Chachacha and Mambo

The cha-cha is a genre of music originating from Cuba Danzon created by the composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin Havana in 1953.

The danzones were interpreted only by instruments, while Jorrin introduced them to the voices of the musicians singing in chorus to give it more power.  During his early years as a composer, he composed only Jorrin danzones, respecting their musical royalty, but was slowly changing some of its parts. These fragments were modified depending on what the public liked and it was decided that the independent danzon was to be called the cha-cha-cha.

La Charanga

The instrumentation was originally taken from chachacha danzon, played by a musical group called charanga French. This consisted of the percussion, piano, bass, flute and a string section. Chachacha promoted the rise of this type of band.  The largest groups were Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta America, the affection and Orchestra Enrique Jorrin.
At this time, the traditional brass band was predominant among the popular Cuban orchestras.

Mambo

The Mambo is a dance originating in Cuba. The music of Mambo originated in Havana in the 1930s by Cachao and his contemporaries. Then Damaso Perez Prado and Beny More made it popular in the rest of the world in the mid of 1950s.
Mambo music was developed from Danzon and was heavily influenced by Jazz musicians who were brought to Cuba to entertain clients.  Italo-American gang members at that time controlled the casinos of Havana.

Mambo is dancing to a syncopated rhythm.  It is a mixture of African music, Latin American and Jazz. It is characterized by a time of silence in each bar, which represents a pause in the movement of the dancers in order to emphasize the syncopation (accent rhythmic movement of the time).   It is currently one of the Latin rhythms that is taught in ballroom dancing classes.