Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo

This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdés, Arsenio Rodríguez, Benny Moré, and Pérez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a Cuban point of view, unearthing surprising, provocative connections and making a case for Cuba as fundamental to the evolution of music in the New World. Revealed are how the music of black slaves transformed 16th-century Europe, how the clav…