Overview

Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez was one of the most important Cuban musicians of the twentieth century. In this first scholarly study, ethnomusicologist David F. Garc\u00eda examines Rodr\u00edguez's life, including the conjunto musical combo he led and the highly influential son montuno style of music he created in the 1940s. Garc\u00eda recounts Rodr\u00edguez's battle for recognition at the height of \u0022mambo mania\u0022 in New York City and the significance of his music in the development of salsa. With firsthand accounts from relatives and fellow musicians, Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music follows Rodr\u00edguez's fortunes on several continents, speculating on why he never enjoyed wide commercial success despite the importance of his music. Garc\u00eda focuses on the roles that race, identity, and politics played in shaping Rodr\u00edguez's music and the trajectory of his musical career. His transnational perspective has important implications for Latin American and popular music studies.

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9781592133864

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Reviews

[The book] insightfully explores the bandleader's impact as a purveyor of the black Cuban experience, his place in the debate over the origin of the mambo, and his significance in the development of salsa... it is accessible to the serious Latin music fans. Newsday Garcia's book is strongest when approaching the subject from an ethnomusicologist's perspective. His analysis of Rodriguez's son montuno style will help refocus critical attention on a neglected figure in Afro-Cuban musical history...Garcia is...a convincing advocate, building an effective case for his subject's place in musical history. j.b. spins blog All in all, this book gives a detailed account of Cuban-derived Latin popular music from the 1940s to the 1970s in the USA and should provide new valuable insights for scholars of Cuban and Latin popular music. Popular Music An excellent book...based on extensive sources, personal interviews, meticulously reviewed historical recording, and assessment of contemporary dance steps observed at community festivals and gatherings. The compelling result is a historical explanation of the roots of contemporary salsa, a story of race and society, and the biography of a musical genius... It represents the first major work to document and analyze the career of this noteworthy Cuban musician-composer (who died in 1970). The Hispanic Outlook of Higher Education, Jan 26th 2009 David Garcia presents an outstanding critical account of the life and times of Arsenio Rodriguez, 'El Ciego Maravilloso' (The Marvelous Blind One). Garcia makes a strong argument that Arsenio was one of Cuba's most important music composers and innovators in the twentieth century. Building on an impressive collection of over 80 interviews with more than 50 people...and supported by meticulous archival research, Garcia weaves a historically detailed account of the life of this prominent Cuban musician, the emergence and dissemination of his son montuno sound, and the social conditions within which Arsenio and his contemporaries crafted their artistic expressions... The incorporation of photos from private collections greatly enriches the narrative flow of the text. Finally, Garcia's detailed discography is a critical resource to anyone interested in Cuban, Caribbean, and/ or Latin music studies. As a scholar of Cuban music making and a fan of Arsenio Rodriguez's son montuno sound, I highly recommend David Garcia's Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music as a model of contemporary musicological research, one which successfully achieves its goal of balancing its focus on the individual historical actor with that of the social history of a musical style and dance. - World of Music Vol. 2, 2008 [A] terrific biography that painstakingly traces Arsenio's profound contributions to the growth of Latin popular music...[I]t combines strong ethnomusicology, musical analysis and notation, and great contextualization of people, places and sounds...[T]he book is deeply informative and most appropriate for serious researchers... While many salsa lovers have at least heard of Arsenio Rodriguez, they will learn a lot from this book. I would expect many readers with strong interests in Latin/Caribbean music, the African/Congolese diaspora, Cuban studies, and U.S. Latino studies to find this book a good and rewarding read. - Centro

[The book] insightfully explores the bandleader's impact as a purveyor of the black Cuban experience, his place in the debate over the origin of the mambo, and his significance in the development of salsa... it is accessible to the serious Latin music fans. Newsday Garcia's book is strongest when approaching the subject from an ethnomusicologist's perspective. His analysis of Rodriguez's son montuno style will help refocus critical attention on a neglected figure in Afro-Cuban musical history...Garcia is...a convincing advocate, building an effective case for his subject's place in musical history. j.b. spins blog All in all, this book gives a detailed account of Cuban-derived Latin popular music from the 1940s to the 1970s in the USA and should provide new valuable insights for scholars of Cuban and Latin popular music. Popular Music An excellent book...based on extensive sources, personal interviews, meticulously reviewed historical recording, and assessment of contemporary dance steps observed at community festivals and gatherings. The compelling result is a historical explanation of the roots of contemporary salsa, a story of race and society, and the biography of a musical genius... It represents the first major work to document and analyze the career of this noteworthy Cuban musician-composer (who died in 1970). The Hispanic Outlook of Higher Education, Jan 26th 2009 David Garcia presents an outstanding critical account of the life and times of Arsenio Rodriguez, 'El Ciego Maravilloso' (The Marvelous Blind One). Garcia makes a strong argument that Arsenio was one of Cuba's most important music composers and innovators in the twentieth century. Building on an impressive collection of over 80 interviews with more than 50 people...and supported by meticulous archival research, Garcia weaves a historically detailed account of the life of this prominent Cuban musician, the emergence and dissemination of his son montuno sound, and the social conditions within which Arsenio and his contemporaries crafted their artistic expressions... The incorporation of photos from private collections greatly enriches the narrative flow of the text. Finally, Garcia's detailed discography is a critical resource to anyone interested in Cuban, Caribbean, and/ or Latin music studies. As a scholar of Cuban music making and a fan of Arsenio Rodriguez's son montuno sound, I highly recommend David Garcia's Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music as a model of contemporary musicological research, one which successfully achieves its goal of balancing its focus on the individual historical actor with that of the social history of a musical style and dance. - World of Music Vol. 2, 2008

Author Information

David F. Garcia is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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