ROOTS IN THE WIND

In the time of Cesar CONCEPCIÓN and Raphael MUÑOZ, there was not much concern about the modernisation of the Bomba and the Plena till the day Lito PENA’s Orquesta Panamericana with Ismael RIVERA on one hand, and Moncho LENA with Mon RIVERA on the other, recorded two Plenas:
La Sazón de Abuela and Alo, Quién Ñama ? in 1953 and 1955, thus taking the Plena into the New York Palladium.

The different protagonists, in league with the musical world and the world of spectacle at the time, were banking on the values inherent in Cuban the mambo and cha cha cha.

We would have to await the coming of Raphael CORTIJO and his Comba formed on the 28th January 1954, with Ismael RIVERA joining the group the following year.

According to Mexican musicologist Raphael FIGUEROA HERNANDEZ, ‘what this group meant to development, with respects to music as well as the acceptance of Negroes, can not be swept aside.’

With Ismael RIVERA, we finally see the shaping of the concept of the Puertorican sonero, and its entrance on the international scene, in direct competition with the then reigning Cuban music.
In these three formations, the standardisation of Cuban instruments, in the 1940’s, in the big mambo orchestras finally affected Puerto Rico: four trumpets, alto saxes, tenor, at times baritone, piano, doublebass, tumbadora, paila, bongó, güiro, maracas (shack-shack), and clave, one or two singers.
The greatest attraction and originality was Mon RIVERA’s orchestra which had no less than three trombones.

The second element indicating the entrance of these rhythms into ‘modernity’ is the replacement of the Bomba barils and the panderetas – perhaps too marked by the stigmas of the poorer districts and still representing the callejones sin salida – by the Cuban tumbadores, itself an instrument stripped of its tatters because it was deemed ‘too Congo’. From the formation of his original Combo, Raphael CORTIJO imposed the tumbadora, the bongo, and the timpani, for which he was implicitly reproached.

And so, with time, the Bomba barils and the pandaretas are again considered as ‘folklore’ instruments. But let us not forget the emergence in 1974 of the group Los Planeros del Quinto Olive, and its role in the regenerescence of the Plena.

It is often noted that the two most important Puerto Rican musicians, Tito PUENTE and Pablo Tito RODRIGUEZ, both based in New York, have attached little importance to this black Puertorican music. Tito Puente, in over 108 albums, will record three or four Bombas, among them one with La Lupe Victoria. There is no trace of this music in Tito RODRIGUEZ’s albums.

The modernisation of these two rhythms would take place in boricua land before the arrival of the road-roller called Salsa. For this, as with afro-cuban guaguanco, a certain number of musicians opened them up to modern melodic instrumentation. They adjusted accompanying melodic lines, especially on the piano. Arrangers like Eddie PALMIERI and Jorge MILLET introduced skilful orchestrations and, occasionally and felicitously, Latin music has left spaces like musical bridges on four or eight Bomba bars in certain pieces: Que Gente Averigua (1976), A la Verdegue (1970), Ola de Agua (1957), Compay Sapo (1970), Bomba de Corazon (1963), La Sazón de Abuela (1953), Alo ! Quien Llama ? (1957), Se Escapó un León (1968) are just a few of hundreds of recorded Bombas and Plenas which were born in the popular social circle.

Eddie PALMIERI’s Bomba de Corazon steps off the path traced by Loiza. The then young ‘new-Rican’ maestro’s piano and his muntuno accompaniment, supported by Barry ROGERS’ trombone, not forgetting the lessons in that of Joe COTTO, gave a special ambience to this theme played in New York in homage of boriquen.

Maestro Lito PENA’s La Sazón de Abuela with the young sonero Ismael RIVERA, aged 22, marked a ‘break point’ on the road to modernity, Maelo se la comió!

Other themes have flavours of our tropical world: plena-mambo, calypso-plena, plena-cumbia.
Rafael CEPEDA’s Cuando el Negro se Alzó, recorded with orchestrations by Jesus CEPEDA in a big band, foreshadowed William CEPEDA while Modesto in several pieces, continued to follow this musical art afro-boricua, with the greatest respect and fervour, following in the footsteps of Don Rafael CEPEDA ATILES, EL ROBLE MAYOR
Alegria Bomba Es!!!