Many in the music world and Puerto Rican community are mourning the death of music legend Joe Cuba, the “Father of Boogaloo,” who passed away Feb. 15 in New York City.
Gilberto Miguel Calderon—later to be known as Joe Cuba—was born in 1931 in Spanish Harlem.
In many ways, his life represented the “Nuyorican” experience as a whole. Like many Puerto Ricans at the time, Cuba’s parents migrated to New York due to economic hardships caused by U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. Between 1947 and into the 1960s, close to 63,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to U.S. industrial centers annually.
Growing up in New York, Cuba experienced all the hardships—and second-class citizenship—of living in “El Barrio.” The Puerto Rican community not only faced greedy landlords, housing and job discrimination, police brutality, and the terror of racist white gangs, but also the corporate mass media, which regularly stigmatized and stereotyped Latin culture.
As neighbors, co-workers, and oppressed people, African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York began to interact with one another in almost every aspect of life. Their kids went to the same schools, played stickball together, and often frequented the same clubs, where both Black and Latin bands played.
Young Nuyoricans in the 1960s, like many first-generation migrants, lived a double life. Typically, they spoke English at school and with their African American friends, who listened to soul and doo-wop. At home, they spoke Spanish with their parents, who held on to their Bolero records and Jibaro music—a genre that originated in the Puerto Rican countryside.
Cuba was no different. Like many other young Puerto Ricans, he was greatly influenced by doo-wop, rhythm and blues, and rock-and-roll. At the same time, due to the mambo era spearheaded by the great Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente and Machito—also known as the “Big Three”— Cuba took up playing the conga drums. Soon after graduating from high school, he joined a band.
These two musical languages ultimately merged together to form a sound often described as “Cha-Cha with a backbeat,” or “Boogaloo.”
Boogaloo, a blend of Afro-Cuban, R&B and soul rhythms, became highly popular thanks to the songs of Cuba, Johnny Colon, Pete Rodriguez and others.
Jimmy Sabater, vocalist and percussionist for the Joe Cuba Sextet, remembers telling Joe one night, “Let’s just try it out.” They were playing mambos and cha-chas all night at an all-Black dance in New York, but nobody was dancing. As Jimmy recalled, he instructed the piano player about the new tune and “before I even got back to the timbal, the people were out on the floor.” That tune, “Bang Bang,” ushered in the Latin Boogaloo explosion.
The sound of a generation
Many in the Latin music world called Cuba’s music and the Boogaloo era “the first Nuyorican music.” Indeed, Cuba’s generation of Puerto Rican youth was the first to be born and raised in New York City.
“Bang Bang” came out in 1966, during a period of great political upheaval and radicalization inside the Black and Puerto Rican communities, and the country as a whole. This was no mere coincidence. That movement touched all aspects of social and cultural life, politicizing older forms of expression and generating new ones to convey the community’s growing sense of pride and open solidarity with the oppressed. The music emboldened the people, and the people in turn emboldened the musicians.
The development of independent Latin music had a direct connection with left-wing political forces. For many years, the only station that would play such music was WEVD, named after Eugene V. Debs. Leftist radio deejay “Symphony Sid”—who also played jazz in the 1940s—introduced Boogaloo to the radio waves.
Cuba’s music was always infused with politics, whether explicitly or implicitly. “He always had a political message to the world like no other,” remarked Willie Villegas, who played the congas for Cuba for 20 years. Cuba’s “El Pito” (or “I’ll Never Go Back To Georgia”) depicted and defiantly rejected the segregation of Jim Crow south. The song borrowed directly from Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro-Cuban tune “Manteca.”
The Boogaloo era was short lived. By 1969, just three years after its explosion into the New York music scene, Latin Boogaloo perished. Many attribute its demise to the greedy record label owners and club promoters.
“We were the hottest bands and we drew the crowds,” explained Boogaloo great Nando. “But were never given top billing or top dollar… When word got out we were going to unite and no longer accept the small package deals, our records were no longer played over the radio.”
Like Desi Arnez of the prior generation, Boogaloo musicians Cuba, Tony Pabon, Angel Lebron and others were in constant battle with the racist music industry. Lebron later remarked, “The Boogaloo era came to an end when we threatened to rebel against the package deals.”
Cuba, however, never stopped delighting people with his unique sound. His concerts and festivals united Latinos and Latinas, African Americans, and music fans all over the world. Among his many performances, Cuba played fundraising concerts in support of political movements, including the Young Lords. “He always called for Latinos to unite as one Latin America,” Villegas told Liberation newspaper at Cuba’s funeral.
At the root of his music was a sense of pride. At Cuba’s funeral, his widow Maria “Cuba” Calderon told Liberation, “He always called for women to be strong—never to look down upon themselves.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation sends our condolences to Cuba’s family. His hits like “Bang Bang,” “To Be With You,” “El Pito,” provided the real-time soundtrack for a people in motion. His impact was enormous and the spirit of his music endures in all those who seek a free Puerto Rico and a world based on justice and solidarity.
Joe Cuba, presente!
