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 Originally made from hollow, open-ended gourds by indigenous Caribbean musicians, the percussion instrument became beloved in Latin music.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
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
- Record ID
- acm_1995.0023.0016