Whatever Happened to the Mambo?
In 1950, when I signed up for lessons at an Arthur Murray dance studio in Alexandria, Virginia, the mambo was the latest dance craze and was lots of fun to do. The dance was based on the rumba, but its music had more of a jazz element, with unexpected breaks here and there, along with Pérez Prado's loud grunts punctuating the mambos his band recorded.
In fact, Prado was known as the King of the Mambo, with his popular recordings of Mambo Jambo (Qué Rico el Mambo) and Mambo No. 5 (not to be confused with a different Mambo No. 5 that was done in recent years by Lou Bega).
Speaking of breaks, the main difference between dancing the rumba and the mambo was that in the latter the dancers accented the fourth beat of each measure, rather than the first. This took a little getting used to, but really made the dance more exciting and prompted one to get creative with the steps.
The chachacha, which came along a few years later, was an even more challenging dance because the dancers were expected to break on the second beat of each measure (which is normally the softest beat of four-quarter music). Again, however, the dance literally begged the dancers to be creative and come up with sophisticated steps and routines.
Maybe there are places where the mambo, the rumba, and the chachacha are still considered three separate dances - but it appears to me they are now all lumped together under the label of salsa.
Speaking of "salsa," the late Celia Cruz (who was often referred to as "La Reina de la Salsa") said that she was never able to get used to the word in regard to music. She preferred to call it "música tropical."
By the way, I was privileged to meet Celia Cruz on two occasions - once by accident in 1951 in Havana, and the second time in 2002 when I was invited to appear on a TV show with her in Miami. The complete story can be seen here.
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Miscellaneous Music
