Mambo

Mambo Although the mambo craze is a 1950s phenomenon, the origins of the music go back several decades before then. The word mambo derives from the Congo religion, where it referred to the concluding section of a ceremony to take possession of the spirit of the dead. After the priest makes contact with the spirit, the act of possession is reinforced by chants called mambo or mambu. By the 1930s, the word had acquired a secular meaning and referred to the final section of the danzón that allowed…