Arsenio Rodríguez Strings & Bass – Artists

The father of the modern Cuban conjunto: Arsenio Rodríguez added conga, piano and more trumpets to son, built his music tightly on the clave, and so set the template for son montuno, salsa and later timba.

About

Arsenio Rodríguez (Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, Güira de Macurijes, Matanzas, 31 August 1911 – Los Angeles, 30 December 1970) played tres and tumbadora and wrote nearly two hundred songs. His family had Kongo roots; his grandfather and great-grandfather practised Palo Monte. At about seven he was blinded when a horse kicked him in the head. Later he was called El Ciego Maravilloso, "the Blind Marvel".

  • Childhood in Güines: with his brother Kike he played tumbadora at rumba parties and got to know palo, yuka and santería drumming. At guateques he learned son, and tres from the tresero Víctor González.
  • Breakthrough (1937): the Orquesta Casino de la Playa recorded his Bruca maniguá, with Miguelito Valdés singing. It became an international hit.
  • His conjunto (1940): three singers, two trumpets, tres, piano, bass, tumbadora and bongó. At the time only two other conjuntos existed. Arsenio's became the most successful of the 1940s.
  • New York (1952): he handed his band to trumpeter Félix Chappottín; with Lilí Martínez and Miguelito Cuní it carried on as Conjunto Chappottín. In New York he played with Chano Pozo, Machito, Dizzy Gillespie and Mario Bauzá.

What he changed

According to Kevin Moore, "it took fifty years for Latin music to catch up with what Arsenio was doing in the 1940s". His son montuno became the template for Cuban dance music and salsa.

  • Back to the rhythm: his songs are clearly built on the clave. The whole band stressed the two offbeats that coincide with the syncopated steps of son, so that, as Bebo Valdés noted, you naturally danced contratiempo. Those two offbeats are also the basis of the bombo-ponche.
  • A bass that sings: he had his bass players play two-bar tumbaos with a melody of their own for each arrangement. According to Moore this later became critical for timba, but also for Motown, rock and funk.
  • Cierres: his unison breaks, strongly rooted in clave, are what timba musicians now call a bloque.
  • Layered guajeos: trumpets, piano and tres played interlocking ostinatos, the way treseros from Oriente did in their solos. Arsenio held that this diablo was the origin of the mambo.
  • A bigger band: a second and third trumpet (the start of the Latin horn section), the conga in the band, a large cencerro for the bongosero, and the piano instead of the guitar.

📝 Sources