Bolero 68:16

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A certain "Pepe" Sanchez has been credited with founding the Cuban bolero style - a self-taught guitarrist of natural talent, Sanchez wrote songs in his head, never writing them down. Friends and disciples passed them on by word of mouth and even saw to their spreading into Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The style, which also originated in Spain as a dance, has a 3/4 time rhythm, and is performed in pairs or solo, at a moderately slow tempo. Frequently the rhythm is reinforced by perscussion instruments such as castanets and strong triplet forms. Latin American musicians love to fuse the bolero with other dance forms, giving the bolero-son (long-time Cuban favourite mistakenly referred to in the West as the 'rumba), the bolero-mambo (with beautiful lyrics) and the bolero-cha (drawing on Cha-cha-cha lyrics). The classical music world grabbed hold of the bolero with gusto, transforming it into a style of art music suitable for the concert hall. The most famous, of course, being Ravel's Bolero, many composers tried their hand at the form, including Chopin, Bizet, Moszowski, and Baumfelder, right through to popular music bands like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

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