Cubano Be, Cubano Bop: One Hundred Years of Jazz in Cuba

Based on unprecedented research in Cuba, the direct testimonial of scores of Cuban musicians, and the author’s unique experience as a prominent jazz musician, Cubano Be Cubano Bop pays tribute not only to a distinguished lineage of Cuban jazz musicians and composers, but also to the rich musical exchanges between Cuban and American jazz throughout the 20th century. The work begins with the first encounters between Cuban music and jazz around the turn of the last century. Acosta writes about the presence of Cuban musicians in New Orleans and the Spanish tinge in early jazz from the city, the formation and spread of the first jazz ensembles in Cuba, the great jazz big bands of the thirties, and the inception of Latin jazz . He explores the evolution of Bebop, Feeling, and Mambo in the forties, leading to the explosion of Cubop or Afro-Cuban jazz and the musical innovations of the legendary musicians and composers Machito, Mario Bauza, Dizzy Gillespie, and Chano Pozo. The work concludes with a new generation of Cuban jazz musicians including the Grammy Award-winning musicians and composers Chucho Valdes and Paquito D'Rivera.