Bolero is a genre of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins. The term is also used for some art music. In all its forms, the bolero has been popular for over a century. Tristezas (Sorrows) is commonly considered the first bolero. Written in 1885 by Jose Pepe Sanchez, Tristezas is still performed to this day. Sanchez never had any formal musical training and the only reason that some of his boleros are remembered is due to friends and relatives writing down the songs they heard. In Cuba, the bolero is perhaps the first great Cuban musical and vocal synthesis to win universal recognition. In 3/4 time, this dance music spread to other countries, leaving behind what Ed Morales has called the most popular lyric tradition in Latin America. The Cuban bolero tradition originated in Santiago de Cuba in the last quarter of the 19th century; it does not owe its origin to the Spanish music and song of the same name. In the 19th century there grew up in Santiago de Cuba a group of itinerant musicians who moved around earning their living by singing and playing the guitar.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 19:10:25 +0000
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