Additional notes to Cuban Danzon – Before There Was Jazz 1906 – 1929
Arhoolie CD 7032
Cuban Influences On New Orleans Music
Essay by Jack Stewart
Many similarities exist between New Orleans vernacular music of the second half of the
nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century and Cuban vernacular music
from the same periods. Taken as a group the danza, the danzon, and the son in Cuba
cover roughly the same time period as pre-ragtime, ragtime, and jazz cover in New
Orleans.(i) Additionally the same type of debate rages on about the true ethnic origins of
Cuban music that constantly surfaces concerning the origins of New Orleans music.(ii)
Even though many may not see the similarities between Cuban and New Orleans music at
first hearing, they are there. However, one of the biggest problems in seeing them is
getting past the differences, which are also there, and perhaps in at least equal number.
New Orleans and Cuba both have multi-cultural histories that include some of the same
racial and ethnic components-African, Italian, Native American, and Spanish- and they
are both part of the cultural system that exists on the edges of the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean. However, the Gulf serves to both unify and separate the respective cultures in
the same way that the Mediterranean Sea operates with its own particular peripheral
"cultural confederation." New Orleans, Cuba, Mexico (especially Veracruz and
Tampico), Martinique, and others share many, but not all, of the same cultural elements.
Also, New Orleans is part of the Mississippi River cultural system as well as that of the
United States. Likewise, Cuba is part of the Central American cultural system as well as
that of Latin America as a whole.
Cuba and New Orleans are not a great distance apart geographically, with only 694 miles
separating New Orleans and Havana.(iii) Until thirty-five years ago, they were also
located along the same trade routes. Ships entering or leaving the Gulf of Mexico would
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most often stop at both Cuba and New Orleans. With at least some passenger
accommodations available on almost every freighter in addition to the passenger ship
service that existed.(iv) Furthermore, at the turn of the century both New Orleans and
Havana had a reputation for being exotic places where good times could be had, and this
shared feature was not lost on the residents of either city, with the resultant travel
between the two.
There was early Cuban immigration to New Orleans; the first significant Cuban
migration came to New Orleans in 1809. This group was actually refugees from the
French colony of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) that first sought asylum in Cuba in 1803
as a result of the power struggle in Saint-Domingue. That revolution took place from
1791 to 1804, and is historically referred to as the "Haitian Slave Uprising." After six
years residence in Cuba, these refugees were forced out when Marques de Somerueles,
Captain-general of Cuba, ordered expulsion of all Frenchmen whose presence might
prove dangerous.
The Saint-Domingue refugees that ended up in New Orleans were roughly nine thousand
in number, and at the time of their arrival in New Orleans were statistically listed as
being approximately one-third "whites," one-third "free persons of color," and one-third
"slaves."(v) The "whites" were probably pre-dominantly French in origin, since this was
a French colony. The "slaves" were most likely all enslaved Africans, probably
predominantly from Dahomey, whose former inhabitants culturally dominated SaintDomingue.(vi) However, some of them may have been enslaved Africans acquired in
Cuba, in which case they may have been from the West African area of Carabalis, or
Lucumi (Yorubans) from the area northeast of Benin near the Niger Delta.(vii) They also
could have been Mandingas originating anywhere from Senegal, Liberia, Ashanty or
Dahomey, or perhaps they were Gangas.(viii) One should note that the origins of the
African population in New Orleans during the French and Spanish regimes, respectively,
were also from these same sources.(ix) The "free persons of color" were possibly a
mixture in varying degrees of the two other groups, with perhaps a partial admixture of
Native American lineage.(x) Some may also have been free people of African origin who
went to the Caribbean via Europe.
How much Cuban musical culture, especially contemporaneous innovations, any of these
refugees brought with them after their nominal six-year stint in Cuba is not readily
apparent. However, the shortage of musicians that existed in New Orleans in 1810, seems
to have eased somewhat by 1811, so it is possible that some of the refugees were
musicians.(xi)
During the next two decades New Orleans' musical culture received infusions from
several entrepreneurs with connections to Cuba. On April 3, 1816, Don Gayetano
Mariotini (c.1780-1817), popularly known as Signore Gayetano, presented his legendary
"Circus" in a structure which was a combination of a wooden stadium and a tent (which
after some additional physical improvements the following year was called the "Olympic
Circus") in Place Publique.(xii) In folklore his circus was later referred to as the "Congo
Circus," and was said to have come from Havana.(xiii) According to the writings of
Lafcadio Hearn in the 1880's, the circus presented at this site was a "popular fixture" of
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New Orleans life that was still "remembered" over sixty years later.(xiv) From 1816 to
1885, the site's name evolved from Place Publique to Place du Cirque (or Circus Park or
Circus Square) to Congo Plain(s) or Congo Square.(xv) While this circus specialized in
equestrian acts, it also presented music, including a Spanish dancer and acts which
included hornpipes, both of which may have had a Cuban-influenced sound.(xvi) As the
Olympic Circus it also presented opera in 1817, after the Orleans Theater was destroyed
by fire the previous year.(xvii) Concurrent with Gayetano's circus, but at an immediately
adjacent site, a Mr. Renault presented, for a short period of time, animal fights in a small
arena.(xviii) As a result, it appears that both Renault's and Gayetano's enterprises became
mixed together in the subsequent folklore as the legendary Signor Gayetano's Circus
from Havana with its wild animals.(xix) However, Gaetano, a native of Italy, with the
title of "Don" on his burial certificate,(xx) had very possibly come to New Orleans by
way of Havana, as was the case with many acts and musical personages in New Orleans.
John Davis, a ballroom operator, was one of the Saint Domingue refugees. He came to
New Orleans from Saint Domingue in 1809, apparently with the great migration via
Cuba. When Louis Tabary's new and spacious Orleans Theatre burned in 1816, during its
first summer season, Tabary returned his operation to the smaller St. Philip Street
Theatre, a remodeled ballroom. However, before the end of the year the enterprising
Davis bought the land and the ruins of the Orleans Theatre. In November, 1819 he reopened the theatre that was by then part of a complex that included a ballroom and a
hotel. Davis reigned supreme in opera presentation in New Orleans until the legendary
theater operator John Caldwell arrived in New Orleans. Caldwell initially rented the St.
Philip Theatre, then went to four nights a week at the Orleans, before building his own
theatre on Camp St. Caldwell was soon building another theatre, the St. Charles, which
was to be the largest theatre in the United States. A week after its opening on March 6,
1836, he enlarged his orchestra and engaged the G. B. Montressor Italian opera company
fresh from successes in London, New York and Havana. Later in the season Caldwell
also contracted the Havana troupe directed by Francis Brichta which was considered the
best opera company in the Western hemisphere.(xxi) The star of the company was
Madame Pantanelli who came to the St. Charles Theater with the personal endorsement
of Rossini. In Havana, she had enjoyed a great success at the Tacon Theater.(xxii)
Another Italian opera singer who came to New Orleans via Havana and the Tacon
Theater was the famous tenor Fornasari who arrived in New Orleans on May 28, 1836 to
star as Figaro in The Barber of Seville.(xxiii) Along with the soloists and chorus, Bricta
brought three string instrumentalists to play first viola, cello, and bass in the orchestra as
well as conductor Luigi Gabici (c.1813-1862).(xxiv) Exactly what any of these Italian,
Italian-Cuban, or Cuban opera musicians brought to New Orleans in the way of Cuban
vernacular music is unknown. However, Gabici achieved prominence in New Orleans as
a composer, publisher and music teacher who had among his many students the famous
Creole-of-color composer Edmond Dede (1827-1903)(xxv) and Thomas Tio (18281881), the first clarinet player and teacher in the Tio family lineage and the grandfather of
Lorenzo Tio, Jr. (1893-1933).(xxvi) Additionally, Gabici and the others helped to further
establish the operatic tradition in New Orleans, a tradition which had already been long
established in Havana. This shared operatic tradition was one of the important early
cultural similarities of the two cities' musical cultures.
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Numerous political connections between New Orleans and Cuba further facilitated the
cultural and musical connections. "In 1823 John Quincy Adams described a law of
political gravity whereby just as an apple must fall eventually to the ground, Cuba would
one day fall to the United States."(xxvii) New Orleans endorsed this expression of
"manifest destiny" and its history and location made it more aware of Cuba than were
other American cities. Several bronze plaques in the 500 block of Poydras Street in New
Orleans' Central Business District mark the site of a building (now demolished) where the
Cuban liberation flag was flown in New Orleans in 1850. The plaques mark the spot
where Narciso Lopez finally succeeded in raising an expedition to liberate Cuba. While
Lopez had failed elsewhere in the United States, he succeeded in New Orleans. With the
help of Mississippi governor General John Quitman, and others, Lopez put together a
group of 750 men and invaded Cuba. Although the attempt failed they made their way
safely back to Key West. Back in New Orleans a year later (1851), Lopez put together
another expedition with Colonel W. L. Crittenden as second in command. This group was
caught in Cuba; fifty-one were executed, including Crittenden. As a result, rioters in New
Orleans attacked the Spanish consulate and other Spanish property. In 1854 New
Orleanians rigorously supported the Ostend Manifesto which justified wresting Cuba
from Spain if they would not sell it. However, when Cuban insurrection finally broke out
fourteen years later (1868), post- Civil War New Orleans, with too many problems of its
own, did not have the resources to support the effort, but it did support the effort with
music; in 1869, A. E. Blackmar published Viva Cuba: Passo Doble by Auguste Davis, a
Hispanic influenced piece in six-eight time. Five years later in 1873, when the former
Confederate blockade runner Virginius, now in the hands of pro-Cuban supporters, was
captured by the Spanish, all political factions in the tumultuous New Orleans
reconstruction politics, amazingly, united in outrage for Captain Fry, General Ryan and
others on board who were executed by the Spanish. In New Orleans, money was raised
and troops were offered to President Grant for an invasion to seize Cuba. Although the
issue was eventually settled through diplomacy, pro-Cuban sentiment in New Orleans
was raised to an all time high level.(xxviii)
Several other performers who appeared at the St. Charles Theater came to New Orleans
directly from Havana. One that may have actually transmitted culture between the two
cities was Fanny Elssler, the world-famous Austrian-born ballet dancer, whose
appearance in New Orleans began March 6, 1840. In Havana she danced the Zapateado,
one of the native Cuban dances,(xxix) and she may have possibly used Cuban dances in
some of her New Orleans performances. Another of the world-famous entertainers that
performed in New Orleans and arrived in the city via Cuba was Jenny Lind. In 1850, P.
T. Barnum presented the "Swedish Nightingale's" tour of the Unites States. After
appearing in a number of American cities, Lind performed in Havana for a month, then
sailed to New Orleans where she also performed for a month, giving thirteen concerts at
the St. Charles Theater.(xxx)
Between 1854, and 1862, New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
visited Cuba quite often. While there, he took a particular interest in Cuban music, and
befriended many prominent Cuban musicians including composers Manuel Saumell
Robreno (1817-1870), Nicolas Ruiz Espadero (1832-1890), and Ignacio Maria Cervantes
(1847-1905).(xxxi) Gottschalk's own composition Ojos Criollos (Les yeux creoles)
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Danse Cubaine, published in 1860, is one of his most pleasing and popular pieces, and it
has rhythms which are both Cuban and proto-ragtime, and is probably the best of his
several "Cuban" pieces.
Gottschalk's visits to Cuba seem to have helped foster musical connections which deserve
special mention. Several Cuban composers produced a long stream of danzas which seem
to have had a profound effect on American popular music, an effect which was
undoubtedly felt in New Orleans. These composers, of whom Manuel Saumell and
Ignacio Cervantes, are the most prominent, offered a great many of these popular little
two-part danzas, which were usually printed in magazines, rather than as sheet music. As
a result, their exact dates of publication are hard to determine, especially since some were
published at different times with different names.(xxxii) A substantial percentage of their
compositions have what we would now call a "cakewalk" ending. The rhythms used in
the "finale" of many of these danzas, and the rhythm throughout all danzons, are the same
as the basic, simple, distinguishing rhythm of cakewalks. All of these forms use the "tiednote" syncopation that is also one of the several syncopated figures in ragtime. In Cuban
music these figures are sometimes referred to as clave or rumba clave rhythms.(xxxiii)
Gotttschalk's Cuban visits seem to mark a turning point in the Cuban-New Orleans
musical connection. Prior to his Cuban tours and subsequent compositions, all of the
Cuban-New Orleans musical connections seem to have been limited to presentations of
Cuban or Cuban-based musicians to New Orleans audiences. With the advent of
Gottschalk's compositions this began to gradually change. Cuban music of varying types
began to be published in New Orleans. As well as being published in Europe,(xxxiv)
Gottschalk's friend Nicolas Espadero was also published in New Orleans. His Meditation,
for Violin and Piano, Opus 35, by N. R. Espadero, of Havana, was published by A. E.
Blackmar in New Orleans (and New York) in 1868. Another piece was 2 Cuban Dances,
Anita and By You, by C. Maduell, published by L. Grunewald in New Orleans (and
Houston, Tex.) in 1883. Two years later Grunewald also published both Maduell's Melio
Danzon and his Encarnacion Danzon. These two pieces and the various danzas in the
numerous "Mexican" series published initially in New Orleans at the time of the World's
Cotton and Industrial Exposition of 1884-85 are considered by some analysts to be at
least partly Cuban.(xxxv) However, Chloe Danza Mexicana, La Naranja Danza and El
Nopal Danza Mexicana, which were arranged or composed by the noted quasi-New
Orleans composer W. T. Francis (1859-1916),(xxxvi) are considerably different in form
from the Cuban danza and the use of "danza" in this context may just be the Spanish
translation of "dance," especially since El Nopal is a waltz, and the companion piece of
the same name, publisher, and date by Narcisso Martinez is a mazurka. The Junius Hart
Music Company's Mexican Series of sheet music was the largest of these "Mexican"
catalogs. First published in 1884, as a mass merchandising device, this series contained
not only Mexican music, but also music billed as Mexican. Hart used the Mexican Series
as a marketing tool for anything in the way of Latin music.(xxxvii) However, Mexican
music had been influenced by Cuban music, especially that of the geographically close
Yucatan peninsula and the coastal area of the adjacent cities of Tampico and Veracruz,
where New Orleans's musically talented Tio family went on their Mexican
odyssey.(xxxviii) Mexico and Cuba have common multicultural antecedents in the same
way mentioned earlier with regard to New Orleans and Havana.
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Musical connections continued in 1890, when Adelaida, Cuban Dance, by A. Cardona
was published by the Louis Grunewald Co. The next year, 1891, Echoes From Mexican
And Cuban Shores, Ahora (Now) and Entonces (Then), by Amelia Cammack, was also
published by Grunewald. Ahora is more syncopated and is New Orleans' version of a
danza, whereas Entonces is a Mexican love song. The titles seem to imply that Cubanderived pieces were supplanting Mexican-derived ones as the latest in musical fashion.
Some musical connection between New Orleans and Cuba must have been seen also by
one I. Fenster who composed a piece published in San Francisco in 1899 entitled
Louisiana from Havana, a Cuban-inspired piano/violin duet. Also, as a result of the
Spanish-American War many commemorative pieces were composed by New Orleanians
and many were published by New Orleans publishers, but musically, these were not
Cuban.
The Spanish-American War however brought another type of musical interaction
between the two cultures. Soldiers left from New Orleans to join in the fight. Although
records of New Orleans pre-jazz bands involved in the war are sketchy, some evidence
exists. The most well documented Cuban travels of a New Orleans musical group are
those of the Onward Brass Band. This band traveled extensively, and played in Cuba in
1884,(xxxix) as well as New York in 1891.(xl) The Onward Brass Band may have also
gone to Cuba again toward the end of the Spanish-American War, as an official military
unit, and been stationed at the San Juan Hill Battlefield subsequent to the decisive
battle.(xli)
At the time of the Spanish-American War, bandleader Jack Laine organized a special 15
piece musical group for military purposes and took part in local military preparations for
the war, but never embarked for Cuba, because of the armistice.(xlii) However, this
group may have played some Cuban or Cuban-derived music. Local New Orleans bands
also took part in the victory celebrations. At the "Victory over Spain Celebration in 9th
Ward," the 4th Battalion Band under Prof. Siegfried Christiansen (father of jazzman Sig
Christiansen) played at Macarty Square, where perhaps some Cuban music was
played.(xliii)
By the turn of the century the northeast section of the French Quarter had a large amount
of Hispanic population of varying origins(xliv) and some number of these people were
undoubtedly Cuban. While recent census research shows that the actual amount of Cuban
migration to New Orleans was very small compared to Mexican migration,(xlv) there
may have been a number of musically influential Cubans in the city. When recalling the
New Orleans musical scene around 1900, ragtime pianist, composer and musical observer
Roy Carew recalled an "outstanding" Cuban pianist by the name of Gonzales who
claimed that ragtime came from Cuba.(xlvi) Gonzales probably based his claim on the
previously mentioned finale or end "ride out" syncopated phrases using tied note figures
that are common to both Cuban danzas and American cakewalks. There were also other
Cuban connections with New Orleans musicians. Bandleader Jack Laine's wife Blanche
Nunez was of immediate Cuban descent.(xlvii) Manuel Mello, one of Laine's best lead
cornetists and assistant band leaders, had an alternate occupation or "day job" in the sugar
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business. This often took him to Cuba where he spent a lot of time working in Oriente
province.(xlviii)
In 1905 (a year before the first of the recordings presented on this disc was issued) New
Orleans composer Paul Sarebresole (1875-1911) published a piece entitled Come
Clean(xlix) that is similar in form to a Cuban danza. In this piece the second strain uses a
habanera rhythm. Additionally, the first strain of this piece used the same final figure
employed eighteen years later by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band on its recordings of
Snake Rag.(l) Although one is tempted to speculate on the circumstances of such a
connection, what can actually be concluded by this example is that as early as 1905, at
least some New Orleanians were mixing Cuban and proto-jazz motifs in the same piece,
although in a different manner than done later.
Early New Orleans jazz musicians were aware of the Cuban sounds. Original Dixieland
Jazz Band drummer Tony Sbarbaro was familiar with what he considered hot trumpet
playing on early Cuban recordings. He described them as playing their native music with
a dirty "mud" tone, and as having the feeling of a good jazz beat, although the only place
they played "straight lead" tunes were in the big cities.(li) In a 1957 interview, Manuel
Manetta notes that as a young musician in 1917, Louis Armstrong only knew three
pieces, which he played constantly. In his demonstration of these, Manetta plays Wind
and Grind, and a slow, un-named blues, and plays both with a habanera influence.(lii)
Although it is hard to ascertain whether Manetta is illustrating his own interpretation or
Armstrong's, the treatment apparently was a common style at the time since Baby Dodds
noted that the "blues were played in New Orleans in the early days very, very slow, and
not like today, but in a Spanish rhythm."(liii) Trombonist Emile Christian also uses a
habanera bass line behind a cornet-clarinet duet on I Lost My Heart In Dixieland
recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1920.(liv)
Pamela J. Smith's extensive analysis of Cuban influences on New Orleans music uses
such pieces as Creepy Feeling, The Crave, and Spanish Swat, by Jelly Roll Morton, New
Orleans Stomp, by Louis Armstrong and Lil Hardin, as recorded by King Oliver in 1923,
Stock Yard Strut, as recorded by Freddie Keppard in 1926, Sweet Lorraine, as recorded
by Natty Dominique and Johnny Dodds in 1928, Panama, as recorded in 1922 by the
Friars Society Orchestra, West Indies Blues as recorded by A. J. Piron in 1928 and
Tampeekoe as recorded by the New Orleans Owls in 1928, to illustrate both the Cuban
rhythms and how New Orleans jazz musicians modified them.(lv) The heavy use of such
musical devices in New Orleans jazz was referred to by Jelly Roll Morton as the "Spanish
tinge" and is sometimes called the "Latin tinge."(lvi) Smith, concludes that . . .
The Cuban contradanza, the danza, the danzon, and the habanera had distinct rhythms
that affected early New Orleans jazz compositions. There were other musical styles in
Cuba; the Cuban bolero, for example, was a very popular genre throughout Latin
America. But it was the danza group--with its variant rhythms and dance forms, the
Cuban contradanza containing the germinal rhythm universally popularized by the
habanera, and the freedom of the guaracha and the danzon--that most readily translated to
New Orleans jazz.(lvii)
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S. Frederick Starr comes to a similar conclusion when hailing Manuel Saumell as the
absolute master of the contradanza and the head of the genealogy of lyrical, syncopated
music that extends through Gottschalk to a host of late-nineteenth-century Cuban masters
and thence to Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, and other creators of American
ragtime.(lviii)
In addition to music, Cuba and New Orleans both shared a cigar-making industry that not
only used Cuban tobacco, but in New Orleans at least, employed a long list of jazz
musicians and relatives of jazz musicians, and as mentioned earlier in the case of Manuel
Mello there were similar interests in the sugar industry. Substantial Cuban connections
with New Orleans continued from the 1930's to the early 1960's. Cuban musical acts
came to New Orleans quite often and performed at both black and white music venues.
Successful Creole-of-color businessmen often vacationed in Cuba where less significant
racial boundaries existed. After Fidel Castro came into power, many Cubans with New
Orleans connections relocated in the city. However, there is generally a difference
between the early music heard on these recordings and the vernacular music played in
New Orleans at the same time which was loosely referred to by New Orleans musicians
as ragtime. With ragtime, and its peculiar sub-category New Orleans ragtime, the
syncopation is predominantly in the melody line, while the rhythm is a predominantly a
straight march beat. Conversely, in most of the Cuban music on this record the melody
line is a predominantly Spanish or Latin melody with a very syncopated, rhythmic
accompaniment. (There are exceptions including #8 and # 17 of the recordings.)
The Cuban music on these recordings is not New Orleans jazz with a heavy Cuban
"tinge." It is distinctly Cuban music and is very different from Cuban-influenced music.
The Cuban music on these recordings also has other influences other than just African
and Spanish. At times there are distinct Italian and German influences. Except for the last
few recordings, the Cuban music on these recordings is also different from the later
Cuban dance music starting in the middle to late 1920's and popularized in Havana, New
York, and Paris. This later music, which is predominantly "hot" Cuban-influenced foxtrots, bears more resemblance to the aforementioned New Orleans jazz sides.
So what does this all prove, or show? It shows that New Orleans and Cuban vernacular
musics at the urn of the century had many similar elements, but that the elements were
utilized in different ways-producing finished products that were related but not the same.
As both musics matured they borrowed additional elements from each other and for a
while became more similar, specifically in the dance music of the late 1920's. However,
later forms in both locations began to grow in different directions and the similarities
began to diminish.
Comments
1. La Gatita Blanca. Use of riffs in the same manner of the stock arrangement of St. Louis
Tickle, Barney & Seymore, Chicago, Victor Kremer, 1904, arr. F. E. Day.
6. Alza Colombia. Has a "back beat" similar to that used in New Orleans.
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8. El Automovil. The melody line to part of this piece is from Under The Bamboo Tree,
Bob Cole, Jos. W. Stern & Co., New York, 1902. Noted performer and composer Bob
Cole was associated with the equally successful Johnson Brothers. Judging from extant
sheet music, this was a popular piece in New Orleans.
11. El premier Gordo. This has a bass drum backbeat similar to that used in New Orleans.
14. El Deutschland. This also has a drum backbeat.
16. Eden Concert. Some trumpet figures like New Orleans 1960's brass band style, i. e.
semi-cacaphonous style like Milton Batiste.
17. Sandunguita. This has a syncopated "oriental" verse, a device that was popular in
New Orleans, and the piece is The Yama Yama Man, Collin Davis and Karl Hoschna,
New York, M. Witmark & Sons, 1908, and was very, very popular in New Orleans,
judging from extant copies.
18. Has Mexican mariachi harmonies.
20. Has harmonies that sound like street organs still popular in Oriente Province.
22. Apriete, pero no pises. This piece has the same Italian funereal aspect as does the
recording of New Orleans Bump, by Jelly Roll Morton and his Orchestra.(lix)
— Jack Stewart —
Foot Notes
i These three categories for each location are used strictly as a heuristic device for a
rough chronological comparison of the two culture's musics and their evolution. This
comparison is not perfect, since there is both overlap and ambiguity in trying to contrast
any or all of the examples, individually or in groups. Therefore, this contrast should not
be taken as a simplistic misunderstanding by the author.
A chronology of these cuban musics has the contradanza introduced circa 1800, the danza
circa 1840, the danzon circa 1880, and the son circa 1910. Natalio Galan, Cuba Y Sus
Sones, Valencia, Pre-Textos/Musica, 1983, p. 176; Radames Giro, Panorama De La
Musica Popular Cubana, "Los Motives Del Son," La Havana, Facultad De Humanidades,
1995, pp. 213-223.
ii An survey of histories, music criticism, and record liner notes, in both musics, leave
one almost bewildered with the extreme and strident differences of opinion. One analyst
has attempted to resolve the debate by developing three categories of Cuban vernacular
music: 1) The coastal music has the heaviest African influence and includes the conga,
the rumba, and the clave. 2) The inland music has the heaviest Spanish influence, and the
punto, the guajira, and the zapateo are examples of it. 3) A third type is the most hybrid-containing African and Spanish elements in balanced proportions; included in this
category are the danza, the habanera, the danzon, and the bolero. Pamela J. Smith,
Caribbean Influences On Early New Orleans Jazz, Masters Thesis, New Orleans, Tulane
University, October 23, 1986, p. 40.
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iii The World 1930 Almanac And Book Of Facts, New York, The World, 1930, p. 752.
iv Frenchline, Compagnie Generale Transatlantique; United Fruit Company, "The Great
White Fleet;" Southern Pacific, Morgan Line Steamships, Times-Picayune, April 23,
1916, p. B15, c. 8; Filleul's Tours. Times-Picayune, April 23, 1916, p. A10, c. 1.
v LaChance, pp.109-141.
vi Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey, An Ancient West African Kingdom, 2 vols., New
York, J. J. Augustin, 1928, 1: pp. 51-63 & pp. 78-95, as quoted in Hall, Social Control In
Slave Plantation Societies, p. 66.
vii Elizabeth Donnan, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to
America, 4 vols., Washington, D.C., Carnegie Institute, 1930-35, 1: p. 108; J. G. F.
Wurdemann, Notes on Cuba, Boston, James Monroe And Co., 1844, p. 257; Philip D.
Curtin, Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave
Trade, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969; all as quoted in Hall, Social
Control in Slave Plantation Societies, pp. 54-55.
viii Ortiz, pp. 30-48; Wurdemann, p. 257; both as quoted in Hall, p. 55.
ix Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State
University Press, 1992, passim., esp. Chaps. 2,3,4,5,6,9,& App. A; Arnold R. Hirsch &
Joseph Logsdon, eds., Creole New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University
Press, 1992, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, "The Formation of Afro-Creole Culture," pp. 58-87.
x Hugh Thomas, Appendix III, "Who were the Cuban Indians," Cuba or The Pursuit of
Freedom, updated edition, New York, Da Capo Press, 1998, pp. 1523-43.
xi Henry A. Kmen, Music In New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University
Press, 1966, p. 192.
xii Courrier De La Louisiane, April 1, 1816, p. 3, c. 3; April 5, 1816, p. 3, c. 4; December
4, 1916, Prospectus for the Olympic Circus.
xiii Herbert Ashbury, The French Quarter, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1936, p. 97.
" `Tis Monsieur Gaetano, Who comes out from Havana, With his horses and his
monkeys!... noted as: From George W. Cable's collection of Negro folk-songs. Quoted by
Lafcadio Hearn in the Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans; New York,
1885; pages 297-8. Ashbury (p.98) also relates a folk tale that says that Gaetano had a
tiger and bison; both the story and the assertion are perhaps more rooted in legend than
fact.
xiv Ashbury, pp. 96-98.
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xv Jerah Johnson, "New Orleans's Congo Square, Louisiana History, Spring, 1991, p.
138.
xvi Courrier De La Louisiane, Apr. 1-Dec. 23, 1816, passim.; Dec. 9, 1916, p.5, c. 2.;
Gazette De La Louisiane, Jan. 24, 1818, c.4.
xvii Kmen, pp. 84-86.
xviii L'Ami Des Lois, Nov. 7. 1817, p.2, c.3; Courier De La Louisiane, Nov. 7, 1817, p.3,
c.3.
xix Johnson, pp.136-137.
xx Certificate of Burial, Archdiocese of New Orleans, November 3, 1817, certified
August 20, 1994, by Jack Belsom.
xxi Henry Arnold Kmen, "The Music of New Orleans," The Past As Prelude New
Orleans 1718-1968, New Orleans, Tulane University, 1968, pp. 210 - 232.
xxii John S. Kendall, The Golden Age of the New Orleans Theater, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana State University Press, 1952, p. 144.
xxiii Kendall, p. 145.
xxiv Kmen, Music In New Orleans, p. 151.
xxv Lester Sullivan, "Composers of Color of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans," Black
Music Research Journal, Chicago, Columbia College, 1988, Vol 8, No. 1, p.54; James M.
Trotter, Music And Some Highly Musical People, Boston, Lee and Shepard, New York,
Charles T. Dillingham, 1881, p.340, Marcus B. Christian, "Edmond Dede," Dictionary of
American Negro Biography, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1982, p. 168.
xxvi Charles E. Kinzer, The Tio Family And Its Role In The Creole-Of-Color Musical
Traditions Of New Orleans, The Second Line, Vol. XLIII, No. 3, Summer, 1991, pp.1921.
xxvii Henry A. Kmen, "Remember the Virginius: New Orleans and Cuba in 1873,"
Louisiana History, Vol. XI, No. 4, Fall 1970, p. 313.
xxviii Kmen, pp. 313 - 331.
xxix Kendall, pp. 176-179.
xxx Kendall, pp. 273-277.
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xxxi Vernon Loggins, Where The Word Ends, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University
Press, 1958, pp.172-197; S. Frederick Starr, Bamboula!, New York, Oxford University
Press, 1994, pp. 171-194, 257-260, 287-309.
xxxii Elias Barreiro, interview, April 2, 1998. Mr. Barreiro is a Cuban guitarist now
teaching at Tulane University in New Orleans; he has recorded many Cuban danzas and
provided biographical and musical information for Guitar Music of Cuba, compiled and
transcribed by Elias Barreiro, historical and performance notes by Stephen B. Rekas,
Pacific, Missouri, Mel Bay Publications, 1996.
xxxiii Pamela J. Smith, Caribbean Influences On New Orleans Jazz, Masters Thesis, New
Orleans, Tulane University, Oct. 3, 1986, pp. 40-44; Hafiz Shabazz Farel Johnson and
John M. Chernoff, "Basic Conga Drum Rhythms In African-American Musical Styles,"
Black Music Research Journal, Chicago, Columbia College, Spring 1991, Vol. 11, No. 1,
p. 68.
xxxiv Pamela J. Smith, Caribbean Influences On Early New Orleans Jazz, Masters
Thesis, New Orleans, Tulane University, October 23, 1986, p. 17.
xxxv Al and Diana Rose, interview, New Orleans, June, 1991--Diana Rose has played
and catalogued numerous pieces in various "Mexican Series;" John Storm Roberts, The
Latin Tinge, Tivoli, N. Y., Original Music, 1985, pp. 35-36--Roberts has noted that the
extant sheet music from the Junius Hart Mexican Series contains one danzon (also noted
as a danza) and seven danzas.
xxxvi W. T. Francis, Chloe Danza Mexicana, New Orleans, Junius Hart, 1885; W. T.
Francis, arranger, La Naranja Danza, New Orleans, Junius Hart, 1887; W. T. Francis, El
Nopal Danza Mexicana, New Orleans, Junius Hart, 1885.
xxxvii Peggy C. Boudreaux, Music Publishing In New Orleans In The Nineteenth
Century, Masters Thesis, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana State University, August,
1977, pp. 92-100.
xxxviii Kinzer, p. 21.
xxxix Brock, Jerry. During reasearch at the Cuban Archives, Brock found evidence of a
trip to Cuba by this band in 1884.
xl Seroff, Doug and Lynn Abbott, "100 Years From Today," 78 Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 7,
1992, p. 89.
xli According to bandleader Jack Laine's cornetist Ray Lopez, a send-off parade for black
troops on their way to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, apparently featured two
bands-one with Buddy Bolden that stayed in New Orleans-and another that left on the
ship with the troops. From research currently in progress, by Stephanie Brown and
Maureen S. Wright, grandaughters of Sylvestre Coustaut, who was a leader and/or
founder of the Onward Brass Band, it appears that the Onward Brass Band is most likely
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the band that Jack Laine's cornetist Ray Lopez remembers as the band that accompanied
the black troops on the ship to Cuba. This seems to also combine with information noted
in Samuel Charters musicians' index. Additionally, according to research in progress by
historian John McCusker, if all information correlates, then the ship which carried
members of the Onward Brass Band and others to Cuba may have been the USS Berlin.
Note: Ray Lopez, interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, August 30, 1958,
Reel III (transcribed excerpt on Buddy Bolden by Ralph Adamo); Company Muster
Rolls, June 17, 1898 - August 17, 1898, Company B, Station of Company at San Juan
Hill, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Samuel B. Charters, Jazz New Orleans, 18851963, New York, Oak Publications, 1963, pp. 7 & 15; John McCusker, interview, April,
1998.
xlii Jack "Papa" Laine, interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, May 23, 1960,
p. 11.
xliii Daily Item, August 18, 1898, as quoted in the Levy Index, Hogan Jazz Archive
(newspaper now missing); New Orleans Bee, August 18, 1898, p. 7, c. 2. Note: Levy
Index says Prof. Siegfried; Bee says Prof. Christiansen.
xliv Chink Martin, interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, October 19, 1966,
p. ?????
xlv Recent census research by noted jazz scholar Prof. Lawrence Gushee and his students
found very few New Orleans residents of Cuban origin, compared to a large number of
residents originally from Mexico.
xlvi George W. Kay, "Remembering Tony Jackson," The Second Line, Nov.- Dec. 1964,
p. 6.
xlvii Jack "Papa' Laine, interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, May 23,
1960, p. 14; her parents were from Cuba and she spoke only Spanish until she went to
school.
xlviii Manuel Mello, oral history interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University,
August 3, 1959, pp. 8, 11, & 26,
xlix Paul Sarebresole, Come Clean, New Orleans, The Cable Company, 1905.
l King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Snake Rag, Richmond, Indiana, Gennett 5184, 11391,
April 6, 1923, and Chicago, Okeh 4933, 8391-A, June 22, 1923.
li Tony Sbarbaro, interview, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, February 11, 1959,
pp. 10-12.
lii Manuel Manetta, oral history interview, Hogan Jazz Archive , Tulane University,
March 28, 1957, Reel II, p. 4.
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liii Larry Gara, The Baby Dodds Story, Los Angeles, Contemporary Press, 1959, p. 11.
liv Original Dixieland Jaz Band, I Lost My Heart In Dixieland, London, Columbia 815,
76756, January 10, 1920.
lv Pamela J. Smith, pp. 49-52.
lvi John Storm Roberts, The Latin Tinge, Tivoli, New York, Original Music, 1985, pp.
38-39 & passim.
lvii Pamela J. Smith, pp. 52-53.
lviii S. Frederick Starr, p. 184.
lix Victor Studio #1, Camden, New Jersey, July 10, 1929, Victor V-38078;49456-1&2
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