Unit 15

Question 1

Bossa nova

Answer 1

A samba-based, jazz-influenced Brazilian popular-song style that became popular in the United States in the early 1960s. Introduced to Europe and North America by the Brazilian film Black Orpheus.

Question 2

When did bossa nova become popular in the US?

Answer 2

The early 1960s

Question 3

Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho (Pixinguinha)

Answer 3

Brazilian music’s first international ambassador. He was an Afro-Brazilian flutist/saxophonist/composer. He formed a group, Os Oito Batutas, from the elite members of a group of black musicians based in Rio de Janeiro.

Question 4

Choros

Answer 4

A choro was originally a lament. However, in the 1910s and 1920s, Afro-Brazilians infused it with the active rhythms of the samba. Developed most notably by Pixinguinha; by the 1930s, it had become the dominant popular style in Brazil. Most of Carmen Miranda’s songs were choros

Question 5

Why did Brazilian music not become popular in the US until the 1960s?

Answer 5

There was little about the choros that American musicians could easily adapt to mainstream popular music or jazz. By the early 1960s, American popular music had acquired the more active rhythms of rock, and Brazilian musicians had created bossa nova, a new samba-influenced song style.

Question 6

When was bossa nova developed in Brazil?

Answer 6

The late 1950s

Question 7

How was bossa nova an alternative to rock?

Answer 7

It featured a gentler approach to active rhythms. Therefore, some pop and jazz musicians adapted them for their music as an alternative to rock.

Question 8

What are the typical features of bossa nova songs? (4)

Answer 8

1. A soft 16 beat rhythm on drums, with offbeat accents
2. Bass marking the beat
3. Offbeat acoustic guitar chords in complex rhythms
4. A cool and uninflected vocal style

Question 9

Bossa nova is Brazilian slang for

Answer 9

“Something new and different”

Question 10

How did bossa nova impact American music?

Answer 10

Bossa nova rhythms became a pop alternative to rock rhythm, and Brazilian rhythms helped shape the rhythms of several new jazz styles that emerged after 1970. Also, bossa nova reintroduced Americans to the sixteen-beat rhythms of the samba, active patterns that move four times as fast as the beat.

Question 11

Tejano music

Answer 11

Hybrid blending of Mexican music with outside influences. Latin counterpart to country music. Its home is south Texas with its wide-open spaces. The country connection is more than a matter of geography; there are numerous close parallels between tejano music and American country music.

Question 12

What were the two most characteristic instrumental sounds of early tejano music?

Answer 12

The accordion and the bajo sexto. The accordion has its roots in central Europe. Its use in tejano music tells us something about immigration patterns in Texas.

Question 13

Bajo sexto

Answer 13

Oversized Mexican twelve-string guitar that typically served as a bass instrument in small groups. In recent tejano music, it more often serves as an extra rhythm instrument

Question 14

Which ethnic groups are prevalent in Texas?

Answer 14

Mexicans are the most visible ethnic group in Texas, in part because so many have retained their language and much of their culture. People of German descent comprise about one-sixth of Texas’s population. From about 1830 through the end of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of German immigrants settled in south central and southeast Texas.

Question 15

When did Germans begin settling in Texas?

Answer 15

1830- the end of the century

Question 16

Why did Germans immigrate to Texas?

Answer 16

They were drawn by the promise of cheap land and the chance to escape the political upheavals of nineteenth-century Germany- farmers were the majority, but the immigrants varied widely.

Question 17

How did Germans retain their culture in Texas?

Answer 17

Texas Germans founded the breweries that make Pearl and Shiner, two popular Texas beers. Also introduced polkas, a popular dance in central Europe. Polka bands included an accordion, an instrument that developed in German-speaking Europe

Question 18

When did the accordion go out of favor in tejano music?

Answer 18

The 1960s and 1970s. At this time, tejano began to incorporate contemporary influences, especially country, rock, and disco.

Question 19

Little Joe Y La Familia

Answer 19

One of the leading tejano bands of the sixties and seventies. Their music typified the incorporation of contemporary influences. Their music includes a full, and modern, rhythm section; full horn section; and, at times, rhythms from other kinds of music.

Question 20

When did Tejano experience a return to roots movement?

Answer 20

The mid 1970s. Among the leading figures in this revival of traditional tejano music was Flaco Jiménez.

Question 21

Flaco Jiménez

Answer 21

Accordionist. He mastered the traditional tejano accordion style. He explored many other musical styles as well, and recorded with various pop stars

Question 22

El puente roto (1992)

Answer 22

By Flaco Jiménez. The song has a traditional sound. The German influence is evident in the prominent place of the accordion and the polka rhythm. The Mexican influence is prominent in the paired vocal and instrumental lines and the long, lightly syncopated melodic lines. The affinity with country music, rather than rock or Cuban music, is apparent in the focus on the story telling.

Question 23

How was Flaco Jiménez’s music traditionally Tejano?

Answer 23

Spanish-language story-telling lyrics, the paired vocal and instrumental lines, the sound of the accordion, and the polka-like rhythmic foundation marked out simply by the guitar, bass, and drums .

Question 24

The range of Tejano music

Answer 24

Tejano music has a regional identity but a more broad appeal. Both traditional and more modern tejano styles have coexisted, often side-by-side, for several decades. Outside influences from Anglo and Hispanic sources exist in varying proportions.

Question 25

When did Castro take over Cuba?

Answer 25

1959. The prior leader had been US friendly. This event caused refugees to move to the US.

Question 26

When was travel between the US and Cuba banned (by Castro)?

Answer 26

1962.

Question 27

How did the travel ban between US and Cuba impact music?

Answer 27

US based Latin musicians were unable to continue contact with Cuban musicians. Therefore, musicians during the 1960s and 1970s followed two paths. One was to create hybrid styles, such as the short-lived bugalú, Latinos’ version of “soul music.” The other, more significant response was the development of salsa.

Question 28

During what times was Latin music impacted by the travel ban?

Answer 28

1960s and 1970s

Question 29

Bugalu

Answer 29

A blend of Latin music and rhythm and blues.

Question 30

Salsa

Answer 30

A popular dance oriented music which developed out of a fusion of Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Latin American musical styles. It began as an American-based Latin “return to roots” movement.

Question 31

What were salsa’s musical influences?

Answer 31

The uptown mambo style popular during the late 1940s and 1950s. Salsa updated the uptown mambo mainly by assimilating elements of other styles, both Latin (Puerto Rican music, for example) and American (jazz, R&B). It retained its Afro-Cuban core despite a lack of Cuban musicians

Question 32

Willie Colón

Answer 32

Salsa artist, his Siembra recording was a landmark salsa recording in the 1970s.

Question 33

Main salsa characteristics (4)

Answer 33

1. A dense rhythmic texture featuring several characteristic Cuban percussion instruments (Conga, etc.).
2. Clave rhythm
3. Tumbao bass- salsa bassists play a clave-derived pattern that comes on offbeats, rather than marking the main beats.
4. Montuno piano patterns. The pianist in a salsa band plays active, syncopated patterns over and over.

Question 34

Clave rhythm

Answer 34

The characteristic rhythm of Afro-Cuban music. It can be represented as: //X x x X x x X x // x x X x X x x x //. The x’s indicate an eight-beat rhythm; X’s are accented notes. To create a reverse clave rhythm, switch the two measures.

Question 35

Canto and montuno

Answer 35

Function much like the verse and chorus in popular song. After the canto ends decisively, the montuno begins with a coro. Typically, the coro consists of a short riff, followed by silence. An inspiración, which is an extended jam for the percussionists, follows.

Question 36

inspiración

Answer 36

An extended jam for the percussionists. In the mambo and salsa, this is analogous to the improvised solos in jazz performances.

Question 37

Eddie Palmieri

Answer 37

Pianist/bandleader that has remained true to the Afro-Cuban roots of salsa even when absorbing other influences. He has blended jazz-like improvisation and the harmonic complexity, rhythmic freedom, and formal richness of jazz and contemporary classical music with this Afro-Cuban core sound.

Question 38

When did salsa begin to cross over to a more mainstream audience?

Answer 38

The mid 1970s. In the 60s and early 70s, the audience had been mainly Latinos

Question 39

Tropical Latin

Answer 39

A kind of rock distinguished by a large number of percussive instruments and a clave-like rhythm.

Question 40

Gloria Estefan

Answer 40

A tropical Latin artist, her music derives from salsa. Her song No Me Dejes de Querer” is not only dance music but also a love song- this was unusual, as salsa music was mostly for dancing

Question 41

Joao Gilberto

Answer 41

Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist, who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world he was often called “father of bossa nova”.

Question 42

Stan Getz

Answer 42

American jazz and bossa nova saxophonist

Question 43

Linda Ronstadt

Answer 43

American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin.

Question 44

Ruben Blades

Answer 44

Musician from Panama, performing musically most often in the salsa, and Latin jazz genres