August 16 movie: Roots of Rhythm. I confess this was a bit disappointing to me. It's a three part documentary narrated by Harry Belafonte about the history of Latin music. Actually it's about the history of Cuban music, but Belafonte consistently conflates the two. Which was the first problem for me. I want to learn about Cuban music, and I also want to learn about Brazilian music and Argentinian music and Mexican music. By talking about "Latin music" but only ever showing that of Cuba, this movie sort of implied that the others don't exist. I think the only non-Cuban musician they showed in the entire series was Carmen Miranda. She was given about a half-minute of one of her more ridiculous Hollywood numbers, and then dismissed as inauthentic.
My second problem was not really a problem with the movie in itself, more with my expectations. Because the reason why I rented the movie was research for the Latin a la Lounge show this weekend. Unfortunately, only the third part of the documentary was about Cuban music in the US. The first two parts were about the Spanish and African origins of Cuban music, and the history of music within Cuba.
There was about 45 minutes to cover 50 years of Cuban music in the US. Which is a big, big topic. There just wasn't time to go into any kind of detail. For instance, Mongo Santamaria is mentioned, but just in a list of musicians who are named once. Perez Prado was never even named. So, I didn't really learn anything.
Well no, that's not true. I learned about Anacaona, an all-female orchestra of 10 sisters who toured the US and Europe in the 30s. I learned that Desi Arnaz's father was the mayor of Santiago during the Machado regime, and that Arnaz introduced the conga to the US. I learned that Chano Pozo deserved co-songwriting credit for "Manteca" (whether he received it or not was unclear.)
Which is not to say this was a bad documentary. The first two parts created a wonderfully vivid portrait of a culture steeped in music. I probably would enjoy it more if I watched it another time, when I wasn't after specific information.
Talked with Latin music expert Santa Salsera yesterday and mentioned this movie. It sounds like Chano Pozo did not get any songwriting credit for "Manteca." In the movie they show an interview with Gillespie, who was pretty explicit that Chano was 100% responsible for creating the hook: the bass and sax parts. (The part you're hearing in your head right now, if you know this piece.) He said that Chano came to him and played those parts for him and he just wrote them down. Gillespie said he added the bridge, and then turned it over to his arranger whose name I forget.
Legally, copyright doesn't apply until a creative work is recorded in a tangible form. So Gillespie is within his rights to take all the credit if Chano didn't write it down before playing it for him. Santa Salsera said that people in the Latin music world don't see Gillespie as stealing credit from Chano. And since Chano died so soon after they started working together, it's not like Gillespie was stealing his royalties right in front of him.
Still, I think it kind of stinks.