EVERY GENRE PROJECT - July 26 - Descarga

Genre of the Day - Descarga

Album of the Day - Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature “Descargas” by Cachao (1957)

Though creators and listeners unite over the shared joy of music, the distinction between the real-time experience of producing music and the and the personal context-heavy act of listening to music is an angle we only occasionally ponder as listeners. Sure, we naturally draw mental connections: we note and appreciate unique musical choices, compare the music to how it stands up next to another one of the artists’ works and those of the peers, and our breath falters at a particularly well-executed moment. Though I touched on the act of situating ourselves in the shoes of an instrumentalist on étude, that was within the context of individuals playing a meticulously composed piece. Today’s music affords us the possibility to transport us to the stage of a jam band and feel the teeming possibility in synergetic musical conversations, and the balance of grace and gusto needed to totally freestyle in tandem with a group.

Ironically, yesterday’s genre was a far-flung slice of Cuban bolero infatuation integral to wartime Vietnam. Today’s genre is another meditation on Cuban music, concentrated on the free-flowing rhythms of Afro-Cuban rumba and jazz. In-the-moment improvisation and interpretation is the root of all musical creativity, at some point in the process of crafting melodies, harmonies, patterns, and flairs eventually deemed genius. Not every genre puts as bright of a spotlight on improvisational creativity as jazz, though. A core hallmark of the genre is leaving wide-open spaces to fill with wide-open explorations by a particular instrument or set of musicians. Though no less impressive or creative, most jazz improvisation outside of free jazz tends to fall within the guise of a piece that still falls back to a melodic or tonal center.

Pre-dating free jazz and without the equal-parts baggage and fascination of its avant-garde philosophies, Cuba’s descarga is a genre totally marked by lengthy jam sessions and constant cascades of improvised release. The Afro-Cuban  habanera rhythm became popular among Black Americans and got sewn in as a piece of the early jazz tapestry. The boomerang came back around as jazz bands arose in Cuba in the 1940s. Descarga emerged in Havana’s early 1950s and was pioneered by today’s featured artist, the multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Israel López Cachao. 

Inspired by Afro-Cuban recordings coming out of New York, he let bongos, timbales, and congas that humbly anchored so many Cuban genres rumble, patter, and pound unbridled through solos, and the bassist, flautist, trumpeter, and pianist also got their dues. Today’s album’s metacommentary on improvisational music is delivered with exuberance and stunning instrumental fluency in its mini-descargas, from the initial lyrics of “Controversial de Metales”, singing about the horns that proceed to soar and jump in subsequent solos. “Guajeo De Saxon” is an exploration of the saxophone balancing its characteristic suaveness while simultaneously enhancing the rumba groove. In “Malanga Amarilla”, a delectably rich selection of piano chords duet with bongos ablaze. Brain scans show that musical improvisation shuts off inhibitory mechanisms in the brain, transporting musicians to a world of fluid visions of expression. Descarga is a chance to put yourself in the mind of a musician, particularly those with as rich a musical background as Cuba’s, and the natural wisdom developed in expressing art with others. Most paramount, it is a testament to the mystical glory of improvisation and freestyling.