Son montuno

For his approach, Arsenio had to expand the existing septeto ensemble into the conjunto format which became the norm in the 1940s alongside big bands.

The son arose in Oriente, merging the Spanish guitar and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms.

Cuban tresero, songwriter and bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez is considered the main figure in the development of son montuno as a form of dance music.

He made several key innovations in the way rhythm is used in son cubano, leading to more complex arrangements which revolutionized the genre.

[6] Arsenio Rodríguez introduced the idea of layered guajeos (typical Cuban ostinato melodies)—an interlocking structure consisting of multiple contrapuntal parts.

By adopting polyrhythmic elements from the son, the horns took on a vamp-like role similar to the piano montuno and tres (or string) guajeo"—Mauleón (1993: 155).

[9]Arsenio Rodríguez took the pivotal step of replacing the guitar with the piano, which greatly expanded the contrapuntal and harmonic possibilities of Cuban popular music.

It would be forty years before groups began to consistently apply this much creative variation at the guajeo level of the arranging process".

[11] "No me llores más" [1948] stands out for its beautiful melodies and the incredible amount emotional intensity it packs into its ultra‐slow 58 bpm groove.

The conjunto's collective and consistent accentuation of these two important offbeats gave the son montuno texture its unique groove and, hence, played a significant part in the dancer's feeling the music and dancing to it, as Bebo Valdés noted "in contratiempo" ['offbeat timing']—García (2006: 43).

[17]Moore points out that Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto introduced the two-celled bass tumbaos, that moved beyond the simpler, single-cell tresillo structure.

"[19] Moore states: "This idea of a bass tumbao with a melodic identity unique to a specific arrangement was critical not only to timba, but also to Motown, rock, funk, and other important genres.