Mexican Rhythms & Roots

Mexican Rhythms & Roots

Salsa, merengue, cumbia… do they leave you spinning, even off the dance floor? This primer is designed to help you wrap your mind around Latin beats popular in Pacific Mexico. Unfortunately, it can't cure two left feet.

These and other popular Latin dance rhythms were born of African drumming brought to the Caribbean by slaves. Dancing was vital to West African religious ceremonies; these rhythms spread with importation of slaves to the New World. Evolving regional tastes and additional instruments have produced the Latin music enjoyed today from Tierra del Fuego to Toronto, and beyond.

While the steps in most dances can be reduced to some basics, these flat-footed styles of dancing are completely foreign to most non-Latins. Dance classes can definitely help your self-esteem as well as your performance. In Puerto Vallarta, the dance club J.B. is the place to go for lessons.

From Colombia, wildly popular cumbia combines vocals, wind, and percussion instruments. With a marked rhythm (usually 4/4 time), the sensual music is relatively easy to dance to. Hip-hop and reggae influences have produced urban cumbia, with up-tempo, accordion-driven melodies. Listen to Kumbia Kings, La Onda, Control, and Big Circo to get into the cumbia groove.

Fast-paced and with short, precise rhythms, merengue originated in the Dominican Republic. Although the music sounds almost frantic, the feet aren't meant to keep pace with the melody. Check out Elvis Crespo's 2004 album Saboréalo.

Born in Cuba of Spanish and African antecedents, son is played on accordion, guitar, and drums. The folkloric music was translated to various dialects in different parts of Mexico. "La Bamba" is a good example of son jarrocho (from Veracruz).

American Prohibition sent high-rollers sailing down Cuba way, and they came back swinging to son, mambo, and rumba played by full orchestras -- think Dezi Arnaz and his famous song "Babalou." In New York these styles morphed into salsa, popularized by such luminaries as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz and carried on today by superstars like Marc Anthony. Wind instruments (trumpet, trombone), piano, guitar, and plenty of percussion make up this highly spiced music.

Mexicans love these African-inspired beats, but are especially proud of homegrown genres, like música norteña, which has its roots in rural, northern Mexico (in Texas, it's called conjunto). The traditional instruments are the bajo sexto (a 12-string guitar), bass, and accordion; modern groups add the trap drums for a distinctive rhythmic pulse. It's danced like a very lively polka, which is one of its main influences. Nort[t]ena is the music of choice for working-class Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States.

A subset of música norteña is the corrido, popularized during the Mexican Revolution. Like the ballads sung by wandering European minstrels, corridos informed isolated Mexican communities of the adventures of Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and their compatriots. Today's "narco-corridos" portray dubious characters: the drug lords who run Mexico's infamous cartels. Popular norteño artists include Michael Salgado and the pioneering Los Tigres del Norte, whose album "Americas Sin Fronteras" was terrifically popular way back in 1987.

But the quintessential Mexican music is mariachi, a marriage of European instruments and native sensibilities born right here in Jalisco, Mexico. Guitars, violins, and trumpets are accompanied by the vihuela (a small, round-backed guitar) and the larger, deep-throated guitarrón. Professional mariachis perform at birthdays and funerals, engagements, anniversaries, and life's other milestones. You won't find mariachi music at nightclubs, however; the huapango, jarocho, and other dances the music accompanies are folk dances.

For concerts, clubbing, and dancing, Mexicans look to the contemporary music scene. Latin jazz was born when legendary Cuban musician Chano Pozo teamed up with the great bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Current Latin jazz acts worth applauding are Puerto Ricans Eddie Palmieri and David Sanchez; representing pop, Obie Bermúdez also hails from that Caribbean mecca of music. Check out Latin pop by Cuba's Bebo Valdez, and rock en españolby Colombian-born Juanes as well as Mexico's own los Jaguares, El Tri, Ely Guerra, Molotov, and the veteran band Maná.