{ "slug": "son-cubano", "name": "Son Cubano", "aliases": [ "son", "son montuno", "cuban son", "trova" ], "description": "Cuba's foundational popular form, out of the eastern hills and into Havana by the 1920s: Spanish song over African percussion, organised around the clave and the montuno — the call-and-response vamp everything else is built to arrive at.", "origin": { "place": "Oriente and Havana, Cuba", "year": 1900 }, "lineage": [], "bpm": { "min": 80, "max": 180 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/son-cubano/", "trackCount": 8, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "compay-segundo--chan-chan", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/compay-segundo--chan-chan/", "title": "Chan Chan", "artist": "Compay Segundo", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/compay-segundo/", "year": 1987, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Written by a man in his eighties who said it came to him in a dream, and then made globally famous by the Buena Vista Social Club a decade later. Four chords, and no one tires of them.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Compay%20Segundo%20Chan%20Chan", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=smqREkY0R5g", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "rita-montaner--el-manisero", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/rita-montaner--el-manisero/", "title": "El Manisero", "artist": "Rita Montaner", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/rita-montaner/", "year": 1928, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A peanut vendor's street cry turned into a son-pregón, and the record that set off a rumba craze across America and Europe. Cuban music's first global export.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Rita%20Montaner%20El%20Manisero", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CSQ9pay12Fw", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "joseito-fernandez--guantanamera", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/joseito-fernandez--guantanamera/", "title": "Guantanamera", "artist": "Joseíto Fernández", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/joseito-fernandez/", "year": 1929, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A guajira whose verses were improvised nightly on the radio, later fitted with José Martí's poetry. Probably the most sung Cuban melody there is.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Jose%C3%ADto%20Fern%C3%A1ndez%20Guantanamera", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XjRfT9TXQbY", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "arsenio-rodriguez--bruca-manigua", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/arsenio-rodriguez--bruca-manigua/", "title": "Bruca Maniguá", "artist": "Arsenio Rodríguez", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/arsenio-rodriguez/", "year": 1937, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The blind tres player who added a piano, a conga and a second trumpet and turned son into the conjunto format. Everything salsa does structurally, Arsenio did first.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Arsenio%20Rodr%C3%ADguez%20Bruca%20Manigu%C3%A1", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XjTcKP7JwfY", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "septeto-nacional--echale-salsita", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/septeto-nacional--echale-salsita/", "title": "Échale Salsita", "artist": "Septeto Nacional", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/septeto-nacional/", "year": 1933, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Ignacio Piñeiro's septet at the point the form settled into its classic line-up. The title supplied a word that a New York industry later took for itself.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Septeto%20Nacional%20%C3%89chale%20Salsita", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=TEQOfbfRej4", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "ibrahim-ferrer--dos-gardenias", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ibrahim-ferrer--dos-gardenias/", "title": "Dos Gardenias", "artist": "Ibrahim Ferrer", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ibrahim-ferrer/", "year": 1997, "label": "World Circuit", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A bolero sung by a man who had been shining shoes when Ry Cooder found him. Whatever one thinks of the Buena Vista project, this performance is not in question.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ibrahim%20Ferrer%20Dos%20Gardenias", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fugRvM6s5fc", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "bobby-capo--quizas-quizas-quizas", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/bobby-capo--quizas-quizas-quizas/", "title": "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás", "artist": "Bobby Capó", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/bobby-capo/", "year": 1947, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Osvaldo Farrés wrote it without being able to read music. A bolero of total economy, and one of the handful of Cuban songs everybody can hum without knowing where it came from.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Bobby%20Cap%C3%B3%20Quiz%C3%A1s%2C%20Quiz%C3%A1s%2C%20Quiz%C3%A1s", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rDGgUGBD-90", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 8, "trackKey": "faustino-oramas--candela", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/faustino-oramas--candela/", "title": "Candela", "artist": "Faustino Oramas", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/faustino-oramas/", "year": 1995, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "El Guayabero, filthy and delighted about it, working the double meanings that were always half the point of son lyrics. Recorded when he was seventy-four.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Faustino%20Oramas%20Candela", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4_7zkXv17QE", "exact": true } } } ] }