Video - Episode 1: East Side Story

Episode 1: East Side Story

More Video:Watch all the Latin Music USA clips

This series examines how and when the United States fell in love with Latin music, and the impact Latinos have had upon American society and its popular music, This first programme opens at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 where Carlos Santana took Latin rhythms into the Rock mainstream.

Santana describes how Afro-Cuban rhythms impacted on him; rhythms which first entered the States in the late 1920s with prodigy Maurio Bauza. Then, Cuba was an island of contrasting sounds: American Swing along side older rhythms, as the great Cuban chanteuse Omara Portuondo describes.

But Bauza had ambitions. He travelled to New York where he encountered surreal movies like 'The King Of Jazz' and the exciting black culture of Harlem. When Bauza met Cuban bandleader Machito, together they transformed American popular music.

Afro-Cuban music also offered immigrants a sense of pride and identity. It mixed secret Cuban 'spirit' rhythms with the dancehall panache of Manhattan . Mario Bauza's first hit with the Afro-Cubans was 'Tanga', combining an orchestral wall-of-sound with wild percussion, thrilling white New Yorkers and transforming the music of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. By now Latinos - Puerto Ricans as well as Cubans - were a visible and inspirational presence in the city. The legendary Candido performs for us on conga drums and Arturo Sandoval plays jazz trumpet. Percussionist Chano Pozo, with a gangster’s bullet in his back, joined the scene and Dizzy Gillespie describes their dynamic collaboration.

Back in Cuba too, there was a musical revolution, as the Rumba and Mambo captivated tourists in the Mafia-owned nightclubs. Renowned 'Cachao' Lopez performs for us, and we see how Latin rhythms took New Yorkers by storm. The Mambo Kings, among them Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, became the royalty of dancehalls frequented by movie stars, show dancers and a mix of New Yorkers for whom "it was the beginning of integration".

The controversial West Side Story became an unexpected hit, both offending and delighting Latinos. It caricatured them but it also placed Puerto Ricans on the silver screen and made them visible. While on the small screen, Cuban heart-throb Desi Arnaz became a star of I Love Lucy. Latin music was 'hip'.

With the arrival of Castro in Cuba, in 1959, the flow of rhythms to the USA dried up and big bands gave way to "four boys and a drum kit". Yet "the influence of Latin rhythms on rock n' roll was seminal," incorporated into songs like Day Tripper and Save The Last Dance For Me. Carlos Santana describes how his own Latin-style rock music is part of tradition dating back to Machito, Puente and Bauza. With his stunning performance at Woodstock in 1969, Santana helped place Latin music in the mainstream, mirroring the integration of Latinos within the USA.

A BBC/WGBH Co-Production
Executive Producer: Mark Cooper
BBC Series Producer: Jeremy Marre
Director: Daniel McCabe