latter type of song that had the greater affect on the bolero, with musical traits
that include tonal harmonies, a melodic style that emphasizes a strong and clear
technique, and a strong emphasis on vocal tone production. Influential songs that
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Bolero
employed this style include “La Paloma,” “La golondrina,” and “Estrellita” by
Manuel Ponce.
The first signs of the bolero in Mexico come from the period just after the Rev-
olution when songs such as “Estrellita” were most popular among their listeners.
Through a musical connection between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mex-
ico, traveling Cuban troupes did much to introduce regional Mexican audiences to
emerging genres such as the bolero. The most important exponent of this Yucatan
school of bolero composition was Guty Cardenas from Mérida. Using Yucatan as
an entry point, the bolero spread throughout the rest of Mexico.
The period from the 1930s to about 1960 marks the era known as the “ epoca de
oro ” (golden age) of the bolero. Beginning with the works of Agustín Lara and ending with the performances and recording of tríos romantícos like Trio Los
Panchos, the bolero in this era went through a kind of urbanization and crystalli-
zation that changed it from a rural sound to a more urban popular style. This was
largely due to the influence of Agustin Lara, whose style of writing, using modern
melodic and harmonic formulas as well as smoothing out rhythmic features, made
an everlasting change in bolero style.
After Lara, the most strongly felt changes in bolero performance lie in the hands of
the Mexican tríos romantícos, which were a product of the Cuban and Mexican duos
and trios that had existed in the period just prior, including Los Hermanos Martinez
Trio Los Panchos
Trio Los Panchos was comprised of singer-guitarists from Mexico who from
1944 to 1981 were the foremost exponents of the trío romántico and its
musical speciality, bolero. The original group consisted of Alfredo Gil (1915–
1999), Chucho Navarro (1913–1993), and Hernando Aviles (1914–1986), the
latter performing the role of lead vocalist.
At their peak, Los Panchos were the most popular musical ensemble in
Latin America, but they also toured successfully in Europe, Asia, North Africa,
and North America. In Japan they sold records by the thousands, eventually
recording six records in Japanese. Los Panchos recorded some 2,500 songs on
250 albums. They also collaborated with solo singers such as Javier Solis and
American pop chanteuse Edyie Gormé. The latter collaboration, Canta en Es-
pañol yielded Los Panchos one of their biggest selling albums, and the recording
of “Sabor a mi” became a favorite among Hispanic Americans in the United
States. Los Panchos performed with different lead vocalists until 1981 when
Gil offi cially retired. Navarro continued to perform until his death in 1993.
Bolero
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Further Reading
Torres, George. “The Bolero Romántico: From Cuban Dance to International
Popular Song.” In From Tejano to Tango: Essays on Latin American Popular
Music, edited by Walter A. Clark, 151–71. New York: Garland, 2002.
George Torres
Gil and Trio Calaveras. But it was Trio Los Panchos who had the greatest influence
on the tríos romantíco. Los Panchos, whose debut was at the Teatro Hispano in New
York in 1944, consisted of three singers, all who accompanied themselves on guitar
and sang in a high, sweet sounding, three-part harmony. By 1945, Alfredo Gil added a
new sound to the group by incorporating his newly invented requinto (a small soprano
guitar) with which he played florid introductions and interludes between the verses
giving the trio its characteristic instrumental sound. Coupled with a rhythm section on
recording and live performances, the sound of Trio Los Panchos was at once melodi-
cally and harmonically sophisticated, with a subtle, underlying Afro-Cuban rhythm.
Los Panchos’s unique blend of instruments, rhythms, and harmonies would be emu-
ular all over the world. Alfredo Gil, Chucho Navarro, and Hernando Avilés formed
Los Panchos in New York City after coming to the United States to complete a radio
contract. In their long career, the group toured extensively throughout the world in the
years that followed, eventually recording songs in Greek and Japanese.
The themes in bolero poetry often deal with themes of bittersweet, unrequited,
betrayed, or eternal love. Although often categorized as sentimental or corny, bo-
lero poetry has earned the respect of poets and musicians in Latin America. Indeed,
Latin American authors such as Manuel Puig have used the bolero as a basis for
their own novels. One of the techniques of bolero poets is the use of extremes in the
texts. Bolero scholar Iris Zavala has shown that these words of affirmation, which
are discretely negated, appear as at once positive and negative extremes: to die/to
live, to love/ to abhor, presence/absence.
In performance, the texts are often set as verse/refrain structures with the verses
repeating in the form of two double periods in bolero rhythm, and with a formal
structure of AABA, ABAB, or AABB. After 1955 and the emergence of the cha
cha chá , it was not uncommon within an AABA structure to have the B section
set as a cha cha chá, resulting in a bolero-chá. Vocally, the singers would sing in
either unison or three-part harmony, with a vocal variation of some kind at the re-
peat. For example, a section of a song with texted harmony might be repeated with
the accompanying harmony being hummed underneath the lead vocal.
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Bolero
Guitars are the distinguishing instrumental feature to this sound, and the combi-
nation of two guitars and a requinto balanced nicely with the voices. Transposition
was done by use of the capo, which also provided alternatives to harmonic inver-
sions on the guitars, thus avoiding the sound of the two standard guitars playing
in the same tessitura. The requinto would play the majority of the passagework,
including rapid melodic introductions, while the other guitars played a syncopated
bolero rhythm underneath. The rhythm section usually consisted of two or three in-
struments, usually maracas and bongos, the latter sometimes being replaced by the
congas . Other instruments might include güiro , timbals, and clave . The rhythm section served as an anonymous backup, with the focus always being the trio.
The trio format became standard and many groups followed in the path of Los
Panchos, including, Los Tres Aces, Los Tres Diamantes, and Los Tres Reyes. An-
other stream of performance practice comes from the solo singer/interpreter, which
came from the tradition set forth by Agustin Lara. Solo song allowed more freedom
for individual expression and remained popular in Latin America with interpret-
ers such as Maria Grever, Toña La Negra, and Daniel Santos. The solo bolero was
important in the development of salsa as ballad song, and it continues to hold an
important place in that genre.
In the 1980s, a younger generation of singers began to perform older epoca de
oro repertoire as parts of their performances and recordings. Many of these younger
artists, such as Gloria Estefan, Luis Miguel, and Linda Rondstadt incorporated it
into their songs as a tribute to the music of their parents and grandparents. Most
of these performances are in the form of a solo singer, though one group from Co-
lombia, Los Trio, had great success in the late 1990s recreating the trio sound of
three voices accompanied by three guitars. In spite of the rise and fall in popularity
of the bolero throughout its history, the genre continues to be performed through-
out the world.
Further Reading
Aparicio, Frances R. “Woman as Absence: Hetero(homo)sexual Desire in the Bolero.”
In Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Culture, 125–41.
Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
Campos, Rene Alberto, and Robert Baum. “The Poetics of the Bolero in the Novels of
Manuel Puig.” World Literature Today 65, no. 4 (1991): 637–42.
Pedelty, Mark. “The Bolero: The Birth, Life, and Decline of Mexican Modernity.” Latin
American Music Review/Revista de musica latinoamericana 20, no.1 (Spring–Summer
1999): 30–58.
Torres, George. “The Bolero Romántico: From Cuban Dance to International Popular
Song.” In From Tejano to Tango: Essays on Latin American Popular Music, edited by Wal-
ter A. Clark, 151–71. New York: Garland, 2002.
Zavala, Iris M. El Bolero: Historia De Un Amor. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991.
George Torres
Bolivia
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Bolivia
Bolivia is one of only two landlocked countries in South America, and as a result
has been strongly influenced by the musics and cultures of its neighboring nations
of Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile. Bolivia has also drawn on its
folk traditions for musical inspiration because it has a large indigenous population
(30% mestizo, 30% Quechua and 25% Aymara) and three official languages, Span-
ish, Quechua and Aymara.
The first Bolivian popular music superstars were the La Paz female duos Las
Kantutas (named after the national flower) and Las Hermanas Tejada (The Tejada
Sisters). Similar in style to Mexican female vocal duos, Las Kantutas and Las Her-
manas Tejada became famous in 1940s Bolivia through their live performances
on nationally broadcast Radio Illimani. Both duos traveled to Argentina to re-
cord because Bolivia lacked its own recording company until 1949. Las Kantutas,
known for their interpretations of the taquirari and carnival , helped popularize both Eastern lowland genres throughout the country. Bolivian orquestas de jazz
(swing bands) and orquestas típicas (Argentine tango ensembles) that played na-
tional and international genres were fashionable as well in the 1940s.
The Cuban-derived bolero was popular in Bolivia in the 1950s. La Paz singer
Raúl Shaw Moreno, an ex-member of Mexico’s famous bolero Trio Los Panchos,
toured the Americas and recorded for major international labels with his Mexican-
style, Bolivian bolero trío romantíco Los Peregrinos (The Pilgrims). Arturo So-
benes y Los Cambas was another popular Bolivian bolero group. In addition to
their mainly international repertory, these tuxedo-clad groups also played local
mestizo genres, such as huaynos , and were often accompanied with an Andean
charango .
Bolivian rock groups appeared in the 1960s. Benefiting from the local recording
industry’s expansion, middle- and upper-class youths formed these bands inspired
by popular Latin American Nueva Ola (New Wave) ensembles such as Uruguay’s
Los Shakers. The earliest Bolivian rock groups, dedicated at first to Spanish lan-
guage covers of international hits, include Los Bonny Boy Hots, Los Crickets (later
named Los Grillos), Los Black Byrds, and Los Loving Darks. Since the 1990s Oc-
tavia has been one of Bolivia’s most popular rock groups.
The mid-1960s saw the rise of a new Andean musical style that quickly be-
came the main Bolivian national popular music. The superstar La Paz group Los
Jairas (The Lazy Guys) initiated this trend. Quena (end-notched bamboo flute)
soloist Gilbert Favre of Switzerland founded Los Jairas in 1966 with three Boliv-
ian musicians: guitarist Julio Godoy, singer and bombo player Edgar Yayo Joffré
and charango soloist Ernesto Cavour. The group’s novel instrumental line-up
became the model for countless Bolivian conjuntos . Played by groups wearing
colorful ponchos, this musical style has usually been labeled folkloric music on
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Bolivia
recordings and at peñas (folk music venues), but it actually pertains to the realm
of urban popular music. The national and international mass media played a key
role in the creation of this new tradition, which was only loosely based on rural
indigenous music. Like folkloric -popular music groups worldwide, Los Jairas
and other Bolivian conjuntos, such as Savia Andina, stylized rural folk traditions
to appeal to urban audiences. For example, conjuntos mainly used the kena and
zampoña (pan-pipe) as solo and duo instruments—not as part of community-
based wind ensembles ( tropas or consorts) as in typical highland villages.
In the late 1960s, Los Ruphay of urban La Paz performed somewhat more
faithful interpretations of rural indigenous music on recordings such as the
tourist-oriented folk music of Bolivia. Grupo Aymara, Kollamarka, and the Paris-
based Boliviamanta followed this trend in the 1970s and 1980s. The fusion
group Wara played this nativist repertory too, as well as rock and heavy metal
numbers.
Since the 1980s Los Kjarkas have been Bolivia’s most popular conjunto. From
Cochabamba, Los Kjarkas added the ronroco (a large charango ) and the wankara
(a type of drum) to the standard conjunto line-up. The group’s recordings present
mestizo genres from different regions, especially from the Andean highlands and
valleys. Many of their hits are caporales and chuntunquis. Los Kjarkas helped pop-
ularize both mestizo genres throughout Bolivia and beyond. The danceable capo-
ral, often confused with the Afro-Bolivian saya , is much enjoyed by young people.
The triple-meter chuntunqui resembles the Latin American balada (ballad) when
interpreted in Los Kjarkas’s characteristic romantic style. Proyección and Amaru
are among the numerous groups in this mold.
Latin American música tropical (tropical music) has dominated Bolivia’s air-
waves since the 1990s. Bolivian música tropical groups (who primarily hail from
La Paz and Cochabamba rather than the tropics) mainly perform the Colombian
cumbia genre, whose duple-meter pulse resembles that of the Andean huayno. Bo-
livian groups like Maroyu and Climax, whose Peruvian-influenced style is known
as cumbia chicha, often adapt local huayños into cumbias , as well as play their own compositions. More popular among the middle- and upper-class are música tropical ensembles modeled after Argentine and Uruguayan groups.
Further Reading
Céspedes, Gilka Wara. “Huayño, Saya, and Chuntunqui: Bolivian Identity in the Music
of Los Kjar
kas.” Latin American Music Review 14, no. 1 (1993): 52–101.
Forero, Juan. “Young Bolivians Adopt Urban U.S. Pose, Hip-Hop and All.” New York
Times, May 26, 2005 (sec. A; Foreign Desk; El Alto Journal: 4).
Solomon, Thomas. “Dueling Landscapes: Singing Places and Identities in Highland Bo-
livia.” Ethnomusicology 44, no. 2 (2000): 257–80.
Fernando Rios
Bomba
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Bomba
Bomba is an African-related tradition consisting primarily of dance and drumming
styles that were developed by black slaves in Puerto Rico during the Spanish co-
lonial period (1508–1898). Bomba is based on a call-and-response structure with
linguistic interjections in Spanish, Creole, or an African language. For every style,
a group of dancers do one among eight dance forms while the choir replicates or
responds in unison to a leading voice accompanied by barrel-shaped membrano-
phones (or bulá drums) and two idiophones.
It is estimated that there are between 27 and 52 different genres and substyles
that fit under the umbrella of bomba. To European-trained listeners, most bomba
styles may be categorized in two groups according to their time signature. The first
is in the simple duple meter of 2/4 and includes the congo , for example. The second
group includes bomba styles that are in simple 3/4 or compounded 6/8 meter, such
as the holandé, leró, and yubá.
Community-based gatherings known as bombazos feature a dance form of
bomba that is known as piquetes. Piquetes consist of duel exchange between a
solo dance performer and a drum. Other bomba dances consist mainly of cre-
olized versions of European forms, namely the leró, tumba, kokobalé, and congo.
During the Spanish colonial administration, bomba was restricted to plantations,
haciendas, and religious holidays when bomba practitioners could do public per-
formances in town squares and open spaces. The earliest known scores that had the
specifically bomba -related cinquillo pattern were by visiting New Orleans pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. In subsequent years, cinquillo was notably featured in
danzas by Manuel G. Tavárez and Juan Morel Campos.
In 1898, when Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States, bomba was