Arsenio Rodríguez

Eh, posiblemente la danzonera más famosa que hubo en los años treinta y cuarenta en Cuba fue la Arcaño.

Al lado de mi casa, hacia la derecha, vivía Domingo Cubacho, que fue lead trumpet player de Arsenio Rodríguez y de Benny Moré.

Mhm.

O sea, muchos músicos.

Yes, I've heard that.

So i- in, in a way, it's also a symbolic continuation of, uh, Arsenio Rodríguez, 'cause Arsenio Rodríguez was the first man to put, uh, percussion in the way we know it today in la orquesta, in la orquesta-

Mm-hmm

...

Yeah

...

Arsenio Rodríguez did this in the medio de una, de una prohibición.

Puso a la mano.

Right.

We have Arsenio Rodríguez, born in the tropical heat of Cuba, and then we have Sabú Martínez, who was born in the concrete jungle of Manhattan.

Right, totally different worlds.

Completely different worlds, and their distinct, almost, uh, obsessive approaches to rhythm might seem geographically isolated, but they ultimately laid the structural groundwork for everything that followed.

This structure birthed entirely new genres like son, rumba, and abakuá.

It set the perfect stage for a visionary to just step in and rewrite the rules of how those instruments interacted.

Which brings us to Arsenio Rodríguez.

Yes, Arsenio.

The thing is, less talk, more music.

So I'm gonna end with a tribute to Arsenio Rodríguez, who is the foundation of salsa as we know it today.

Here's something from Bobby Sanabria from his Arsenio and Beyond CD.

Check it out.