"The social ascendancy of the drum reflects equally the gradual upward mobility of Cuba's black people. It is impossible to day to imagine any kind of modern Cuban music that does not include the restrained, or wild, rolling of the drum, making the rhythm of romantic songs or revealing the exuberance of the son, rumba, and other dance rhythms. I shall attempt here to briefly sketch of the Afro-Cuban drum from colonial times to present...." (author)
