Pello El Afrokan conga original footage

1960-01-01 · 1960

In the 1960s, Pedro Izquierdo, known as Pello el Afrokán, created the Mozambique in Cuba. The Cuban Mozambique musical tradition (music and dance) became a national and international hit and sensation in the mid-1960s; separate variants and styles of the rhythm evolved and were popularized in the ’70s through the work of 10x Grammy-winning artist Eddie Palmieri and Latin rocker Carlos Santana who did a cover of Pello's "Maria Caracoles." Pello El Afrokán was born in 1933, a time of hunger and desolation for Cuba with the toppling of dictator Machado. He was the grandson of Mandingos, "That’s the blood running through my veins," Pello often said. "My father was one of the first percussionists in Belisario López’ band. I’m a cousin of Mongo Santamaría, and the kings of percussion used to visit my house." The creator of the Mozambique started playing wherever he was needed and on the docks of his Havana barrio of Jesús María. He did commercial jingles for CMQ radio and in 1959, founded his own group, playing at Havana’s mecca of cabaret, the Tropicana. In 1962, he was already experimenting with a confluence of styles that he would fuse into the Mozambique. The Mozambique is played with 12 conga drums, two bass drums, three bells, a frying pan, four trumpets, and three trombones. The Mozambique rhythm is an Afro-Cuban fusion that Pello called a stew: Abakuá, Yoruba, Congo, Carabalí, and Jiribilla. The rhythm is linked to a dance whose steps were devised by El Afrokán himself and later stylized by choreographer Guanari Amoedo. "The Mozambique is walking, walking in time," as its inventor defined it. Pello introduced Mozambique at the University of Havana, and it had an enthusiastic response from the youth. It had its television debut in July 1963, when Beatle mania was spreading globally. With the Castro government’s enthusiastic approval, Pello served up the Mozambique as a wall of contention before the avalanche of pop music. In the Radio Progreso studios and at that year’s carnival, Mozambique was an explosion only comparable to the Cuban salsa boom. With Pello, the Mozambique traveled as far as Paris’ Olympia Theater in 1965 and an official state visit to the then U.S.S.R, and in 1979, Mozambique even made it to Carnegie Hall.

Genres: Mozambique