(Article written by the Prof. Daniel García Blanco, published May 1° 1973 in the supplement of the newspaper The Day The Music in Mexico").
On the year 1791 were gestated in Haiti a revolution of slaves of the sugar centers against the mayorales and French patterns that exploited them and they annoyed. Many of these emigrated toward Cuba, entering for the county of East and they took I get language, customs and artistic manifestations.
Una of them, the quadrille (country dances) -adopted Englishman in France in the XVII century with the same name, and modified later in " gang " - it became present in Cuba together with the minuet, the rigodón. the lanceros and other dances of the same origin that by the way, they were not easily assimilable in the popular practice, because it became necessary to hire specialized teachers for the teaching and previous rehearsals to the date in that these dances were executed, naturally with orchestra's of strings accompaniment with flute travesera, to the French style.
With the step of the time, and almost one century later, the quadrille rooted definitively in Cuba, although already with local characteristics. And it is attributed to gift Manuel Saumeill having conformed the Cuban quadrille through one of their most delicious compositions in that gender: "Pepa's eyes"."
In 1879, a celebrated musician from Matanzas, Miguel Flayde, with the elements of the Cuban quadrille in vogue, gave defined form to what baptized as danzon, writing the first first floor the title of "The heights of Simpson", with reference to a neighborhood (Simpson) of its native city.
it Stops then, the orchestra was also acquiring her own local character, with more tendency toward the popular thing, being integrated with piano, 4 violins, a flute, a contrabass, a timbalito and a guayo (güiro), independently of the charanga that was also denominated Cuban Typical Danzonera, integrated with clarinet, trumpet, trombone, bombardino, two kettledrums and güiro, to the one that very soon incorporated the violins and the contrabass.
The musical structure of the danzón is kind of an it was about that it is developed under the outline AB-AC-AD-AF, that is to say, (A) introduction that later you restitution in refrain, (B) I develop of the first topic, (A) refrain, (C) I develop of the second topic, (A) refrain, (D) occasionally, I develop of the third topic, (A) refrain, not very quick at the end that solves in (F) final, lightly more alive " montuno ". As in the topics B, C and D can make comfortable the melodies of popular songs of any nationality, opera pieces or of very well-known pieces, the danzón acquires a great versatility that allows him to be easy and frankly accepted in different environments.
it is a rhythmic, simple but elegant dance in their steps, and he/she has as very particular characteristic the one that, in accordance with the environment where he/she is practiced, and for their lingering musical development, during each refrain after the first topic, the dancers rest being fanned the face the woman, drying off with the handkerchief the perspiration of the forehead the man, courting both meanwhile.
the nice description is known, very graphic by the way that he/she makes an anonymous dancer when saying that ...para to dance, the man should place the left arm in lateral squad sustaining his partner's right hand, and then, to support his own extended right little finger on the fourth vertebra (of below p'arriba) of his couple.
it would Be almost impossible to quantify the Cuban danzones that have highlighted inside and outside of that country, however, it is " Almond ", of Abelardo Valdez the good known and liked. And it is curious to point out that having been Cuba the cradle of the danzón, in the last times it spreads to disappear, because it is interpreted very sporadically.
Among the Cuban musical groups that play the danzón with more property in our days, they stand out the Orchestra Aragon and the Orchestra of Rodrigo Pratts.
In the first years of the present century, the danzón arrived in Mexico for Veracruz and the peninsula of Yucatan, together with a wonderful immigration of Cubans that you/they in fact left its country for the resulting political convulsions of its recent independence of Spain, the intervention of the United States of America and the not very fortunate setting-up of its first constitutional régime.
The popular music of the costs of the Gulf of Mexico -particularly that of Veracruz - very soon it was enriched with the danzón, and they were not few the composers, musicians and dancers that were assimilated to so pleasant tropical, same gender that I root conserving the original elements of structure and rhythm -with their typical " cinquillo " definitively - but acquiring, in turn, local characteristics.
The danzonera increased its instrumental endowment gradually incorporating, in the section of wood: high saxophones, saxophones tenors and, in very outstanding form, the saxophone baritone, without damage of using, occasionally, the sax soprano; in the metals, you increases the number of trumpets and trombones and the bombardino is substituted by the figle, at the moment in disuse. Violins and the contrabass persist, also, the basic percussions of the kettledrums and the güiro that are supplemented of ordinary with keys.
so far, in the port of Veracruz he/she enjoys great fame the neighborhood of The Guaca", on the intersection of Bent Manuel's streets and May 1°, where the jarochos dances the danzón with more property, until in the public road during the Carnival, and of continuous, in the bordering -y not less famous - living room of parties of the Union of Stevedores, without damage of the weekly exhibitions that make the dancers in the Square of Weapons accompanied by the Municipal Band of Music.
But following the trajectory of the danzón toward the interior of the country, after having rooted compactly in the costs of the Gulf, it is necessary to point out that April 20 1920 are inaugurated in the capital -in the building of the old bakery of The Roosters conditioned exprofeso - on the street Mexican Thinker, what would be the temple of the popular dance and the palace of the tropical music for antonomasia... the traditional and legendary Living room Mexico Between 7 in the night and the dawn of the following day - of preference for brave clientele authentic populachera of it breaks and it rips" that printed to the place a vibrant and peculiar atmosphere very remembered up to now by those who had opportunity to know it and where, of course, the danzón stayed in preponderant place.
they are countless the events, anecdotes and legends arisen in the environment of this living room, and well a compilation could be made it would be since to its contribution in the urban folclor. Amador Pérez " Dimas ", composer oaxaqueño of the classic danzón " Nereidas " and grateful director, retired, of music bands and danzoneras (for many years, in fact in the Salon Mexico), ...había tango competitions narrates, of danzón, of step-double and until of classic waltz" ...Ventura Miranda was the king, the champion of the danzón. The women considered a great honor that he/she took them for couple. And in the Christmas, he/she was organized an authentic inn, with María and José selected among the habitual clients who arrived in donkey with a blond boy rented in the neighborhood of April 2 and Mexican Thinker."
Some present parishioners inform that ...delimitaban the category and condition of the clientele, three roomy living rooms that were known, respectively, as of the suet", of the shortening and of the butter this last one -for supposition -, it was that of more ancestry inside the general tonic of the place..." And it has passed to the public domain, although " Dimas " assures that it was pure hesitated, the text of the ironic sign surely -placed in the living room of the suet" - that noticed: it is begged to abstain from throwing butts lit in the floor, to avoid the young ladies to burn the feet."
at the beginning of the sesentas, the Salon Mexico closed for incosteabilidad before a government disposition of the city that restricted the schedule for the dance centers. However, in our days, they are several the living rooms that work -with the schedule of the regulation - maintaining the tradition relatively, very converged but without the unforgettable characteristic, only of the Mexico that in their moment, it was center of attraction and curiosity of own and strange, frequently visited by famous characters of the artistic, political, sport means and of the high society.
In 1936, the celebrated composer from New York Aaron Coplan took the name of this dance living room and inspired by its singular atmosphere, he/she wrote one of its more delicious ones and acquaintances works, in fact Living room Mexico although, surprisingly, it didn't use musical topic related with the danzón and if the topic of a popular song of the XIX century The mosquito."
they are numerous the danzoneras directors and orchestras, composers, arreglistas and performers of the gender, those that have acquired fame and prestige thanks to the popular living rooms of dance of the capital and that, in an or another form, they have participated in the peak of the Mexican danzón whose execution is also listened frequently in music bands, marimbas, mariachis and other groups not necessarily tropical. They can be mentioned excellent -with risk of omitting unjust but unwittingly to some -, among those of Cuban origin: Consejo Valiente "Acerina", Mariano Mercerón and Arturo Núñez. And also among the Mexicans they occupy excellent place: the already mentioned Amador Pérez "Dimas", the veracruzano Noé Fajardo, the yucateco José Gamboa Ceballos, the chiapaneco Rafael de Paz, Carlos Campos with his very particular style; Everardo and Juan Córdoba, Agustín Steps, Marciano Pacheco, José Bojórquez, Macario Luna and so many more whose relationship would be, at the same time that difficult to complete, extraordinarily wide.
Among the good known danzones they can make an appointment: "Nereidas" (Amador Pérez "Dimas"), "Pulque for 2" (Gus Moreno), " Mocambo " (Emilio B. Rosado), Telephone at long distance" (Aniceto Díaz), sharp Malaria" (Esteban Alfonzo), The Quarter note" (Gonzalo Bravo N.), Soft Beach" (Ernesto Domínguez), " Acapulco " (Gus Moreno), Salon Mexico" (Tomás Ponce King), " Acayucan " (Macario Luna) and Blanca Estela" (Emilio B. Rosado.).
