Cuban Music from A to Z
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
Available in English for the first time, Cuban Music from A to Z is an encyclopedic guide to one of the world’s richest and most influential musical cultures. It is the most extensive compendium of information about the singers, composers, bands, instruments, and dances of Cuba ever assembled. With more than 1,300 entries and 150 illustrations, this volume is an essential reference guide to the music of the island that brought the world the danzón, the son, the mambo, the conga, and the cha-cha-chá.The life’s work of Cuban historian and musician Helio Orovio, Cuban Music from A to Z presents the people, genres, and history of Cuban music. Arranged alphabetically and cross-referenced, the entries span from Abakuá music and dance to Eddy Zervigón, a Cuban bandleader based in New York City. They reveal an extraordinary fusion of musical elements, evident in the unique blend of African and Spanish traditions of the son musical genre and in the integration of jazz and rumba in the timba style developed by bands like Afrocuba, Chucho Valdés’s Irakeke, José Luis Cortés’s ng La Banda, and the Buena Vista Social Club. Folk and classical music, little-known composers and international superstars, drums and string instruments, symphonies and theaters—it’s all here.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With more than 1,300 alphabetical entries (from Abakua, a form of music that originated in Africa, to Eddy Zervigon, a New York City flutist and bandleader), this volume is a comprehensive English-language reference for anyone with an interest in Cuban music. Some of the book's entries define musical terms: cha-cha-cha, for example, is a"song and dance style derived from a specific type of danzon known as 'danzones de neuvo rito' and influenced by the son"--danzon and son are extensively defined elsewhere. Other entries provide brief biographies of musicians and individuals who have shaped and influenced Cuban music over the course of its history. The encyclopedic organization means terms are easy to find; entries are concise but interesting and full of detail. Put together by Orovio, a musicologist and historian at the Institute of Folklore and Ethnology in Cuba, this volume is truly a"tribute to Cuban music and its musicians."
