Hip Deep is Afropop's media project dedicated to the idea that music is a key to understanding everything. Get hip deep into programs on how the music formed and informed cultures in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, plus companion interviews, features, discographies and more.
Beny Moré was one of the most charming music artist in Cuban popular culture. Moré's musical atmosphere fit the shoes like those of Sinatra and Nat King Cole, but still has not been surpassed in Cuba even nearly half a century since his death. His sound was the hip shaking feel of Afro-Cuban and Spanish-derived guajiro music of the Cuban countryside. Moré was paired with a big band orchestra, and was truely a unique and celebrated talent.
Ismael Rivera or El Sonero Mayor, the premiere improvisor, one of Puerto Rico's favored music children, found his musical dream only at the age of 10. Realizing his dream with his close childhood friend Rafael Cortijo, he found his voice in Salsa. His music was put to a halt for 7 years when he was caught trying to cut an illegal deal. After this time Ismael nicknamed Maelo, kicked up his career with the start up of the band Ismael Rivera Y sus Cachimbos and later joined Cortijo's band. Rivera was a scat king who partnered on many songs that eventually became standards.
Coined the "Mambo King" Perez Prado rocked the mambo rhythm across continents as an orchestra leader in the 1950s. Classically trained on the piano, Prado was a pianist for many orchestras and arranged for bands who's songs went on to be used by famous bands like Orquesta Casino de la Playa. Mambo was his source and his voice. He even once exclaimed that "Mambo is a movement back to nature, by means of rhythms based on such cries and noises, and on simple joys."
RAFAEL CORTIJO AND CORTIJO Y SU COMBO Reigning as a Caribbean artist in the 1950s and 60s, Rafael Cortijo named his inherited band from retired leader Mario Roman, Cortijo Y Su Combo. Under Cortijo's leadership the band rose to the top of the Puerto Rican music charts. In the limelight, Cortijo Y Su Combo played in films like Calypso with Harry Belafonte, appeared on daily radio shows, festivals and dances. At the top of their game in the 60s, Cortijo was arrested for drug possession faulting his band to splitting up with some forming their own band, never to reunite until 1974.
