The UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra pays tribute to Dámaso Pérez Prado

October 9, 2022

The UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra (Ofunam) will offer this weekend the special program "Symphonic Mambo: tribute to Pérez Prado", with about ten pieces with the flavor and rhythm that were experienced in the dance halls in Mexico in the 40s and 50s of the last century.

The concert is to honor the legacy of the so-called King of Mambo, as well as this music that has its origin in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms, with the influence of jazz and big orchestras. The group seeks to make an innovative proposal, in which a selection of emblematic pieces is transferred to the scope of symphonic orchestra instrumentation.

Saturday night at 8 p.m., and Sunday at noon, the university orchestra will get the dance floor moving in the Nezahualcóyotl hall, conducted by Iván López Reynoso. "El ruletero", "La niña popoof", "Lupita" and the "Mambo universitario" are some of these memorable songs that will sound in the University Cultural Center, to remind us how wonderful mambo is!, and to bring it closer to younger audiences.

The orchestral arrangements for the ten pieces, including the famous Mambo No. 5, were commissioned to Javier Álvarez, Esperanza de Velasco, Josefa de Velasco, Héctor Infanzón, Gonzalo Romeu, Mario Santos, Rosino Serrano, Erik Tapia and Abi Terrazas.

Although Pérez Prado (1916-1989) did not invent this genre, he brought it in his suitcase when he arrived from Cuba in late 1948. The composer, pianist and orchestra director drew the city in his lyrics, its characters and created hymns for educational institutions, with pieces dedicated to the University and the Polytechnic. In the words of writer Gabriel García Márquez, mambo mixed "slices of trumpets, slivers of saxophones, sauce of drums and bits of well-seasoned piano". This music was also present in many of the films of Mexican cinema's golden age.

Mariana Hijar, in the program notes, indicates that the new mambo genre "caused a sensation in the Mexican capital between 1948 and 1953, would become an essential part of Mexican popular culture in the mid-twentieth century".