Music of Puerto Rico

Lately I have been trying to expand my Caribbean musical palette, so Puerto Rico is my new music obsession! Also, I might as well learn more about my other ancestral homeland's music, beyond my boogaloo craze last year and slight salsa interests. As of now, I am loving my Afro-Boricua brother, Ismael Rivera, an excellent singer who was quite proud and explicitly pro-black (this essay about his relationship with Rafael Cortijo is quite useful and interesting). Also, did I mention the two covered one of my favorite samba/bossa nova songs from Jorge Ben's first album? My Youtube playlist is currently quite underdeveloped, but I am expanding it over the next week or two.

What I have noticed so far from listening to Puerto Rican danza music is how remarkably similar it is to Cuban danzon, Haitian meringue, and Dominican merengue (of course, I refer to the 'art' and salon forms of these genres), which isn't too surprising after perusing Asterlitz's book on merengue or another on creolization of contradanse. Indeed, listening to the famous Figueroa musical family, one cannot help but notice how similar so much of these elite nationalist music genres of the Caribbean were (the presence of the cinquillo/quintolet certainly indicates the common Afro-Caribbean background influences in each island). Or check out Graciela Rivera, a famous Puerto Rican singer, whose danza sounds so much like some of the formal and elite-led 'national' musics of Cuba or Haiti. She even sings some danzas composed by a prominent Afro-Puerto Rican composer, Juan Morel Campo. There is so much grace to be found in this form of Puerto Rican music, such as in this.  Or this old Puerto Rican orchestra's danza? Of course, all these danzas are also influenced by Cuban habanera and other influences, as well. Beautiful, just beautiful.

Anywho, based on my greater interest salsa and other genres of Puerto Rican music, I shall endeavor to discover other great artists such as Cortijo and Rivera. Who knows, perhaps if I keep at it, I'll become obsessed with Puerto Rican music in the way I was so taken by South African and Congolese music.