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Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban jazz first emerged in 1943 with the Cuban musicians Mario Bauza and Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, based in New York City. In 1947 the collaborations of bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo brought Afro-Cuban jazz into the jazz mainstream. Bauzá's initial composition within the genre was referred to as a descarga, while Gillespie's approach was originally called cubop. During its first decades, the Afro-Cuban jazz movement was stronger in the United States than in Cuba itself.
History
"Spanish tinge"—the Cuban influence in early jazz
Although true clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-twentieth century, the Cuban influence was present at the birth of jazz. African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the nineteenth century, when the habanera gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as congo, tango-congo, or tango.) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat.
History
"Spanish tinge"—the Cuban influence in early jazz
Although true clave-based Afro-Cuban jazz did not appear until the mid-twentieth century, the Cuban influence was present at the birth of jazz. African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban musical motifs in the nineteenth century, when the habanera gained international popularity. The habanera was the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African motif. The habanera rhythm (also known as congo, tango-congo, or tango.) can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat.