The Case of the Fund Drive Cuban Hits

XRAY FM is four big years old, and it's time for our annual Spring Fund Drive! Please consider joining the XRAY nation as a member!!

I like to do something special for the fund drive shows, so today I have compiled a bit of a greatest hits show. (Additionally I will thrill you with readings of some poetry on the theme of radio, exploring our sentimental attachment to song and place, and the spooky science that magically brings those sounds into our crude mechanical instruments.)

The theme today is Cuba; specifically, the Eastern end of the island. The east in Cuba, known locally as "El Oriente," was the original capital region of the island when Cuba was primarily a sugar plantation asset for Spain. Today eastern Cuba remains a largely rural area, and it retains a large number of Afro-Cubans descended from the slave population that worked the colonial plantations.

The two primary musical traditions of eastern Cuba follow these demographics. First is guajira, the "country music" of Cuba that grew out of folk forms from Spain. Second is guaguanco, known today as "rumba," which bears a heavy influence of African drumming and religion, and which served as the foundation for modern salsa music. Guajira took root in the rural areas of eastern Cuba, while guaguanco thrived in urban centers such as Santiago. Both of these musical traditions have been appropriated by artists in Havana and have become pillars for Cuban music generally.

The first hour today is dedicated to guaguanco. We start the show with some fine examples of early guaguanco from the 40s and 50s, then we follow the sound as it progresses into the 60s. We end the first hour with some examples of how the rumba sound started to develop into modern salsa in the 70s.

The second hour today is dedicated to guajira. We start with some old-timey country music, including the classic Cuban son. We'll hear some dramatic slowjam guajira before we end today's show with examples of this tradition getting modern updates in the 60s and 70s.