Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music (Studies In Latin America & Car) [Paperback]

David F. Garcia (Author)

Book Description

Series: Studies In Latin America & Car | Publication Date: June 28, 2006

Arsenio Rodriguez, composer and musical innovator, made an indelible impact on a broad range of musical styles from the Caribbean and Latin America to West and Central Africa. The son montuno style that he created and his innovative conjunto ensemble inspired other Cuban musicians and played a key role in the development of salsa, yet Arsenio achieved only intermittent commercial success. Drawing on the testimony of family, musicians, dancers, and other contemporaries, David Garcia traces Arsenio's early career in Cuba, his influence on Cuban and Latin popular music in the 1940s, his struggle for recognition at the height of mambo-mania in the 1950s, and his importance to Puerto Rican and Cuban communities in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Garcia shows how matters of race, class, and identity as well as the transnational Latin music industry shaped Arsenio's music and career.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The book] insightfully explores the bandleader's impact as a purveyor of the black Cuban experience, his place in the debate over the origin of the mambo, and his significance in the development of salsa... it is accessible to the serious Latin music fans." Newsday "Garcia's book is strongest when approaching the subject from an ethnomusicologist's perspective. His analysis of Rodriguez's son montuno style will help refocus critical attention on a neglected figure in Afro-Cuban musical history...Garcia is...a convincing advocate, building an effective case for his subject's place in musical history." j.b. spins blog All in all, this book gives a detailed account of Cuban-derived Latin popular music from the 1940s to the 1970s in the USA and should provide new valuable insights for scholars of Cuban and Latin popular music." Popular Music "An excellent book...based on extensive sources, personal interviews, meticulously reviewed historical recording, and assessment of contemporary dance steps observed at community festivals and gatherings. The compelling result is a historical explanation of the roots of contemporary salsa, a story of race and society, and the biography of a musical genius... It represents the first major work to document and analyze the career of this noteworthy Cuban musician-composer (who died in 1970)." The Hispanic Outlook of Higher Education, Jan 26th 2009 "David Garcia presents an outstanding critical account of the life and times of Arsenio Rodriguez, 'El Ciego Maravilloso' (The Marvelous Blind One). Garcia makes a strong argument that Arsenio was one of Cuba's most important music composers and innovators in the twentieth century. Building on an impressive collection of over 80 interviews with more than 50 people...and supported by meticulous archival research, Garcia weaves a historically detailed account of the life of this prominent Cuban musician, the emergence and dissemination of his son montuno sound, and the social conditions within which Arsenio and his contemporaries crafted their artistic expressions... The incorporation of photos from private collections greatly enriches the narrative flow of the text. Finally, Garcia's detailed discography is a critical resource to anyone interested in Cuban, Caribbean, and/ or Latin music studies. As a scholar of Cuban music making and a fan of Arsenio Rodriguez's son montuno sound, I highly recommend David Garcia's Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music as a model of contemporary musicological research, one which successfully achieves its goal of balancing its focus on the individual historical actor with that of the social history of a musical style and dance."- World of Music Vol. 2, 2008

From the Publisher

The life and times of one of Cuba's most important musicians --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press; annotated edition edition (June 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159213386X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592133864
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource and Interesting Read, November 20, 2006

By 

Jim Lepore (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music (Studies In Latin America & Car) (Paperback)

What a treasure to have an English-language resource that shines light on this important figure, a man who was, and is, simultaneously revered and neglected. The source of many of salsa's most enduring innovations, Arsenio Rodriguez' contributions spanned the mambo era and found resonance when this music re-emerged later as "salsa." Garcia does a fine job of illuminating this for the reader. It should not surprise Americans, as Garcia points out, that these innovations were inspired by Arsenio's profound understanding of Cuba's African traditions. Most refreshing, however, is finding an author who also understands the importance of Arsenio's music as "music for dance." Garcia engages his reader on this point and drives home the critical relationship between Arsenio's music and the dancers, and the importance of this rapport in energizing and sustaining his innovations. Arsenio emerges in this biography as a critical voice in dispelling an entrenched notion that music for dancing cannot be serious music (I am reminded of Ned Sublette's "dancing is an intense listening state," from Cuba and its Music. And Garcia makes this statement forcefully.

I also applaud Garcia's dissection of this musician/dancer connection--one that is enlivened by interviews with musicians and dancers. He missteps, however, in his definition of the son montuno "basic step." What he describes as the "basic step" is more likely a variation--one that reflects the inventive styling and footwork of dancers responding to the push and pull of Arsenio's clave feel. Son montuno was indeed danced using timing that Cubans call "contratiempo." The timing presented in Garcia's analysis, however, is simply too idiosyncratic for partnered dancing and runs contrary to knowledgeable Cuban sources who specialize in popular dance styles.

Overall, this book is substantive. It presents English-language readers with another important resource in moving the discussion of Afro-Cuban music and dance (including salsa), and its West African roots, forward.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arsenio Rodríguez bio, June 9, 2007

By 

Tribilin Cantore "Tribi" (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music (Studies In Latin America & Car) (Paperback)

The book all of us Arsenio-ologists have been waiting for, the discography and sidemen info are worth the double its sale price alone....