 1940s. The Cuban tres and composer Arsenio Rodríguez, helped found the conjunto by incorporating these
instruments into the Sexteto Bellamar, later to become the Conjunto de Arsenio
Rodríguez.
The classic son conjunto added the double bass, the bongó , the tumbadora , two to four trumpets, and a guitar to the traditional sextet. The tres remained the primary instrument along with the piano. The vocal parts consisted of one to three
singers who performed as soloistis or as a chorus and who also played the güiro ,
maracas, and claves . In terms of timbre, the function of each instrument in this configuration is clear; the tres plays a melodic function, free or improvised, together
with the piano and the trumpets. At the same time, the latter two serve as harmonic
108 | Conjunto
Cubano
support while the bass plays a harmonic foundation, a part that can also be played
by the piano. In turn, the bongó and the tumbadora play free rhythmic patterns
while the maracas and the claves maintain rhythmic stability.
Because of its popularity, the conjunto became an important vehicle within the
son genre as a source of the subsequent salsa movement. Along with the son, the conjunto repertoire contains a number of genres, especially the guaracha and the bolero .
The inclination toward the son or guaracha in the repertoire of the conjunto and the tres or the guitar as its lead instruments demonstrates a performance complexity that has contributed to the popular classification of performance styles as macho
(masculine) and hembra (feminine). These distinctions, in turn, reflect complex
sociocultural processes, which have to do with race and musical references. Based
on these distinctions, three groups emerged that typified the two styles: the Con-
junto de Arsenio Rodríguez that is characterized by the robust performance of son
with elements of Afro-Cuban traditions, and the Casino Conjunto and the Sonero
Matancera whose playlists prioritized the guaracha and the conga de salón with
musical arrangements characterized by jazz -like harmonies and Afro-Cuban song
influences.
Audiences that gathered for these groups were different in terms of ethnic and
social composition and the context or locations in which they worked. In the same
way, the treatment of the contratiempo (back beat or counter-rhythm) generated
certain preferences for dancers. Black and mestizo audiences would attend the
music and dance work of the groups considered masculine. Noteworthy followers
of Arsenio Rodríguez include the Conjunto Chapottín, the Bolero, Modelo, or Los
Astros de René Álvarez; representatives of the Casino style include the conjunto
de Luis Santí and Jóvenes del Cayo.
The style and format generated by the Sonora Matancera have reached great
popularity in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. This conjunto is no-
table for its orchestration for two trumpets performing passages in unison, or
at simultaneous intervals of thirds, sixths, and eighths. The singers’ parts show
a prevalence of a timbre agudo brillante. The piano, the bass, and the percus-
sion play the rhythmic-harm
onic base, providing a steady accompaniment of a
singularly simple and brilliant tone color. The individual style of its perform-
ers produced certain expectations that set the standard for later groups such as
the Gloria Matancera, the Conjunto Caney, Laíto y su sonora, or the Muso y su
sonora.
Although all the leading groups are characterized by distinct, high-quality per-
formances, the bolero constitutes the common element of the conjuntos ’ reper-
toire. The use of this genre made for unique combination pieces in c onjuntos like
that of Robert Faz known as Mosaicos. The introduction of electro-acoustic in-
struments, which began in the 1960s, strengthened the evolution of this form, as
Contradanza
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109
it demonstrated the modernization of its sound. Nevertheless, the core of the basic
model persists, as demonstrated by the performances of Adalberto Álvarez in his
groups Son 14 (with added trombone) and Adalberto Álvarez y su Son, who in-
troduced a keyboard, hi-hat, electronic tom-toms, a bass drum and cymbal, and
another trombone, with which he has incorporated, at different times, the tres, and
the guitar. Another of his contributions lies in the orchestrations and complexity
of harmonic progression.
Further Reading
Fernandez, Raul A. From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz. Music of the African Di-
aspora, 10. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
González Bello, Neris, Liliana Casanella y Grizel Hernández. La Encuesta del Siglo XX .
Música Cubana. Multimedia. (Inédito).
Sublette, Ned. Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chi-
cago Press Review, 2004.
Waxer, Lise. “Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love: Dance Music in Havana and New
York from the 1930s to the 1950s.” Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Lati-
noamericana, 15, no. 2 (1994): 139–76.
Liliana Casanella and Grizel Hernández
Contradance. See Contradanza .
Contradanza
The contradanza is an instrumental form and dance of European origin that during
the 18th century was transplanted into Caribbean colonies, which, in its creolized
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 21
