Music Resources > Afro-Cuban Music
Afro-Cuban Music
[Updated Feb 25, 2026]: The more I dig into the history of our southern neighbor, the more I realize that Cuba helped make America. The sugar business and tourism once made Cuba the center of the world, and the slavery there helped fund the development of New Orleans, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, etc. With this in mind as a history enjoyer, I found it irresistible to learn more about Cuba. As a result, since 2010 or so, I’ve had a close relationship with Afro-Cuban music.
With respect to nuances in culture, there will always be a need to simplify language, because at some point we need to rein it in so we can actually learn. When I refer to “Afro-Cuban”, “Latin Jazz”, or “The Latin Craze”, I’m referring mainly to music derived from son cubano (from Santiago in the east) mixed with Western Classical music (popular in Havana in the west). This marriage resulted in the danzon, guaracha, mambo, cha-cha-cha, etc; all genres that contributed to the Salsa movement in the 1970s. Generally but definitely not always, Salsa is what most of us think of when someone says “Afro-Cuban music.”
Keep in mind that historically, Cuban composers around Havana in the early 20th century were deeply engaged with the same musical traditions that shaped Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Any of the great Cuban composers, from Arsenio Rodriquez, to Israel “Cachao” López, to Paquito D’Rivera, were rigorously trained in Western classical music (Italian, French, Spanish), as well as national, regional, and local folk styles. They infused these influences into the creation of mambo, descarga, and son montuno.
Musicians the likes of Tito Puente, Rubén Blades, and Eddie Palmieri helped bring these influences even further, into Rock, Funk, R&B, Hip-hop, and current mainstream Pop.
Context
The Afro part of “Afro-Cuban music” does not exclude it from being American, nor does the Cuban part. We don’t call it Latin much anymore (unless speaking of jazz) – it’s American – just as swing, blues, and straight-edge punk rock and emo is American. However, it can’t be denied that Afro-Cuban music still remains seen as “foreign” or at least distinguished by mainstream listeners, due to it’s complex syncopations (the African part), and language barrier (Spanish from the Cuban part).
With this in mind, would you believe me if I told you that Afro-Cuban music is still very much the center, if not the driving force behind pop music today, and has been since the 1960s?
It’s true – countless groups in the 60’s drew from the Latin craze, and American consumers didn’t even notice. The Beatles are a great example of this, with “Twist and Shout” borrowing ingredients directly from the mambo, such as the stops or breaks (cierre), and the 3-2 son clave pattern.
Afro-Cuban orquestras would contain much of the same instrumentation as American R&B and Rock groups: bass (often the Ampeg BB, or Fender Bass), piano, brass, guitar, and vocal; with the addition of the tres, guiro, conga, bongo, and timbales. It wasn’t long from when Chano Pozo brought his drum to the US to play with Dizzie Gillespie in the 40s, that we started to hear congas on major hits in Rock and R&B (when the music industry was intentionally segregated, conga was on both sides of the divide).
What separates Salsa from other American styles is the flavor, or sabor; and that comes from the way these instruments are approached. The bass sings with an elegant tumbao pattern; the piano is melodic, percussive, and extremely colorful; the brass layers in complex rhythms. The percussion instruments play to their full melodic capacity; while the melodic and harmonic instruments syncopate rhythmically with one another.
Learning Afro-Cuban Music
To compose a good Salsa arrangement, one has to think food: fresh, potent ingredients combined elegantly for maximum flavor.
The son clave pattern (mentioned earlier) is the starting point to understanding Salsa music and its flavor. In one way or another, all salsa music (written in 4/4 and played in 2/4) is based off this son clave pattern:
Afro-Cuban music contains elements of diasporadic music, so I think it warrants respect, and part of that respect is putting time aside to learn about Cuban history as well as it’s formalized musical traditions. These traditions are a combination of east and west Africa ninfluences, as well as European ones. Start with the clave pattern, and see where that takes you. Hopefully it will take you on a musical journey of massive benefit, as it has for me.
Resources
Authors
Readings
From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz by Raul A. Fernandez
Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo by Ned Sublette
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer
Instruction Books
The True Cuban Bass by Carlos Del Puerto & Silvio Vergara
The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro & Chuck Sher
Poncho Sanchez’ Conga Cookbook
The Conga and Bongo Drum in Jazz by Trevor Salloum & Bobby Sanabria
Videos
From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale (2006)
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017)
PBS American Masters | Cachao: Uno Mas
Fania All-Stars: Our Latin Thing (Nuestra Cosa Latino)
History of Latin Music BBC Documentary