| The mambo is a Cuban genre of music and dance | | | | make it slightly more commercial, more ready for |
| that combines traditional Cuban music with the | | | | 1950s American consumption, and watched the |
| highly Americanized forms of swing and big band. | | | | form become an almost instant craze. Prado's role |
| It's a very syncopated type of music, a style | | | | in composing and popularizing the form earned him |
| that finds its footing in rhythm as opposed to | | | | the title "Mambo King." |
| melody (though melody, of course, plays its role). | | | | Typical instruments used in this style are the |
| It is always played in 4/4 time and uses an | | | | conga drum, the bongo, timbales, claves, and a |
| amalgamation of American big band instruments | | | | mixture of band instruments including the trumpet, |
| and those found in traditional Latin styles; mambo | | | | trombone, saxaphone, bass (usually upright bass, |
| bands will typically have a horn section in a | | | | but sometimes an electric bass) and the piano. It |
| addition to the very percussive bongos, timbales | | | | is this mixture of Cuban rhythmic instruments and |
| and congas. | | | | instruments used in big band jazz that gives the |
| Though it is a decidedly Cuban style, it's roots are | | | | mambo it's distinctive sound. |
| far more European than Latin. The very first | | | | Some typical songs include "Papa Loves Mambo", |
| mambo was based heavily on English and French | | | | "I Saw Mommy Do The Mambo", "Mambo Italiano" |
| ballroom dancing music, and it was rarely intended | | | | and "They Were Doin' The Mambo". |
| for dancing. Though it certainly carried an inherent | | | | Rhythmically it is similar to, but not identical to, |
| dance ability, early mambo was music for the | | | | other Latin-American rhythms such as the samba, |
| sake of music; no dance had been assigned to it, | | | | tango, bossa nova, beguine, and others, but is |
| nor did it seem like one would be. | | | | unique enough to be instantly identifiable as such. |
| The early version of it thrived as a piece of music | | | | But like most instant crazes, it faded out of |
| alone until the 1940s when Damaso Perez Prado, | | | | American popularity nearly as quickly as it arrived. |
| a Cuban bandleader, began specializing in the form. | | | | Though the form is still heard and danced today, |
| His version brought people to their feet and led to | | | | it morphed into a variety of different styles, |
| the famous mambo dance's creation. Prado is also | | | | including the pachanga, a similar dance that also |
| credited with bringing mambo music and it's | | | | faded quickly. It recently saw a resurgence of |
| accompanying dance to the United States, though | | | | popularity in the late 1990s with a rock and roll |
| the form sustained a bit of a shift as a result of | | | | based mambo revival, but that too was |
| the cultural change. Prado altered the mambo to | | | | extremely short-lived. |