Trinidad, Tobago, and Cuba Musical Traditions

A comprehensive vocabulary review of musical genres, instruments, history, key figures, and structural terms from Trinidad, Tobago, and Cuba based on lecture notes.

Jump Up

An instrumental steel-band performance piece by the Miami (Ohio) University Steel Band, whose title refers to Trinidadian Carnival street dancing also known as breakaway.

Money Is King

A $1935$ calypso song by Growling Tiger (Neville Marcano) detailing Depression-era social inequality and how wealth grants respect while poor people face degradation.

Growling Tiger

The stage name of Neville Marcano, a prominent Golden Age calypsonian who sang "Money Is King".

Calypso

A text-oriented Trinidadian musical genre foregrounding a solo singer with witty commentary, political satire, parody, and social critique over accompaniment.

Soca

A Trinidadian music genre meaning "soul-calypso," created by Lord Shorty, which emphasizes party themes and dancing over topical commentary.

Port of Spain

The capital city of Trinidad and Tobago.

Indo-Trinidadians

An ethnic group in Trinidad and Tobago descending from nineteenth-century Indian indentured laborers, comprising $37.8\%$ of the population.

Afro-Trinidadians

An ethnic group in Trinidad and Tobago descending from enslaved Africans, comprising $36.3\%$ of the population.

Canboulay

An Afro-Trinidadian street celebration that developed as a Black alternative to elite white Carnival, leading to colonial riots in $1881$ and $1884$.

Mas

Short for masquerade, referring to costumed street processions associated with Trinidadian Carnival.

Calinda

A Trinidadian stick-fighting tradition associated with Carnival, accompanied by chantwell singing, percussion, and lavways.

Chantwells

Singers who led stick fights and processions with boasts, insults, and topical songs, serving as historical predecessors to calypsonians.

Lavways

Lewd call-and-response songs performed by chantwells during stick fighting and Carnival processions.

Panorama

An annual Trinidadian Carnival competition held specifically for steel bands.

Golden Age of Calypso

The $1930\text{s}$ era of calypso represented by prominent singers such as Growling Tiger, Atilla the Hun, and Roaring Lion.

Young Brigade

A post-World War II generation of calypsonians prominent in the $1950\text{s}$, including Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener, and Lord Melody.

Lord Shorty

Born Garfield Blackman, known as the Father of Soca for creating soca by blending calypso with rock and Indian filmi music.

Chutney-Soca

A genre blend of soca featuring strong Indian popular-music influences, associated with artists like Rikki Jai.

Tamboo Bamboo

Ensembles created in the $1890\text{s}$ using different lengths of bamboo tubes struck or bounced on the ground to replace banned drums.

Hocket

A musical device in which a single melody or rhythmic pattern is shared and alternatingly distributed among different performers or instruments.

Iron Bands

Percussion ensembles formed after the $1934$ ban on tamboo bamboo that utilized brake drums, biscuit tins, dustbins, and other metal objects.

Steel Pan

Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument (designated in $1992$), made by hammering tuned playing areas into metal surfaces, typically $55\text{-gallon}$ oil drums.

Engine Room

The rhythm section of a steel band, consisting of a drum set along with unpitched percussion such as brake drums, congas, tambourines, shakers, and scrapers.

Panyard

An outdoor or indoor rehearsal space where a steel band gathers to learn and practice music by rote.

Syncopation

The placement of rhythmic accents or attacks on weak beats or offbeats against the expected pulse.

Duple Meter

A recurring beat organization structured in groups of two or characterized by a two-based feel.

Syllabic Text Setting

A vocal delivery style where each syllable of text is generally assigned to a single musical note to emphasize clarity of words.

Limbo

A Trinidadian dance where the performer dances and bends backward underneath a progressively lowered horizontal bar.

Chipping

A Trinidadian Carnival dance step consisting of a rhythmic shuffling movement to the pulse of the music.

Wining

A Trinidadian dance style characterized by circular motion of the hips and pelvis.

Soneros Son

A Cuban son track created by Pedro Fernandez and recorded by Estudiantina Invasora in Santiago de Cuba.

Tres

A Cuban guitar-family instrument with six strings arranged in three double courses, heavily used to play rhythmic guajeos.

Claves

A pair of hardwood sticks struck together to make a sharp wooden click, serving as a core percussion instrument in Cuban music.

Clave (Pattern)

An asymmetrical repeating five-stroke rhythmic timeline (organized as $3+2$ or $2+3$) that serves as the organizing key for Cuban music.

Montuno

The second main section of a Cuban son, characterized by a repeating vocal refrain alternating with lead singer responses and improvisatory instrumental soloing.

Changüí

An eastern Cuban predecessor to son cubano originating in Baracoa and Guantánamo, performed by small ensembles with tres, bongos, guayo, maracas, and marimbula.

Son Cubano

A major Cuban genre developed in late nineteenth-century eastern Cuba among Afro-Cubans, combining Spanish harmonic and poetic elements with African rhythmic structures and call-and-response.

Mambo

A Cuban dance music style created by combining son cubano with American big-band jazz, featuring large horn sections and Cuban percussion.

Salsa

A music style developed by Latin American immigrants in New York City in the $1960\text{s}$, based on Cuban son and montuno while addressing immigration and social reality.

Santería

A syncretic religion in Cuba combining West African (Yoruba) practices and beliefs with Roman Catholicism.

Syncretic

Describing a cultural or religious form that combines elements from distinct historical traditions.

Buena Vista Social Club

A $1990\text{s}$ recording and documentary film project that popularized veteran Cuban musicians and traditional Cuban son internationally.

Guajeo

A repeating, syncopated melodic pattern built from arpeggiated chords, typically played on the tres or piano in Cuban son and changüí.

Ostinato

A musical phrase or melodic figure that repeats persistently throughout a section.

Arpeggio

A technique where the individual notes of a chord are sounded successively rather than simultaneously.

Polyrhythm

The simultaneous sounding of multiple independent and contrasting rhythmic patterns.

Marimbula

A bass-producing plucked lamellophone featuring tuned metal tongues attached to a wooden resonator box, used in changüí and early son.

Lamellophone

An instrument category for idiophones that produce sound via plucked, vibrating tongues or lamellae.

Timbales

A pair of high-pitched, metal-shelled drums played with sticks whose fills punctuate transitions in Cuban music textures.

Largo

The initial, composed strophic section of a modern son cubano piece prior to entering the montuno section.

Son Montuno

A $1940\text{s}$ development of son cubano featuring expanded conjuntos, complex horn arrangements, extended call-and-response, and improvised instrumental descargas.

Descarga

An improvised instrumental solo passage or jam session featured in Cuban son montuno.

Palladium Ballroom

A famous venue in New York City known as the "Temple of Mambo" during the $1950\text{s}$ mambo craze.

The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero)

A $1927$ song composed by Moisés Simons and recorded by Rita Montaner that sparked the international "rumba" craze.

Cha-Cha-Chá

A Cuban dance style created by Enrique Jorrín with steps falling specifically on the $4\text{-and-}1$ count.