Latin jazz coexisted and interacted with jazz from the very start of jazz. Poor documentation has made it difficult to reconstruct the total significance of this early influence. Latin jazz can be viewed from two sides:

1. Jazz perspective: we see the importation of Latin influences in established jazz ensembles primarily through increased rhythmic complexity.
2. Latin perspective: we see that Latin jazz has maintained its own musical tradition and audience yet remains distinct but influential in jazz circles.

1890s–1910, Early New Orleans

Latin music was a part of the New Orleans musical mix and contributed to the Creole musical vocabulary. Cuban and Haitian music, like French music, were prevalent influences in the early pre-jazz music of New Orleans. Ragtime music was derived initially from Mexican music compositions like the habanera, the danza, and the seguidilla.

1910s–1920s, The Tango Craze

The tango, which is a fast habanera, became a popular musical dance rhythm during the 1910s and worked its way into many jazz compositions. The tango and ragtime both reached their peaks at the same time.

1930s, The Rumba Craze

Rumba became a popular dance rhythm of the 1930s. Rumba could be heard in most of the swing dance halls. By the end of the 1930s, the crossover between jazz and Latin music surfaced in bands like that of Cab Calloway. The real fusion of Latin and jazz in a single musical style is called the “cubop.”

Clave

Claves are two resonant sticks that are struck together. It is the signature of Latin dance rhythms, especially of Cuban origin. Clave also refers to the rhythm played by claves in a musical composition. Basic rhythm takes four forms in different dances. The rhythm repeats over every two measures and has rhythmic groupings of alternating two and three notes (or strikes of the claves). The clave rhythm creates a syncopation across the two measures that is a basic requirement of Latin music.

1940s, Swing to Cubop

By the 1940s, most of the big swing bands had Latin numbers in their repertoires. Dizzy Gillespie is clearly the most important figure in the effort to import Latin music into the developing jazz mainstream. Progressive big bands like Gillespie adopted the music of the early Afro-Cuban bands creating a new bop style. At the same time, the term cubop began surfacing to describe this fusion.

1950s, The Mambo and Cubop

The mambo consisted of the complex harmonies of jazz and complex Latin rhythms. Vibraphonist Tito Puente played Latin versions of jazz materials as well as mambos that had a clear jazz swing. This resulted in a fusion that generated great excitement and variation in his performances.

1960s, The Brazilian Wave

The Brazilian Wave emerged in the 1960s as the jazz bossa enjoyed widespread popularity. Subtle dance rhythms proved particularly appropriate for the West Coast style of jazz and its cooler performance style. The bossa brought a shift in emphasis from the complex, highly charged percussion to a more complex melodic and harmonic style. Bossa jazz movement also brought non-percussion Latin musicians to prominence such as Laurindo Almeida and Bola Sete.

Bossa nova’s popularity led to an eventual decline in the jazz circle just like the original jazz bossa gave way to a lighter bossa pop style. Its decline was not the end. It would return in a new hybrid form as a combination of funky jazz and late cubop. The 1960s offered a number of fronts for the hybridization of jazz, Latin, R&B, funky jazz, and increasingly, rock and roll. The groundwork laid in this decade would play itself out more fully in the fusion of the 1970s.

1970s, Latin Jazz Fusion

Throughout the 1970s, Latin jazz was becoming more intertwined with diverse jazz streams. It was no longer easily identified as a new stylistic fusion but rather as a subtler flavor of jazz itself.

Contemporary Trends

Many performers important to the many fusions of Latin music are still active today but their collective work cannot be neatly tied to one defining stream. The 1980s saw a shift from the Latin-jazz-funk and jazz-fusion back to a more Brazilian-centered interest paralleling the change in the late 1970s from the jazz-fusion to the more Latin tipico characterized by tradition Cuban music. In the late 1980s, Latin jazz settled down into its own evolution as a more self-defined musical stream. Even though jazz accepts the presence of Latin music, they both remain distinct and active forms of musical traditions.