Son Cubano is a type of music and dance that began in the highlands of eastern Cuba in the late 1800s. It combines musical traditions from Spain and Africa. Key Spanish influences include singing style, song structure, and the use of the tres, an instrument similar to the Spanish guitar. African influences include the clave rhythm, call-and-response patterns, and percussion instruments like bongos and maracas.
By 1909, Son Cubano reached Havana, where it was first recorded in 1917. This helped it spread across Cuba, becoming the country’s most popular music style. Early groups had three to five members, but by the 1920s, groups of six musicians, called sextetos, became common. In the 1930s, many groups added a trumpet, becoming septetos. By the 1940s, larger ensembles with congas and pianos, called conjuntos, were typical. Son Cubano became a key part of musical gatherings called descargas during the 1950s.
Son Cubano gained international attention in the 1930s when Cuban bands toured Europe and North America. This led to adaptations like the American rhumba. Radio broadcasts of Son Cubano also reached West Africa and the Congo, inspiring new styles such as Congolese rumba. In the 1960s, New York’s music scene helped salsa become popular. Salsa blends Son Cubano with other Latin American styles and was mostly recorded by Puerto Rican musicians. While salsa became famous worldwide in the second half of the 20th century, in Cuba, Son Cubano evolved into styles like songo and timba. Timba is sometimes called "Cuban salsa."
Etymology and cognates
In Spanish, the word son, which comes from the Latin word sonus, means a pleasant sound, especially one that is musical. In eastern Cuba, the word started being used to describe the music of the mountain areas around the late 1800s. To tell this music apart from similar styles in other countries, like son mexicano and son guatemalteco, people often use the term son cubano. In Cuba, different words are used to describe regional versions of the music. These include son montuno, son oriental, son santiaguero, and son habanero.
People who sing son are called soneros. The verb sonear describes both their singing and the way they make up songs on the spot. The adjective soneado is used to describe songs or styles that include the rhythm and timing of son, or even its montunos. There is a clear difference between styles that use son partially or completely, as shown by the difference between bolero soneado and bolero-son. The word sonora refers to musical groups with smooth trumpet sections, such as Sonora Matancera and Sonora Ponceña.
History
The history of Cuban music began in the 16th century, but the son, a type of music, was created more recently. Its earliest forms appeared in the mid-to-late 19th century. Most experts believe these early forms of the son originated in Cuba’s Oriente Province, especially in mountainous areas like Sierra Maestra. These early styles, such as changüí, nengón, kiribá, and regina, were created by peasants, many of whom had Bantu heritage. This was different from Afro-Cubans on the island’s western side, who mostly came from West African groups like the Yoruba and Ewe. These styles were played at rural parties called guateques, where groups of singers and guitarists performed. The guitars used in these early styles, like the tiple, bandurria, and bandola, may have led to the creation of the tres around 1890 in Baracoa. Adding percussion instruments like the bongó and botija/marímbula created the first proper son groups. By the late 1890s, different versions of the son, called the son complex, appeared across rural Cuba. Musicologist Marta Esquenazi Pérez divided the son complex into three regional styles: changüí in Guantánamo, sucu-sucu in Isla de la Juventud, and son montuno in places like Bayamo, Manzanillo, Majagua, and Pinar del Río. Scholars like Radamés Giro and Jesús Gómez Cairo note that the son was already known across Cuba, including Havana, before it became popular in the 1910s.
Another theory, proposed by musicologist Peter Manuel, suggests that the son’s structure came from the contradanza, a type of music in Havana during the second half of the 19th century. The contradanza shared traits with the son, such as melodies in parallel thirds, a suggested clave rhythm, short vocal refrains from popular songs, syncopations, and a two-part song structure with repeating sections.
The song “Son de Má Teodora” is traditionally credited to Teodora Ginés and her sister Micaela Ginés (1530–1598), who lived in Santiago de Cuba during the colonial period. Both women were formerly enslaved but later freed. They moved to Cuba as free people and worked as musicians at the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba: Micaela played the violin, and Teodora played the bandola. According to this story, Teodora composed “Son de la Má Teodora” around 1562, with Micaela accompanying her.
“Má Teodora” is considered one of the oldest Cuban folk songs, dating to the 16th century. Some view it as an early or even the first example of the son genre. The song was recorded by Cuban musician Laureano Fuentes Matons in his 1893 book Las artes en Santiago de Cuba, where he called it the first son in Cuban history. This idea was later supported by musicologist Alejo Carpentier. Earlier mentions of the song appeared in 1845, when Cuban historian Joaquín José García cited a 16th-century chronicle by Hernando de la Parra. In the early 20th century, scholars like Fernando Ortiz also discussed the song, linking it to Teodora and Micaela Ginés.
Later studies by historians such as Manuel Pérez Beato, José Juan Arrom, Max Henríquez Ureña, and Alberto Muguercia cast doubt on the authenticity of the stories about Teodora and Micaela Ginés and the 16th-century origin of the song. These studies challenge the traditional account but remain part of an ongoing debate about the son’s origins.
The earliest surviving Cuban son dates back to the late 16th century. It features a solo singer and chorus singing in a call-and-response style.
The rise of the son increased cultural blending between African and Spanish traditions. After slavery was abolished in 1886, many former Black slaves moved to poor neighborhoods in Havana called “solares.” Workers from across the country also arrived, bringing Afro-Cuban rumba traditions, rumbitas, and montunos.
In Havana, rural rumba and urban rumba styles, which had developed separately in the late 19th century, merged. Musicians who played the tiple and guiro met others who used the cajón and Cuban clave. This mix created the new genre called son. Around 1910, the son likely adopted the clave rhythm from Havana-based rumba, which had developed in Havana and Matanzas in the late 19th century.
When trovador Sindo Garay moved to Havana in 1906, other trovadores followed him, hoping to record with American companies like RCA Victor and Columbia Records. These musicians from different regions met others already in Havana, such as María Teresa Vera and Rafael Zequeira. They shared songs, boleros, rumbas, guarachas, and rural rumbitas.
Famous trovador Chico Ibáñez said he composed his first “montuno,” called “Pobre Evaristo,” in 1906. He described it as a short melody followed by a repeated phrase for everyone to sing. Ned Sublette notes that another famous trovador, Miguel Matamoros, played danzones and sones on his harmonica for workers in a cigar factory. He said the sones of that time were simple phrases repeated all night.
A list of trovadores who recorded rumbas, guarachas, and sones in Havana in the early 20th century includes Sindo Garay, Manuel Corona, María Teresa Vera, Alberto Villalón, José Castillo, Juan Cruz, Juan de la Cruz, Nano León, Román Martínez, and duos like Floro and Zorrilla, Pablito and Luna, Zalazar and Oriche. Adolfo Colombo, a soloist at Teatro Alhambra, also recorded.
In Havana’s neighborhoods, son groups played in any format they could form, and most were semi-professional. One group, The Apaches, was invited in 1916 to a party at the Vedado Tennis Club hosted by President Mario Menocal. That same year, some members of The Apaches formed a quartet called Cuarteto Oriental. The group included Ricardo Martínez (from Santiago de Cuba, conductor and tres), Gerardo Martínez (first voice and clave), Guillermo Castillo (botijuela), and Felipe Neri Cabrera (maracas). Later, bongo player Joaquín Velazco joined the group.
In 1917, Cuarteto Oriental recorded the first documented son on Columbia Records’ catalog.
Instrumentation
The basic son ensemble of early 20th-century Havana included guitar, tres, claves, bongos, marímbula or botija, and maracas. The tres plays a repeating musical pattern called guajeo, which is common in Cuban music. A typical guajeo pattern has beats that occur between the main beats in the first measure. This pattern can start in the first measure or the second measure, depending on the song's structure. Later, the double bass replaced the marímbula and bongos, and a trumpet was added. These changes led to the formation of groups called sextetos and septetos.