The Afro Cuban jazz music exploded in the United States in the 1940s. The Machitos’s Afro Cuban band was instrumental in popularizing this type of syncopated rhythm.
Here in Santa Clara California, at an annual jazz camp we have continued to teach the kids about the origin of Afro music, but also inform them on how the Pop (popular) music evolved. More important we teach the students how to play all the hand drums and percussions.
The kids kids who attended the Jazz camp are from the area middle schools.