Hiding in plain sight, Latin influence is everywhere in jazz and popular music forms today and often goes unacknowledged. In her Inaugural lecture Professor Sue Miller demonstrates how these Latin styles evolved historically and shows, through musical examples, how many aspects of these performance practices are embedded in a variety of vernacular dance music forms past and present.
Sue Miller was interviewed on the radio programme Tropicana Musical in Brazil by ethnomusicologist and broadcaster Edwin Pitre and is now available as a podcast.The interview on the history of Cuban charanga is mostly in Spanish and features music from Orquesta Tata Peireira, Arcano y sus Maravillas, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta Belisario Lopez, Orquesta Broadway, Charlie Palmieri y su Charanga Duboney, Johnny Pacheco y su Charanga, Estrellas Cubanas, Orquesta Sublime and Charanga Rubalcaba.
“Latin music in the USA was booming in the 1950s and 1960s, with New York recording studios humming with the sounds of Cuban flute, tenor voices, charanga violins, congas, timbales, güiro, bass and piano. Over time the move from traditional recording techniques to new technologies changed the way this music was performed. Join musicologist Sue […]
This documentary forms part of a British Academy funded research project and is a shorter version of the ‘Capturing Liveness’ video available on the main British Academy page.
A new research project – bringing to life the practice and history of mid-20th century New York-based Latin music – has launched at Leeds Beckett.
The Leeds Arts Research Centre (LARC) brings together creative practitioners and academics across Leeds Beckett University whose research interests lie in the arts, whether that is music, film, fine art, design or performing arts.
LARC draws on staff from the School of Art, Architecture and Design and from the School of Film, Music and Performing Arts. It brings together cultural historians and theorists with arts practitioners at the cutting edge of practice as research. Providing a forum for debate, it is also a window on the exciting and innovate creative work going on across the two Schools. Here staff collaborate on new projects, showcase their research and build together the research culture
Review by Sunni Witmer of ‘Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation’ by Sue Miller in Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2016, Published by University of Texas Press
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/619638
‘All in all, Miller’s book is a valuable contribution to the scant research on charanga, and it is especially informative for those interested in improvisation, performance practices, analysis of popular music, flute performance, and, of course, Cuban music.’
Sue’s panel at the Society for Ethnomusicology’s annual conference in Texas Austin takes place on 3 December at 4pm. Also on the panel are renowned scholars of Latin American music Professor David Garcia (University of North Carolina) and Dr Ben Lapidus (CUNY).
Panel Abstract: ‘Clave feel’ is often cited as one of the main elements of Afro-Cuban/salsa improvisation yet very little to date has been done to demonstrate this concept analytically. Building on research in this area by Christopher Washburne, Peter Manuel, David Garcia, Robin Moore, Lise Waxer, and Robert Farris Thompson, scholars of Latin improvisation consider how clave remains a point of tradition, pride, and practice for many performers of Afrocuban music in New York City. Brass, woodwind and piano clave-based improvisation styles are examined to demonstrate how clave feel can define both the artistry and identity of performers. Ethnographic research informs the musical analyses of solo improvisations from both recordings and live performances to demonstrate how clave sensibility permeates the artistic work of New York-based Latin soloists.
Cuban Flute Style is thus a contextualised, analytical study, arising from a combination of Miller’s lessons from Egües, her research in Havana and New York, her subsequent experiences as a charanga bandleader, and the completion of a Leeds University PhD undertaken to study the processes involved in learning the charanga style of improvisation.
Let me begin by saying that Sue Miller’s Cuban Flute Style is an extraordinarily comprehensive oeuvre, with respect to both the history and the technique of charanga flute playing. In addition, her book is realized with a broad as well as a thoughtful understanding of the entire tradition on which this style of music is based.