Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; 31 August 1911 – 31 December 1970)[1][2] was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader.

He played the tres (Cuban string instrument) in son-based music and tumbadora, or conga, in folkloric rumba. In the 1940s and 50s Rodríguez reorganized the son conjunto ('son group') and developed the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred song lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyJh2Uzgfo8


Here is a translation of what he said. I got this from another forum.

The first question is about remembering the time before LPs and Arsenio mentions 2 records that he recorded as 78s. Then in interviewer starts asking about some of the people involved in the second CD and they start talking about the singer Miguel, who Arsenio said used to be a danzonette singer but when he heard the voice he said to himself "this is the voice i need to sing my afro-Cuban music" so he brought him into the band Casino de la Playa and taught him how he should sing the afro-cuban style.

Then the guy asks about the song Bruca Manigua. Apparently it was daring or defiant or some such thing to use the African words at that time. The guy asks for a translation of some of it. They don't get very far. "Yo son carabalí" and Arsenio explains that this means "Yo soy carabalí" meaning that the person is from the carabalí(Kalabari) tribe from Nigeria. [Sidebar: The congos didn't speak good Spanish and would use the wrong verb forms as in this case, so you have old refrains such as awé son awé y mañana son mañana that you still hear in timba songs today] Arsenio explains about how he is a descendant of Congos, [meaning his ancestors came either from the kingdom of the Congo or the Congo river basin]. He tells how he learned from his grandfather about the different African tribes. He starts listing them and the interviewer mentions that he remembers a song called Yo soy makuá, one of the other tribe names.He thinks it was released after Bruca Manigua. Arsenio says Yes he was trying to use the info he had about the various tribes.

The interview then says that considering the technology available at the time, that the recordings by Casino de la playa were very good and had Arsenio or anyone ever considered doing symphonic arrangements of the afro-cuban music. Arsenio said he liked the idea and they had tried once to do it it cuts off during that part of the story so I don't know what happened to the attempt to do symphony arrangements.