The two biggest hits (by Machito)... were about that enduring Cuban song topic-food: 'Sopa de pichn' [pigeon soup] and 'Paella'. If you think that al….

A laborer might last ten years or so before expiring. But individual workers in the death camp of sugar were survived by their culture, which was con….

Chano Pozo created the role of the conga soloist in the modern band, somewhat th way Coleman Hawkins created the solo tenor sax..

That spirit of mockery characteristic of the guaracha was part of the mambo from the beginning..

Up through and including Lincoln, American politicians nursed a fantasy of repatriating blacks to Africa..

Music is so essential to the Cuban character that you can't disentangle it from the history of the nation. the history of Cuban music is one of cultu….

The basic success of the conga came from ...that basic principle of African music and dance: everybody participates. The conga eradicated the distinc….

Black musicians rhythmicized the contredanse, creating musical styles which evolved into the habanera (also known as the tango) and, later, ragtime, ….

New Orleans is of such key importance to American music because historical factors combined to make it the strongest center of African musical practi….

A second line is in effect a civil rights demonstration. Literally, demonstrating the civil right of the community to assemble in the street for peac….

Like slaves on the sugar plantations of the Antilles, ...the sugar slaves of southern Louisiana had negative birthrates for as long as slavery lasted..

On occassion, slaves in Spanish New Orleans owned slaves, whose labor they could appropriate toward purchasing their own freedom, or whose ownership ….

Every farm with slaves was a slave-breeding farm. Raising slaves was mostly a cottage industry..

The general disinclination of Spain to accept slaves from Islamicized regions of Africa during the formative years of Hispano-American society had en….

One often reads that the 1950s was the golden age of Cuban music, but it was really one long phase, from 1937 to 1958, each year with its own splendo….

In 1942 Cachao wrote a tune for Arcao, 'Rareza de Melitn,' with a memorable catchy tumbao. In 1957 Arcao recorded a reworking of it under the name 'C….

Miguelito, liberated from having to sing with Cugat, sounds like he just got out of jail and is letting it rip..