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Roland Kavé’s Güiro

Object Details

Date
20th century
Medium
wood
Dimensions
16 1/4 × 3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in. (41.2 × 8 × 7.9 cm)
Cite As
Gift of Roland Kavé
Caption
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Washingtonians danced to the güiro’s raspy rhythms, as essential to mambo as conga and bongo drums. Originally made from hollow, open-ended gourds by indigenous Caribbean musicians, the percussion instrument became beloved in Latin music. To play the güiro requires placing fingers in the two large holes on the güiro’s body and rubbing a stick or brush over carved notches, like those in the darker section of this wooden güiro. Scales painted on this Mexican-style güiro emphasize its fishlike shape. The güiro belonged to Roland Kavé (1931-2017), who first brought mambo from New York City to Washington, DC in the 1950s. The lifelong Washingtonian led several Latin jazz bands, most notably Los Diablos, and taught hundreds of people to mambo on U Street Corridor dance floors, including the Casbah and the Tropical Room in the Dunbar Hotel.
Accession Number
1995.0023.0016
Type
guiro
See more items in
Anacostia Community Museum Collection
Data Source
Anacostia Community Museum
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dl87423a80c-b60b-43fc-8299-0d9be6ec4c2d
Record ID
acm_1995.0023.0016
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