Our newest installment in the Afropop Vignettes series takes us to the sunny shores of Puerto Rico. In this program, we’ll focus on the diverse musical traditions of the island, ranging from bomba to plena, salsa to danza, with everything in between.

Compiled by Jake Gold


The early folk music of Puerto Rico is derived from multiple sources.  The Taino, the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, were subjected to African and Spanish influences.  The result is a musical stew of indigenous, African, Spanish and associated regions/styles.

Salsa
Salsa is perhaps the most highly exported music of Puerto Rico.  This is an amazing fact considering it did not originate on the island itself.  It is of importance to note that salsa has no one definitive origin.  Puerto Ricans living in post-World War II New York City are credited with developing their own brand of salsa.  The large populations of Puerto Ricans were surrounded by the emerging Big Band tradition.  Imagine a horn section blaring over Afro-Caribbean rhythms and you get a taste of salsa. Some of the most influential Puerto Ricans in the salsa genre are Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe.

Danza
Danza is best characterized as a combination of the waltz and Afro-Caribbean beat. The former Puerto Rican national anthem, written by Felix Astol, was in the danza musical idiom.  There are two types of danza: romantic and festive. Danza is directly linked to Spanish contradance or “counter dance.”  This style of dance was popular in Puerto Rico during the 1840’s. As Cuban immigrants filtered in during the late 1840’s the movement in the dance was freed up, resulting in a new style termed “habanera” after the Cuba’s capital city.  

Manuel G. Tavarez and his student Juan Morel Campos solidified the danza tradition by composing over 300 danzas.  These songs are mainly concerned with romance and women.

Bomba y Plena
Puerto Rican plena developed more or less as a sung newspaper. Pleneros would travel the island, bringing the news of the day to the public through song. Plena has more European elements than the other popular rural music of Puerto Rico , bomba. Emanuel Dufrasne, leader of a top contemporary plena group, Paracumbe, believes that the plena's origins are a result of the fusion of forms brought to Puerto Rico by immigrants from Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad with bomba rhythms and incorporating these on a variety of new instruments, such as the guiro and the cuatro (a small guitar) and later accordions.

Bomba, with roots in West Africa, is heavily percussive, and played on large barrel drums. The bomba is thought to have been rooted in the occasions when slaves from different haciendas (plantations) were allowed to gather and celebrate together.

Reggaeton
Some people think that reggaetón, that ubiquitous club sound of the new millennium, is just hip-hop rapped in Spanish. While the genre’s multi-platinum superstars have donned the ghetto-fabulous trappings of urban America and its beatsmiths have adopted the techniques of hip-hop production, reggaetón is a distinct style that represents an unprecedented phenomenon in Latin music. It has risen from underground movements in Panama and Puerto Rico to become a pan-Latin music that speaks to urban youth across the Americas, borrowing more from rap and reggae than from salsa and merengue.


Some Other Featured Puerto Rican Musicians:

Composer and pianist Eddie Palmieri is one of the kings of Latin jazz. Raised in a Puerto Rican household in New York, Palmieri grew to become one of the world’s most respected Latin jazz pianists.

Tego Calderon, Puerto Rican rapper, who delves into mambo, salsa, blues, and reggaeton. His lyrics have strong nationalist undertones, and he speaks of the struggles of the Puerto Rican people, along with racism, inequalities, and ghettos.

Tito Puente, “King of the Timbales,” “Mambo King,” or “King of Latin Music,”—pick your title. Whatever it is, there is no denying Tito Puente’s legendary status in the Latin music world. He helped bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds to mainstream audiences in American in the 1950s, winning a slew of Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Ismael Rivera, who may also be known by the titles “Maelo,” or “El Sonero Mayor, (The Premiere Improviser)” was a renowned singer and composer of salsa music in the 1950s, who made his fame singing in front of the great salsa band, Cortijo’s Combo.

Gilberto Santa Rosa, bandleader, singer of salsa and bolero. He developed a style of “soneo” (improvisation) in salsa music.



Other Afropop Sources and Afropop Worldwide shows

A conversation with Juan Flores on Puerto Rican Music in the U.S. by Ned Sublette.
Discography: Lamento Boricano (2001)
Discography: Riqueza Del Barrio: Puerto Rican Music in the U.S. (2006)
APWW Visits Puerto Rico: Bomba, Plena, y Mas (1993)
Willie Colon and Los Van Van Live (1994)

Listen to Afropop Worldwide programs available now on-demand and our classic streams!

New York Puerto Rican Concert Update

Check out Plena Libre, the 3-time Grammy-nominated plena group from Puerto Rico, July 16 at S.O.B.’s!!!

First published: www.afropop.org