Son is a style of Cuban music which originated in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern province of Oriente. The earliest known son dates from the late 1500s (the oldest known son is "Son de la Má Teodora", from about the 1570s in Santiago de Cuba). It combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Yoruba origin.

Development

Son is derived from Haitian, African, Spanish and native musical influences, arising first in the Oriente province, reaching Havana around 1909. The most influential group from this period was the Trio Oriental, who stabilized the sextet format that soon came to dominate son bands. In 1912, recording began with groups like Sexteto Habanero (a re-named Trio Oriental) and Sexteto Boloña, and popularization began in earnest with the arrival of radio broadcasting in 1922, which came at the same time as Havana's reputation as an attraction for Americans evading Prohibition laws and the city became a haven for the Mafia, prostitution and gambling, and also became a second home for trendy and influential bands from New York City. A few years later, in the late 1920s, son sextets became septets and son's popularity continued to grow with artists like Septeto Nacional and its leader, Ignacio Piñeiro. Piñeiro experimented with fusing son with other genres of music, forming guajira-son, bolero-son and guaracha-son. In 1928, Rita Montaner's "El Manicero" became the first Cuban song to be a major hit in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. In 1930, the Havana Orchestra took the song to the United States, where it also became a big hit.

Son montuno

Main article: Son montuno

In the 1930s Arsenio Rodríguez became the most influential player of son, creating the modern Afro-Cuban sound, the son montuno. Later Beny Moré and others helped develop salsa music. Arsenio Rodrigíguez was especially influential, incorporating improvised solos, toques, congas and extra trumpets, percussion and pianos. Beny Moré (known as the "Barbarian of Rhythm") further evolved the genre, adding guaracha, bolero and mambo influences, helping make him extraordinarily popular and is now cited as perhaps the greatest sonero.

Rumba

Main article: Rumba

With the arrival of pop chachachá and mambo in the United States, son also became extremely popular but was usually called rumba, which more properly refers to a specific genre of music. Son, mambo and rumba, along with other forms of Latin music contributed to the development of salsa music, which quickly became perhaps the most popular form of Latin music ever.