Re: Descarga De Tik Tok Lite
Leana Eckes
A descarga (literally discharge in Spanish) is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba.[1] The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it was developed in Havana during the 1950s. Important figures in the emergence of the genre were Cachao, Julio Gutirrez, Bebo Valds, Peruchn and Nio Rivera in Cuba, and Tito Puente, Machito and Mario Bauz in New York. Originally, descargas were promoted by record companies such as Panart, Maype and Gema under the label Cuban jam sessions. From the 1960s, the descarga format was usually adapted by large salsa ensembles, most notably the Fania All-Stars.
During the 1940s, the term descarga was commonly used in the music scenes of Cuba to refer to performances of jazz-influenced boleros in an improvised manner. This was part of the so-called filin (feeling) movement spearheaded by artists such as Jos Antonio Mndez, Csar Portillo de la Luz, and Luis Ynez.[1] This style was inherited by musicians such as Bebo Valds and Frank Emilio Flynn who explored the combination of jazz and Cuban forms into the 1950s. In particular, Bebo's 1952 session with producer Norman Granz in Havana, credited to Andre's All Stars, is often cited as a milestone in the development of Cuban jazz, and by extension, descarga.[3] At this time, however, the term descarga began to be used in a different way to describe jam sessions based on the son montuno and other Afro-Cuban rhythms.[1] The incipient mambo and Afro-Cuban jazz scene found in New York during the 1940s was also a catalyst of the development of descargas, with artists such as Machito, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Tito Puente performing extended jams with Afro-Cuban motifs.[3][2]
We showed up at the Panart studios around 2 or 3 a.m., after finishing our respective gigs in various nightclubs. The Galician owner of Panart Records brought about forty cognac bottles and fifty rum bottles. That's how Julio Gutirrez's first descarga volume was completed. It was a true descarga: There was no written music involved.
The first series of commercially successful descarga jam sessions were recorded mostly between 1956 and 1958 at the Panart studios in Havana.[1] The Panart descarga sessions were released in three volumes under the title Cuban Jam Session; they would sell over a million copies.[2] Volumes I (1956, yellow cover) and II (1957, blue cover) were recorded under the direction of Julio Gutirrez with Peruchn on piano. The sessions were recorded by engineer Fernando Blanco in Havana and then sent for editing to New York. According to the original liner notes of Volume I, the studio doors were opened at 10:30 pm and the recordings took place throughout the night.[5] The jams in Volume I revolve around cancin, mambo, chachach and conga themes; the longest track, "Opus for Dancing", lasts 10 minutes. Volume II kicks off with "Descarga caliente", a 17-minute montuno jam,[nb 1] while side B features a rumba, a chachach and a Santera ritual performance. Volume III (1958, red cover) was directed by tresero Nio Rivera and it comprises three montuno tracks combined with swing, guajira and chachach, plus a guaguanc-comparsa.[5] The only musicians to participate in all three sessions were Alejandro "El Negro" Vivar (trumpet), Emilio Pealver (tenor saxophone) and Salvador "Bol" Vivar (double bass). Another session entitled Cuban Jam Session with Fajardo took place under the direction of flautist Jos Fajardo in 1957, but only four tracks could be recorded. The album was finished in Miami in 1964.[8] It was the first descarga album in the charanga format and it features jazz-inspired mambos, chachachs, guajiras and montunos.[5][8]
In 1957, Cachao recorded in the Panart studios his Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature, short descargas which contrasted with the extended jams in the previous Cuban Jam Session LPs. The album, credited to "Cachao y su ritmo caliente" (Cachao and his hot rhythm), has been described as a "historic recording" with a "classic rhythm section" and "the true salsa musician's bible on record".[9] The same year, Chico O'Farrill directed two descargas, namely "Descarga Nmero 1" and "Descarga Nmero 2" with his all-star group, All Stars Cubano, featuring Cachao on bass. O'Farrill's recordings were released by Gema as a single and later included in the multi-artist LP Los mejores msicos de Cuba (1959).[10] Cachao continued to record descarga sessions as a leader between 1958 and 1960: Jam Session with Feeling (Maype), Descarga (Maype), Cuban Music in Jam Session (Bonita) and Descargas con el ritmo de Cachao (Modiner). At the same time, Cachao recorded sessions of traditional danzones for Ernesto Duarte's label Producciones Duarte, yielding two albums that were distributed by Kubaney: Con el ritmo de Cachao (reissued as Camina Juan Pescao) and El gran Cachao (reissued as Cachao y su Tpica Vol. 2), featuring former members of Arcao y sus Maravillas.[11] Nonetheless, later in his career he would record many of these danzones ("Avance Juvenil", "Ahora s", etc.) in an extended, descarga-like format.
Simultaneously with the Panart recordings from Havana, Tito Puente recorded a full descarga album in 1956, Puente in Percussion. It is a percussion-heavy set of descargas featuring Mongo Santamara, Willie Bobo and Carlos "Patato" Valds. Like Cuban Jam Session Vol I, the album features variations on mambo themes, although the focus of Tito's recordings is the percussion section, lacking a pianist to play the guajeos. The album featured guest bassist Bobby "Big Daddy" Rodrguez to play tumbaos on a couple of tracks.[12] In 1957, Puente recorded his critically acclaimed Top Percussion, the follow-up to Puente in Percussion. It features Mongo Santamara, Willie Bobo, Francisco Aguabella and Julito Collazo. The album closer is a 7-minute descarga-jazz with guest Doc Severinsen on lead trumpet.[13]
In 1958, Walfredo de los Reyes, the timbalero in Cuban Jam Session Vols I and II, recorded Sabor cubano with pianist Yoyo Casteleiro, a horn section, and singers Kiko Rodrguez and Martha Rams. The album included Chico O'Farrill's "Descarga", Mario Bauz's "Mambo Inn" and a guaracha titled "Cuban Jam Session" credited to Rafael Hernndez.[14]
In 1960, Walfredo de los Reyes recorded his second descarga LP as a leader, Cuban Jazz. Unlike his previous album, this one featured a heavy percussion section courtesy of Los Papines. In addition, Cachao performed on bass.[15] That same year, trumpeter Rolando Aguil released two albums entitled Cuban Jam Session on Maype. Although his style has been described as leaning towards "soft mambo" and cha-cha-cha,[16] his sessions have been praised due to Juanito Mrquez's performance on electric guitar, cited by some critics as a "mystery guitarist" due to the absence of credits on the LP.[17][18] Around the same time, another LP by the title of Cuban Jam Session was recorded by an ensemble directed by trumpeter Carlos Arado, who like Aguil had been a member of Orquesta Hermanos Castro, for the label Sirena.[19] Cachao left Cuba in 1962, staying in Madrid for a year before moving to New York, where he joined Tito Rodrguez's orchestra. Cachao's influence is notable in jams such as "Descarga Cachao" and "Descarga Malanga".[20] Around the same time, Cachao recorded a series of descarga-like tunes with Joe Cain's orchestra, which featured a mix of American and Cuban musicians. The resulting album, Latin Explosion, was re-released on CD together with Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature under the title From Havana to New York.[21]
During the early 1960s, the descarga genre was revitalized in New York by the Alegre All-Stars, an ensemble featuring the most successful artists in the Alegre Records roster. The albums were produced by Al Santiago, who chose Charlie Palmieri as music director, and they would have a major influence on the development of salsa, launching the careers of artists such as Johnny Pacheco, Cheo Feliciano and Barry Rogers.[22][23] Palmieri had already recorded one descarga tune, "Pacheco's Descarga", for the debut album of his charanga La Duboney, which featured Pacheco on flute. Pacheco later directed his own descarga session for his 1965 album Pacheco, His Flute and Latin Jam.[24] Also in 1965, Alegre released Puerto Rican All-Stars featuring Kako, a jam-session recorded in February 1963 and led by prolific timbalero Francisco ngel Bastar "Kako" which featured Rafael Ithier and Roberto Roena among others.[25] Soon, Alegre's biggest competitor, Tico, launched its own "house band", the Tico All-Stars, playing the same style of "Nuyorican" descargas. Meanwhile, the Alegre All-Stars project was continued by Al Santiago under different names, namely Cesta All-Stars and Salsa All-Stars. In 1968, Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco, the owners of New York's leading salsa label, Fania Records, decided to start another project in the vein of the Alegre All-Stars but with a different approach: the music would now revolve around large-ensemble salsa played live instead of the 1950s Panart studio descarga style. The band, the Fania All-Stars, debuted in 1968 at the Red Garter in Greenwich Village with a lineup that included Ray Barretto, Joe Bataan, Willie Coln, Bobby Valentn and Larry Harlow among others, plus guests Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente and Richie Ray. The concert was recorded and divided into two LPs, Live at the Red Garter Volumes I and II, which were moderately successful.[26][27]
In 1970, Eddie Palmieri released Superimposition, an LP with descargas such as "Chocolate Ice Cream" and "17.1", which featured Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros on trumpet. Armenteros would later join Grupo Folklrico y Experimental Nuevayorquino, an ensemble founded by musicologist and producer Ren Lpez. The group played extended descargas with a modern salsa sound.[22]
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