Afro-Cuban Jazz

Afro-Cuban Jazz is the earliest form of Latin Jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with Jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban Jazz first emerged in the early 1940s with the Cuban musicians Mario Bauza and Frank Grillo "Machito" in the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, based in New York City. In 1947 the collaborations of bebop innovator Dizzy Gillespie with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo brought Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, most notably the tumbadora and the bongo, into the East Coast Jazz scene.