Contact Info
Naomi Bierman & José Carrión
4812 Burke Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103
206-632-8559
nbierman@hotmail.com
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
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