What the Queen of Salsa's red satin heels say about America

0:00John Cephas:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

0:20Phil Wiggins:The amazing thing about salsa is that from very on, Americans of all stripes, of course Latinos, Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans and others, but all Americans make this music their own.

0:31Ranald Woodaman:How salsa music and one killer pair of heels help tell the story of America.

0:46Ranald Woodaman:it's monday may 25th and this is here and now anytime from nbr and wbur i'm chris bentley

0:56Ranald Woodaman:today on the show as part of our collab with the smithsonian institution marking 250 years since the founding of the country. We're looking at two styles of music and some of their greatest icons. In a few minutes, we'll dig into the music known as the Piedmont Blues.

1:18John Cephas:I play the Piedmont style. This is alternating thumb and bass where you play a background and then you play the leading parts, you know.

1:30Ranald Woodaman:But first, If you're a fan of salsa, I'm sure you already know Celia Cruz.

1:46Ranald Woodaman:This is one of her biggest hits, La Vida es un Carnaval. Cruz is one of the best-selling Latin performers of all time and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. An incredible pair of red satin, sky-high, open-toed, cantilevered heels that Cruz wore when she danced and sang, captivating audiences from Havana to New York City, is one of the highlights of a new exhibit called Puro Ritmo at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Those shoes and the story they tell about salsa music are part of our look at 25 objects from the Smithsonian that tell the story of America.

2:25Ranald Woodaman:They were brought to our attention by Ronald Woodiman from the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino. He spoke to Indira Lakshmanan.

2:35John Cephas:So Celia Cruz is known as the Queen of Salsa, which is that four-four-time dance music genre with roots in Afro-Cuban rumba. Briefly, tell us Celia's story and how she rose to fame.

2:49Phil Wiggins:Well, I don't know how brief I can be because she essentially contains a universe of stories. But I can definitely tell you that she is somebody that came up in 1940s radio in Cuba. So she was born in 1925. And really by the 1950s, she had already become a celebrity across Cuba and Latin America. In 1959, of course, comes Cuba's communist revolution. She is an ardent critic of Fidel Castro and the communist revolution. So she goes into exile, settles in New York City. So for much of the 1960s, she's trying to really restart her career. And you can hear some really classic albums by her where she's partnering with Tito Puente.

3:32Phil Wiggins:you know, Mambo Godfather during the 1960s. But it's really not until around 1973 that the salsa generation really embraces her as the Queen of Salsa.

3:41John Cephas:You have a dress of hers on display along with this amazing pair of red high heels. Why did you pick these objects to tell the story of salsa music?

3:52Phil Wiggins:The exhibit's open for two and a half years, so we're actually displaying five of her outfits. You know, we rotate light-sensitive materials every six months, like posters and textiles. So these are all outfits that were meant to be seen in movement on the stage. She was someone that paid meticulous attention to her stage persona and her appearance on stage, both in forms of her outfits, her gowns and her shoes, in large part because of the huge respect that she had for her audience. So the way she presented herself on stage was a reflection of the love that she had for her fans.

4:29John Cephas:Well, let's play another song by Celia Cruz here. This one is called Kimbara.

4:34Ranald Woodaman:Kimbara, Kimbara, Kimbara, Kimbara, Kimbara, Kimbara. Hey mama, hey mama, hey mama, hey mama.

4:54John Cephas:I mean, that is a classic, and it has all the elements of salsa, piano, horns, Afro-Cuban percussion, and the bongos. Talk about how salsa music developed in the United States, because as you say, Celia Cruz herself made the transition from Cuba to the U.S.

5:12Phil Wiggins:Salsa really develops in the United States, especially New York City, because New York City is the hub of the recording and music publishing industry. It is a major site of musical innovations for generations of Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians. And so the setting was right for record companies like Fania Records to come around in the mid-60s and to take advantage of this pre-existing talent and to help support this new movement called Salsa.

5:43John Cephas:What does Salsa, with its roots in Cuba, its roots in Afro-Caribbean music, what does it tell us about the story of America?

5:51Phil Wiggins:Well, the amazing thing about salsa is that from very on, Americans of all stripes, of course, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans and others, but all Americans make this music their own. There are countless Jewish musicians, Italian-American, African-American musicians that have become stewards of this tradition and been part of that innovation that has transformed Afro-Cuban music from what it was, say, in the 1930s to by the 1960s. you've got all these new trends like Bougaloo and Latin soul and salsa itself that emerge from this reimagining of Afro-Cuban music, thanks to the creativity of all kinds of American musicians who've been part of the story.

6:34John Cephas:Well, listeners can visit Washington, D.C. and see this new exhibit, Puro Ritmo, on display at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. Ranald Woodiman is the Exhibitions and Public Programs Director at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino. Thank you so much, Ronald.

6:52Phil Wiggins:You're welcome. Thanks for having me on.

6:54Ranald Woodaman:Who doesn't love some salsa? Our next conversation is going to take it back to a style of music that was big around the time that Celia Cruz was born. First, here's one more Celia Cruz song. Let's see if you can recognize this Beatles tune.

7:18Ranald Woodaman:Obladioblada While we're on the topic of what makes America America we need your help with a story that we're planning for July 4th We want to know how you feel about the American flag What do you think of when you see the flag? What does seeing the flag make you feel? Does it inspire you? Go to hereandnow.org slash flag and record a short message for us. Did you fly the American flag? What does it mean to you? hereandnow.org slash flag. We want to hear from you. Looking forward to listening. We're going to take a short break, and then Robin Young has our next story in just a minute. Oh, Vladin, oh, la, va.

8:00John Cephas:Vamos pa 'ya.

8:02Ranald Woodaman:Mira que sabroso esta.

8:06John Cephas:Ryan Coogler's Sinners put the spotlight on the Mississippi Delta Blues. Here's Miles Caton, who plays Preacher Boy, singing I Lied to You. Well, I was just a boy about eight years old. He threw me a Bible on that Mississippi road.

8:27John Cephas:Throughout the early 1900s, every region put their spin on the blues, but on the East Coast, states like Virginia, Delaware, the Piedmont blues, known for its finger-picking guitar and a ragtime style. Rats in my kitchen, eating up all my bread. When I come home, eating all in my bed. Yeah, you want black rat to hunt. Someday I'm on find your trail. That's Black Rat Swing by the late singer and guitarist John Cephas and harmonica player Phil Wiggins. The Smithsonian Institution has preserved the work of both. And as we look at 25 objects from the Smithsonian that tell the story of America in honor of the country's 250th birthday, today we highlight these Piedmont Blues musicians with Smithsonian Folkways Director Maureen Loughran.

9:18John Cephas:Maureen, welcome back. Thank you. And the way you've preserved them is in the recordings that come from Folkways, right? That's right. Yeah, we have published John Cephas and Phil Wiggins on Folkways in a recording called Richmond Blues. And who were these two men? So these were two extraordinary individuals here that both grew up in the D.C. area. John Cephas was a guitar player. Phil Wiggins was a harmonica player. and they became a duo as a result of being at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1976. So here they are, John Cephas, Phil Wiggins, from a Smithsonian festival in 2003, and this song is called Dog Days of August.

10:00John Cephas:It's house party music, so if you all feel like clapping your hands, feel like patting your feet, I know it's kind of hot out there, but there's a blues for all occasions, even for a time like this.

10:16There's a darling woman who never leaves me no wife.

10:24John Cephas:Maureen, I'm just curious. I mean, how did audiences react to them? Obviously, Folkways recorded them noting their appeal. But what was their appeal? Well, really, what both John and Phil did with Piedmont Blues is made it a living, breathing art form in the 20th century and into the 21st century. The form of Piedmont Blues became really well known because of its recordings on 78s. So a lot of what John learned, he learned from family members, but also from listening to 78s. And that in particular with Phil is very apparent because he taught himself how to play harmonica, but he learned by listening to these recordings.

11:08John Cephas:So both John and Phil are able to take that music into live engagement with audiences, playing it on the stage, playing it for people, playing it how it really was used, which is for dance music as party music and gave it that living, breathing feeling. I mean, would you say that it's died out? No. One of the most important things that John used to say about the music was that it was important that it went into future generations. So teaching the music was really important to him. And actually, it lives on today in artists like Justin Golden, who's a blues player who lives in Richmond, Virginia.

11:49John Cephas:So it's not a dying art form. And just how would, you know, Piedmont and these two men, how do they fit into the story of the blues, which is so the story of America? It gave voice to people in the slave and post-slave chapters of this country. It fed into, I mean, the Rolling Stones, you know. Where do these two men and Piedmont fit into that? So Piedmont blues is obviously another regional expression of the blues. We might think of the Mississippi Delta. We think of Chicago. Piedmont really talks about the music from the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, specifically in the south from Richmond to Atlanta.

12:31John Cephas:So in this region of the South, there were a lot of great guitar players who played in this style, using your thumb to hit the bass notes and then using the rest of your fingers to strike out the melody lines. And the story of Piedmont blues is also the story of America. It's really the story of migration, the story of community and adaptation. The blues came out of an experience of living in rural communities and migrating to urban environments. and then using the music to create community. So the Piedmont Blues is really another one of those great stories of how we as Americans express ourselves.

13:12Ranald Woodaman:Maureen Loughran, director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways, speaking to Robin Young. We're going to take one more short break, but first, a little more Piedmont Blues from John Cephas and Phil Wiggins. This song is called Richmond Blues.

13:26John Cephas:I was drinking muddy water, I was sleeping, I was a lover, ain't gonna stay here, woman, be treated like no dog. That's why I was standing down in Richmond, on a corner near Boston, Maine, I brought to police, hey son, what is your right now?

13:52Ranald Woodaman:As we look back on American history, the news continues, of course, and we are covering it at hereandnow.org. We've got a conversation with the leader of the Colorado River Indian tribes. She responds to drought on their sacred river, to which they recently granted legal personhood. They're among the dozens of tribes who live along the Colorado River and 40 million people who depend on it. Amelia Flores told Peter O'Dowd the river is in a dire state after an incredibly dry winter.

14:24John Cephas:Well, it's important to us because that's who we are, the Colorado River Indian tribes. It's our namesake. We've been placed here by our creator and given the resources of the water and the land, we have our spiritual ties to the water. It's our identity.

14:44Ranald Woodaman:Have you seen signs that it's suffering? I mean, when you look at the river, what do you see?