Oye Como Va

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Oye Como Va

"Oye Como Va" is a song written and composed by Latin jazz

Latin jazz

Latin jazz is the general term given to music that combines rhythms from African and Latin American countries with jazz and classical harmonies from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States....
and mambo musician Tito Puente

Tito Puente

Tito Puente, Sr., , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., was an influential Latin jazz and Mambo musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey" of the timbales and "The King of Latin Music"....
in 1963 and popularized by Santana

Santana (band)

Santana is a flexible number of musicians accompanying Carlos Santana since the late 1960s. Just like Santana himself, the band is known for helping make Latin rock famous in the rest of the world....
's cover of the song in 1970 on their album Abraxas
Abraxas (album)

Abraxas is the second album by Santana , the Latin rock n' roll group led by guitarist Carlos Santana. Consolidating their live success at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and the interest generated by their Santana the band took some time to issue a follow-up....
, helping to catapult Santana into stardom with the song reaching #13 on the Billboard Top 100.

The title comes from the first words:

The song has the classic rhythm and tempo of cha-cha-cha

Cha-cha-cha (music)

The cha-cha-ch? is a style of Cuban dance music....
.

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Encyclopedia

"Oye Como Va" is a song written and composed by Latin jazz

Latin jazz

Tito Puente

Santana (band)

Spanish:	English:
Oye como va	Listen to how it goes (that is, "Hey what's up" or "Hey how does it go?")
Mi ritmo	My rhythm
Bueno pa' gozar	It's good for partying (Literally "Good for celebrating" or "Good to enjoy")
Mulata	Mulatta Mulatto Mulatto denotes a person with one White people parent and one Black people parent or a person who has black ancestry and white ancestry. It is perceived as pejorative and demeaning in some cultures....

The song has the classic rhythm and tempo of cha-cha-cha

Cha-cha-cha (music)

The cha-cha-ch? is a style of Cuban dance music....
. It has similarities with "Chanchullo" by Israel "Cachao" López. The Latin Beat Magazine writes, "Cachao's tumbaos for his 1937 composition of Resa Del Neleton (later changed to Chanchullo) inspired Tito Puente's signature tune 'Oye Como Va'." On the original recording of the song the voice of Santitos Colon

Santos Colon

?ngel Santos Col?n Vega , aka Santitos Col?n, was a Puerto Rico salsa music singer and crooner, born in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico and raised in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico....
, the Puente orchestra singer at the time, can be heard in the song along with those of Puente and other orchestra musicians.

The song has numerous arrangements and remakes by numerous artists in various tempi. NPR included the song in its "NPR 100: The most important American musical works of the 20th century"

Santana version

Santana's arrangement is a "driving, cranked-up version" in a new style of Latin rock (attributed to musicians like Santana), adding electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
, Hammond B-3 organ, and a rock

Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
drum kit

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
to the instrumentation and dropping Puente's brass section. The electric guitar part takes on Puente's flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
melody, and the organ provides accompaniment (with organist Gregg Rolie

Gregg Rolie

Gregg Alan Rolie is an United States keyboardist, organist, and singer, who is one of the founding members of the bands Santana , Journey , The Storm , and Abraxas Pool, as well as his current Gregg Rolie Band....
's discretional use of the Leslie

Leslie speaker

The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ....
effect). There are several guitar solos

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer. In practice this means a number of different things, depending on the type of music and the context....
and an organ solo, all of which are rooted in rock and the blues

Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
but also contain licks

Lick (music)

In popular music genres such as rock music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short phrase , or series of note that is used in solos and melodic lines....
similar to those of the original arrangement.