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Naomi Bierman & José  Carrión

4812 Burke Avenue North

Seattle, WA 98103

206-632-8559

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Son & Son Montuno - Part 1

Ann Reynolds & I had recently had the pleasure of meeting with Roberto Borrell to talk about certain aspects of Cuban son & son montuno which seem to cause some confusion.

Two of the topics we covered were:

1.     Son montuno – What exactly does son montuno refer to? Is it a dance? A musical arrangement? Something else?

2.    How is Cuban son danced in Cuba in the 21st century?

Son montuno – What exactly does son montuno refer to? Is it a dance? A musical arrangement? Something else?

Son montuno means different things to different people. When interviewing people in Santiago de Cuba, I’ve heard some of the following responses:

1.     “Our [son] group plays son montuno… the tres player (or maybe the tumbadora player, depending on the group) is from el monte (the mountainous rural regions of the Oriente or Eastern part of Cuba) where son originated & you can hear the tumbao of son montuno in the way he plays.”

2.    “Son montunos have lyrics that refer to themes from el monte.”

3.    Son montuno “refers to the old, original dance form that arose in el monte & has a basic step consisting of a simple, alternating, side-to-side movement. The torso tilts from right to left & left to right; the arms of the couple linked in a way as to simulate the action of ‘sacando aqua del pozo’ or pumping water from a well”.  (Ernesto Armigñán, historian, singer, choreographer for Ballet Folklórico Oriente & Ballet Folklórico Cutumba & artistic director Tropicana Santiago.)

This is the most common definition offered by informed people of the Oriente. Many families from this region proudly trace their roots to ancestors from el monte, where a new type of music – nengón – was born. The nengones are the oldest known forms of son.

4.   Son montuno refers to a very specific musical arrangement best typified by Arsenio Rodríguez’ conjunto in the mid-20th century. Nobody can explain this better than Roberto Borrell. When Roberto refers to son montuno in his classes, he is referring to this type of musical arrangement. He does not consider son montuno a type of dance.

I asked Roberto where we might have a chance to dance to these arrangements? Unfortunately, almost nowhere. If we wanted to dance to music from this genre (~1940’s), we’d have to seek out a group which makes a tremendous effort to reenact true representations  of Arsenio’s (& some of his colleagues’) material. It would be unusual to hear this type of music played live in Cuba these days.

This particular style of music is 70+ years old now & as Roberto has explained, the music continued to evolve. The footwork pattern (i.e. changing between the basic son step & cha-cha-cha, etc.) that Roberto teaches is very specific for these particular types of son montuno arrangements and NOT for the great majority of contemporary sones, even those that are sometimes mistakenly labeled “son montunos” on CD liner notes.

An interesting aside is that the majority of people in Cuba, including the musicians, have not had the privilege or opportunity to listen to music of this genre. Most weren’t born, or were very young at the time, and recordings from this period are extremely rare in Cuba.

How is Cuban son danced in Cuba in the 21st Century?

Cuban son is very much alive and well in the 21st century, especially in Santiago de Cuba, “la cuna (cradle) de son”. It is a beautiful dance with a specific style and set of figures. According to Armigñán, “it has a basic step similar to danzón. In son, the emphasis of the movement is from waist down. With its relatively narrow [basic] step, it’s been said that ‘son can be danced on a single brick’.  The male dancer has to be very creative & develop techniques to show off his dexterity. The best examples of his skill would be seen in his ‘tornillos’, or corkscrew-like maneuvers. This challenging ‘tornillo’ is unique to Cuban son.”

The tornillo is quite showy & son can indeed be a showy dance with a bit (maybe alot!) of a machista flair. Traditional son is not showy, however, in a casino-style way (as seen in some performance videos on the Internet), but in a contained sort of way, manifested through its elegance & the attitude of the dancers. It would be rare to find a venue in Santiago with a dance floor big enough to do the full-on,  quite spectacular, horizontal tornillo. However, most leads, if dancing confidently with their partner, will attempt some version of a tornillo. This is traditional Cuban son as danced today.

The body position, movement & characterization of traditional Cuban son have a very distinctive feel & look. The figures, which include flowing turns, are not the same as those seen in Cuban-style casino. Contrary to what some folks mistakenly believe, the traditional son figures are not “cabaret-style”. Roberto did a brief, comical imitation for us of his idea of “cabaret-style” & we are all in agreement that it has nothing to do with traditional son. Roberto did say, however, that he is not familiar with how son is danced in Santiago because he hasn’t spent time there.

[Please note: Cabaret shows in Cuba will often incorporate rumba, son, Orishas, etc. but they look very different from what we are discussing because they are indeed “cabaret-style”.]

In Santiago, son can be heard in at least 3-4 different live music venues (the most famous of which is the original Casa de la Trova) from 11:00 in the morning ‘til late in the evening - all day, every day - unless, of course, it rains! The majority of Santiagueros are not soneros, but there are plenty of folks who dance son, who have never set foot on a stage, who have never studied in a dance school, but who have learned from their parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, neighbors, etc.

There’s nothing more fun for us, as students of Cuban dance, than the chance to dance with the Cuban soneros. And the Cuban soneros seem to be mutually entertained when dancing with an extranjera(o) who knows how to dance traditional Cuban son or at least makes a joyful attempt to do so!

 Naomi        4/15/11

Son & Son Montuno - Part 2

In her message to the Seattle-Cuba group, Heidi mentioned that “Roberto frequently demonstrates how you can dance his son montuno style with contemporary music that is done in traditional son montuno style, i.e. Los Van Van songs where the call and response between singer and coro signals changing to cha cha cha, back to son during solos, and cha cha cha again with the start of the mambo.”

Ann and I spent a fair amount of time talking to Roberto about this since it seems to be an area of confusion for some of his students.

In his classes and demonstrations, Roberto places a tremendous amount of emphasis on helping us develop an awareness and ear for the music so that we can recognize changes and respond accordingly with our feet. These footwork changes between son and cha cha cha - as they correspond to singer, coro and musical sections in the son montuno arrangements - developed as a response to the “new” sound of Arsenio Rodriguez’ in the 1940’s.

This exciting period of time, when his son montuno arrangements became popular, will forever hold an important place in the history of Cuban music. It’s important to remember, however, that son was in existence for 50+ years prior to that time and that the music continued evolving for more than 50 years since then.

Roberto’s demonstrations on how we can dance his son montuno style with some of the contemporary music by Los Van Van or the timba bands help illustrate the evolution of the music as it incorporates elements from the past with innovative new ideas.

Although his dance steps may fit in perfectly from a rhythmical perspective, that doesn’t necessarily imply that this is how the people in Cuba actually dance these days. Rumba and Orisha footwork can also blend in smoothly because the roots of all these different genres can be heard in the contemporary music.

The Cubans typically dance Cuban-style salsa to this music, sometimes on the “4”, most of the time on the “1”, but without alternating between a basic step and cha cha cha during the different parts of these arrangements.

Roberto has a wealth of information to offer but he also presumes a certain amount of background knowledge on the part of his students. For those who are new to Cuban music and dance &/or haven’t spent time in Cuba, some of his information is taken out of context and misunderstood.

For example, the son that is heard today, especially in Santiago de Cuba, is traditional son, played mostly by sextets and septets, and danced to in the traditional son style as explained in my first message. This son has maintained integrity in its form over the years and dates back to before the 1940’s when Arsenio popularized his new son montuno style. Once again, there is no alternating between a basic son step and cha cha cha in this traditional style of dance.

If put back into its historical perspective, this information becomes less confusing & folks can worry less about how they’re “supposed” to dance & enjoy it more.

Naomi

4/30/11