The Archaeology of Sound

Archaeology normally conjures images of dusty bones and artifacts, collected, tagged, and stored safely in a museum. While those objects can play a critical role in understanding other cultures and past generations, music and sound also have something to add to our knowledge of the past.

That’s according to Chris Washburne, bandleader of Latin jazz band S.Y.O.T.O.S., and music professor Mike Davison. The two discussed the influence of multiple cultures on Latin jazz during a lecture at the University’s Salsa Mania.

In Washburne’s upcoming book, he researches the confluence of African, New Orleanian, and Cuban traditions in Latin jazz — a rich and complicated story that has just as much to do with the music as American history. Which is why, when an audience member at a lecture during the University of Richmond’s Salsa Mania asked about the difference between New Orleans and Latin jazz, Washburne responded: “I don’t think you realize how profound the question you just asked is.”

Washburne says the origins of Latin jazz began with the Haitian slave uprising in 1790, when many Haitians escaped to eastern Cuba. When war broke out in Cuba in the early 1800s, folks fled again — this time for New Orleans. In 20 years, the city’s population swelled from 4,000 to nearly 40,000. This flood of people brought with them new traditions, contributing to a style of jazz that takes blues and field hollers of African-Americans and mixes with rhythms from Haiti and Cuba.

“It’s the common colonial experience of Latin America and the U.S. that we share,” Washburne says. “We have musical traditions in common from that experience, and that mixing of the people. When we sound out those rhythms now, we’re sounding out that long colonial tradition.”

The blending of traditions is something Davison tries to convey in his Cuban music courses, where most students come in knowing very little about both Cuba and the concept of sound archaeology. “It’s often said that sound research is not considered sound research,” he says. “Trying to explain the evolution of sound is very difficult. And if you think about the middle of the 19th century, because of the trade routes of Havana and New Orleans, people were getting on a boat twice a day and just mingling. Now we don’t do that.”

But while trade routes may have come to an end, the influence of Latin rhythms is stronger than ever and Washburne says the recent rise of Puerto Rican and Cuban contributions to music are bringing a new awareness of historic influences on American music.

“Who are our pop stars today?” he says. “Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Gloria Estefan. In the 1950s, Desi Arnaz was extremely important in popularizing Caribbean culture. So it’s these moments that are key. They’re making us rethink. Maybe jazz sounds the way it does because there was a demographic, a silenced people, that was actually very important in forming what we know as American popular culture now.”

For a taste of Latin jazz, watch performances of S.Y.O.T.O.S. and the UR Jazz Ensemble during Salsa Mania, presented by the Modlin Center for the Arts and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Photo: Jon Gunter, Modlin Center marketing director