cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo

Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo By Ned SubletteChicago Review Press

In his introduction to Cuba and Its Music, Qbadisc label founder Ned Sublette asks the reader to imagine the impossibility of explaining American music to someone who knows nothing about American history. So he starts his magisterial Cuban music history in prehistoric Africa and ancient Spain, the better to understand the roots of this small but potent powerhouse of Latin rhythms. Over 700 dense but absorbing pages later, he arrives at the mambo, the 1952 coup of Fulgencio Batista, and the end of this first installment in a projected two-volume set. Along the way, he follows more fascinating detours than a Neal Cassady bus trip. Who would've thought that the "Spanish tinge" famously identified by Jelly Roll Morton has its roots in the Moorish conquest of Spain? The sections on Afro-Cuban religions like Santeria are more enlightening than most books on the subject, the cutthroat dandies of the 19th century Havana underworld stalk the colonnades in vivid detail, and Sublette finally gives the world a simple explanation of the "clave," the rhythmic key that defines Cuban music. Further on, the releases of various pivotal records ("Bruca Manigua", "Mambo No. 5") crackle with the same excitement as "Rock Around the Clock" or "Anarchy in the UK". Don't be put off by the book's size or scholarly presentation: these compulsively readable pages seem to turn themselves. Anyone with the slightest interest in Cuban music-- or music at all-- should be reading this book right now. [review taken from Pitchfork's Summer Reading List... also includes reviews for Can't Stop, Won't Stop and also The Wu Tang Manual if you are interested]

And here is a second review from the All About Jazz Webpage