The Second Birth of Latin Jazz

Abstract

This chapter examines “The Peanut Vendor” as a case study and a lens into the New York City of the 1930s. The role of the popular music industry in promoting “exotica” and “otherness” and how these practices established Cuban music and musicians as the domineering influence in mid-century Latin and jazz mixings are documented. The role of interculturality in 1930s New York jazz is explored, challenging the traditional tropes found in historical narratives that posit jazz as a purely African American or North American music. A closer look at the contextual factors that led to these exchanges calls for a rethinking of jazz as a transnational and global music. This chapter exposes the interracial, interethnic, international, and intercultural complexities and processes that undergird jazz performance practice and that serve as the primary driving forces in the evolution of the music. What becomes clear is that Caribbean and Latin American music and musicians have played significant roles in ways yet to be fully documented and understood.