El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)
Added 2020-10-26 16:00:04 +0000 UTCEl Manisero is one of my favorite songs to jam over. It has a strong rhythmic pattern over a simple I-V7 harmony set in the key of G major. Coming up with phrases to play over this simple harmony change could be a first and basic step from improvising with one chord to improvisation on chord changes. I-V7 is actually the simplest harmony change in jazz from which ii-V-I later arose. So here is a great opportunity for creativity :)
The song has a lot of room between the main melody phrases so I used the space for nice accordion fillers and later on after the break I sped up the tempo and created a very pleasant background for the solo part where I used variations over the I-V7 changes.
El Manisero was a very popular song from the beginning. The best known rendition is probably Don Azpiazú and his Havana Casino Orchestra, with Antonio Machín as a singer.
I found a number of great versions by other musicians too. Trío Matamoros, Xiomara Alfaro, Bebo Valdés, Abelardo Barroso, Oscar D' Leon, Willy Chirino, Cachao, Afro-Salseros de Senegal, Perez Prado, Los Guaracheros de Oriente, Trio Iglesias, Rolando Laserie, Franck Pourcel, Carlos Lafuente, Corozo Mayari, Stan Kenton...
