"Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean" by Peter Manuel

[guarachon63]

Just stumbled across this book, seems to have been released recently.

Discusses topics that come up here quite a bit such as contradanza, tresillo and cinquillo, thought it might be of interest:

http://www.amazon.com/Creolizing-Contradance-Caribbean-Studies-America/dp/1592137342

More info (and downloadable introduction) here.

[jorge]

Guarachon,
Do you have this book? If so, could you do me a big favor and check if there is anything in it on Jose Manuel (Lico) Jimenez? He was an AfroCuban pianist and composer who, according to my mother, contributed to the incorporation of the contradanza and other European folk and classical music into the Cuban danzon, in the late 19th and early 20th Century. He was also my greatgrandfather and I am trying to learn more about his life story.

[JohnnyConga]

The BEST info on what your looking for would be in the Book "Cuba and it's Music from the Drums to Mambo" by Ned Sublett....I recommend this book to everyone on this forum who really wants to know the true history or Cuba and it's musical development...you will be very surprised how it all came about...and will learn things u never did before, about Cuba...."JC" Johnny Conga

[guarachon63]

I don't have it but you can search most any books contents these days via


http://books.google.com

There are several passing references to a contradanza composer born about 1830 named José (Lino) Fernández de Coca.

See here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wSXyCohXpdgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22creolizing+contradance%22&ei=BraQSpflDovgyQTt1sitBw&client=firefox-a#v=snippet&q=lino&f=false


FWIW, no one by that name turns up in a similar search of Sublette's book. Not to take anything away from that excellent work.

Here are other references from a general search of google books:

http://books.google.com/books?ei=0LmQSs ... arch+Books

saludos
barry

[jorge]

Guarachon, thanks for showing us that search method, that Google search engine turns up some very interesting results. I have the books by Carpentier (Musica en Cuba) and Orovio, both of which, as predicted by the Google search, have some good information on Lico Jimenez. JC, thanks for mentioning Ned Sublette's excellent book. Unfortunately, also as predicted by the Google search, it does not have anything on Lico Jimenez. I asked Ned about this last year and, as good a scholar as he is, he had never heard of Lico Jimenez. I also have 3 or 4 other books which have some text on Lico Jimenez, which are not listed in the first few Google search pages. Those are all Cuban, in Spanish, mostly out of print, and probably difficult or impossible to buy in the US.

Interestingly, using "José" with the accented e gets a lot more hits in the Google search than using "Jose" without the accented e. Just something to be aware of in doing Google searches. Using the accented e, the books by Diaz Ayala and Lasaga are found by the Google search, and appear to have some text on Lico Jimenez, but with the unaccented e, the Google search misses them. Based on this search, I want to get the Diaz Ayala and Lasaga books, and also the "Cuba Adventure Guide" by Vivien Lougheed which says that Lico Jimenez became the director of the Music Conservatory in Hamburg, I did not know that and I wonder what the source is. Also, a work by Edilia Piñon Gonzalez referenced in a book by Darlene Hull . Anyway, it looks like the Google search can be a very useful, if not entirely thorough, tool. Thanks.

Back to the actual topic of the thread, there are a number of AfroCuban musicians with excellent classical training who, in the end of the 19th century, were force to emigrate from Cuba to Europe. In fact, I can't think of one AfroCuban classical musician before the revolution who lived and died in Cuba without having to leave. The intense racism in Cuba made it impossible for musicians and music professors of color make careers in classical music in Cuba at that time. This effect is probably one of the reasons underlying the incorporation of classical music forms like the contradanza into popular Cuban dance music which was largely based on African music. It was acceptable at that time for AfroCuban musicians to excel in classical music, as long as they limited their performances to dance orchestras and did not try to break the racist barrier and enter into a career in classical music. I would like to look at Peter Manuel's book and see what he thinks about this, but that would seem to me to be a strong socioeconomic force toward "creolizing" the contradanza in Cuba.