Assessment: Influence and Importance
The two trumpet front line employed by Conjunto Sonora Matancera is a trademark sound that leads some musical purists to criticize any group with "sonora" in its name if it doesn't feature an all-trumpet brass section. The Puerto Rico-based band La Sonora Ponceña follows this unwritten rule. The combination of the brass section with contrabass, piano and percussion, in addition to the way these musicians played and the invaluable collaboration of acclaimed tunesmiths and accomplished arrangers, defined La Sonora Matancera's signature sound. This sound was an influential Hispanic-Antillean variant of the African Diaspora's many cultural manifestations.
Many Latin orchestras imitated the backup vocal style of La Sonora, most famously those directed by Venezuelan bandleader and vocalist Óscar D'León. Additionally, the conjuntos led by Dominican-born Johnny Pacheco in the mid-1960s and throughout the 1970s were modeled on the coro and other elements in the sonic arsenal of Conjunto Sonora Matancera.
La Sonora Matancera played a significant part in the evolution of the structure of Cuban/Afro-Cuban urban dance bands. It played a role in the development of the conjunto style, the celebrated estilo Sonora being one of the three incarnations of the conjunto format. The other two are the estilo Casino (based on the style of Conjunto Casino) and the estilo Arsenio (patterned after the first group fronted by the tres player/conguero/composer/innovator Arsenio Rodríguez. Conjunto Casino and Arsenio Rodríguez were La Sonora's chief rivals in the conjunto paradigm. The three conjunto styles — especially estilo Arsenio — formed the archetypes that led to contemporary salsa. Though the estilo Sonora is the least prominent, many consider the band the greatest exponent of popular Cuban/Afro-Cuban urban dance music and the preeminent group in the history of Latin American dance music. The estilo Sonora was at the height of its influence and popularity in 1998. This can be attested to by the hit recording of the song "Idilio", written by the Puerto Rican composer "Tití" Amadeo. It was recorded by Estanislao "Laíto" Sureda y Su Sonora.
The impact of Conjunto Sonora Matancera on the music scene was felt far overseas. For example, in the 1950s there was a Japanese group that was a carbon copy of La Sonora Matancera.
The group remains a revered musical and cultural influence — the unique product of a specific collective of musicians: instrumentalists, singers, composers, and arrangers. Conjunto Sonora Matancera elevated Cuban/Afro-Cuban urban dance music in popularity and cultural status.
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