Son as a musical genre emerged in the late 19th century as part of the formation of Cuban nationality. It began to gain popularity during the Carnival festivities in Santiago de Cuba around 1892. It was performed by Nené Manfugás, a musician who played a rustic instrument with three double strings and a wooden box called the Tres. This instrument quickly became the symbol of Son and remains as such to this day.
The musical structure of Son in its beginnings was based on the constant repetition of a chorus of four bars or less sung in chorus, which was known as the Montuno, which was received by the harmonic improvisation of a solo singer, which generally contrasted with this chorus.
Its popularity quickly spread to urban centers; and it was then that it acquired the structural element of European music: the inclusion of a closed section, which was placed at the beginning of the song and followed by the chorus, or montuno. The theme was centralized in the first part of the son, which framed the improvisation, or montuno, with repetitions of the theme with some variations.
The original instruments of Son were: the tres and the guitar, the bongo (which contributed the concept of polytimbral interpretation to its many forms of performance), the maracas, the claves (“Without a clave, there is no Son”), and finally, the marímbula and the botija, which were replaced by the double bass when they became established in urban areas. A musical syncretism emerges between African percussion instruments and Spanish string instruments in Son; as well as in the vocal aspect, between the Spanish décima and the antiphonal singing between the choir and soloist of African origin.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1909, Son was already spread throughout the Cuban territory, being taken to other regions by those who emigrated from their place of origin.
Initially, son quartets from rural areas dominated the urban musical scene, but in the 1920s, these evolved into sextets. For example, El Sexteto Habanero, founded in 1920, had its origins in Cuarteto Oriental; and in 1927, with the addition of a trumpet, it became a septet, although it continued to be called Sexteto Habanero. This is how this sonero instrumental format originated and was defined, characteristic of urban environments and widely popular in the rest of the Caribbean since the 1930s. Among them, Ignacio Piñeiro’s Septeto Nacional is worth mentioning.
When Son was introduced into the dance halls of Havana and other major cities in the country, and enjoyed widespread recordings thanks to the musical work of groups, this genre moved from the slums to the consciousness of the Cuban people, and from there to the world. Beginning in the 1920s, Son surpassed Danzón in popular taste.
The 1930s marked the international spread of Son music, primarily due to the performances of Don Azpiazu’s orchestra, with its singer Antonio Machín, in the United States (1930) and Europe (1931). Azpiazu’s orchestra turned Moisés Simón “El Manicero”‘s Son Pregón into a worldwide hit. Meanwhile, Ignacio Piñeiro’s Septeto Nacional performed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and achieved a resounding success.
In 1940, another instrumental format emerged, the Conjuntos, when Arsenio Rodríguez expanded the septet format by adding two trumpets, a tumbadora, and a piano. The guitar was discontinued in Conjuntos, and the tres became the emblematic instrument. In Arsenio’s Conjunto, the tres was played in a style distinct from other Son musical formats; the piano created vibrant tumbaos, and the trumpet developed distinctly Cuban improvisations based on American swing. With this musical perspective, Arsenio’s Conjunto and the other groups that followed its lead created a new sound for Son.
Other groups that stood out in the 1940s for their quality in the interpretation of Son were: La Sonora Matancera as an accompanying group for great figures of Caribbean singing and Conjunto Casino for its exquisite sound and unparalleled interpretive flavor.
Our renowned Benny Moré, in the 1950s, created a unique school of Son interpretation. He, accompanied by his Banda Gigante, was a style unrivaled in popular music throughout the Caribbean.