Charanga: Then and Now

By Connie Grossman

The next danzón innovation occurred in 1910 when José Urfe wrote "El bombín de Barretto" (Barretto's Derby). "Bombín" was performed by Enrique Peña's orchestra and included a montuno that excited dancers. Urfe's montuno apparently improved the final part of the danzón as compared to the first two parts, which sounded to some like parade music. Urfé's montuno was played at a fast, syncopated tempo. However, wealthy Cubans, who liked to entertain in their homes, avoided this style for fear that the brass instruments would burst eardrums and blast the walls apart. In fact, a great number of Cubans preferred the outdoor danzón concert to the close quarters of a dance hall because of the brass instruments' blaring sounds.

Meanwhile, a new orchestra called charanga had already been titillating dancers for eleven years. Pianist-composer Antonio Maria Romeu, a white Cuban of French descent, had formed a charanga francesa (strings and flute with the addition of tympani) and "africanized" it with Afro-Cuban musicians and instruments. Most importantly, he introduced the piano to this type of orchestra. After a few years he replaced the tympani with pailas (timbales) and güiro. By 1923, the soft sound of Romeu's charanga relegated Failde's danzón to the pages of history as "El danzón antiguo" (the Old Danzón). The charanga francesa made stars of flutists Panchito "Flauta Mágica", El Morro and Belasario López.

Parts of the danzón would call for florid ornamentation similar to that of the French Baroque or gallant style upon the repeated statement of the melody. This was particularly impressive musically because the flute upon which these flutists were playing was the simple wooden 5-key flute invented by Georg Tromlitz of Bavaria in the early 19th century. Although this flute was an evolution of the 2-key Baroque flute that had preceded it, it still was not nearly as versatile and "in tune" as the Boehm system flute which is the prototype of the modern flute that we use today. When Teobald Boehm invented this flute in 1832 he first introduced it to the Paris Academy of Science, where it was rejected. It wasn't until the late 1800s through the turn of the century that this "new" flute was accepted at all. Since the primary migration from France to Cuba via Haiti took place in the late 1700's and since the development of charanga orchestras mainly took place throughout the 1800's and early 1900's, it's not surprising that the flute mostly used in charanga is the Tromlitz wooden 5-key flute. Even today, many still prefer this 5-key flute because of its warm sound, its subtlety, and its facility in the fourth octave, as well as because of a desire to keep with tradition. However, many flutists, (including the great Richard Egües of Orquesta Aragón fame) have converted to the Boehm system flute for its ease of playing and more tempered scale.

In 1929, Aniceto Díaz, an alumnus of Failde's band, combined the danzón and the Cuban son and introduced a danzonete in his composition called "Rompiendo la rutina". There wasn't much difference from the original danzón except that now it featured vocalists. The following year, Gilberto Valdés, a white musician greatly admired by black Cubans, successfully integrated the African drum in classical music. Valdés, recognized for his flute virtuosity and philharmonic compositions, wrote a score in which he included music for batá drummers. At first there were problems because the drummers could not read music. Valdés patiently played the score, and pointed out with signals where he wanted the drums to enter and where he wanted them to stop. His efforts proved to be worthwhile because his idea resulted in a sensual sound which critics lauded.

In late 1937, Israel "Cachao" Lopez, a bassist for the orchestra Las maravillas del siglo, was composing and orchestrating musical scores. The idea for what became the mambo rhythm was audible in his bass lines. The following year, his brother Orestes capitalized on the idea and created the danzón mambo. Cachao was not credited as a creator of the new rhythm until recently. This is an honor he shares with flutist Antonio Arcaño, since Orestes was quoted as saying that he could not have done it without Arcaño's flute riffs. Along with it's "danceability", one very important characteristic of this mambo section was the flutist's improvisation, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the pianist's. Until this time, pianists read and played violin parts. Cachao changed this by actually writing music for piano. In 1938, Antonio Arcaño's orchestra La primera maravilla del siglo, introduced mambo over radio station Mil Diez with its version of Orestes Lopez's famous composition "Mambo."

In 1939, La Orquesta Aragón came into being in the town of Cienfuegos, in what was then the Province of Las Villas. Other popular charanga orchestras performing danzones in the 1940's and 1950's were those of Antonio Maria Romeu, Cheo Belen Puig, Melodías del 40, Orquesta América, Abelardo Valdés, Abelardo Barroso's Orquesta Sensación, Pancho El Bravo, Rosendo Ruiz, Orquesta Sublime, Félix Reyna, Neno González, Estrellas Cubanas, and José Fajardo. In 1949, violinist Enrique Jorrín composed "El Silver Star" whose "one-two, one-two-three" cadence, produced by dancers' feet and the scraping of the güiro, eventually resulted in the cha-cha-cha rhythm popular in the 1950s.

In 1952, flutist Gilberto Valdés' orchestra became the first North American charanga whose home base was the Bronx's Tropicana club. Others that followed were Orchestra Nuevo Ritmo, Charlie Palmieri's La Duboney, Johnny Pacheco, Lou Pérez, Mongo Santamaría, Ray Barretto, Chihuahua Martínez's Orquesta Metropolitana, Rolando Lozano's Orquesta Antillana, Charanga 76, Típica Novel, Típica Ideal and Orquesta Broadway. Since the 1970's, charangas have amalgamated into their sound influences from other popular forms of music, including rock and roll, jazz, R&B and various developments that had been taking place simultaneously in Cuban charanga. Some of these variations were Aragon's "Ritmo Chaonda", the songo rhythm which came from combining the son with rhythms whose roots were in Congo (Son + Congo = Songo) made particularly famous by the group Ritmo Oriental, and the re-instating of brass instruments by Cuban groups like Los Van Van and U.S. groups like Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta, Típica Novel, and Orquesta Broadway. Currently, some of the most popular U.S. charangas are Orquesta Broadway, Típica Novel, José Fajardo, Charanga América, Bongo Logic, Charanga Allstars, Charansón and Pasión.

As a flutist my own experience as a charanguera has been exciting and challenging. Coming from a classical background (Juilliard, SUNY Purchase, etc.) and having a love for jazz, I find this music is the perfect forum to exercise all of those long hours of practicing scales and arpeggios, solo and orchestral repertoire, and stylistic techniques (from different styles of Baroque ornamentation to modern contemporary techniques) while at the same time creatively improvise to an absolutely infectious rhythm. I have loved every minute of it - from the "after-hours" social clubs of the Bronx to the stages of Lincoln Center. I have also been very fortunate to be a member of groups of varying styles, which have shaped my individual playing style as well as my musical vision. These groups include Yomo Toro (who "funkifies" the traditional Jíbaro music of Puerto Rico), Juan Carlos Formell (who has a typical Cuban folk sound with his own particular sabor), Charansón (a fairly typical charanga with some boogaloo influence and a serious swing),The Latin Jazz Coalition (a medium-sized big band with brass that plays samba, blues, and mambo), and my own group (which I co-lead with violinist Betsy Hill) - Pasión.

Charangas today are not only popular in Cuba and the U.S., but in Africa, Haiti, and many European countries as well. I see charanga not only making a strong comeback (especially with the growing interest in Latin dance among our younger generation) but with more and more new twists. Charanga Hip-Hop, anyone????