Avísale a mi Contrario

A guaguancó with a secret in its coro. The tune traces to Ignacio Piñeiro — the Septeto Nacional composer behind 'Échale Salsita' — whose 'Avísale a la...

A guaguancó with a secret in its coro. The tune traces to Ignacio Piñeiro — the Septeto Nacional composer behind 'Échale Salsita' — whose 'Avísale a la Vecina' the mambo king Tito Rodríguez reshaped in 1964 into 'Avísale a mi Contrario,' the version that gave it its name. Roberto Roena then made it a Fania staple (Mario Ortiz's hard-swinging arrangement), and it has been a sonero's proving ground ever since. Listen to the chorus: it calls on Iroko, the orisha of the sacred ceiba tree — the axis joining heaven and earth — which is why Abraham Rodríguez Jr. simply titled his version 'Iroko' and Belgium's Mikata sing 'Ven Iroko' ('come, Iroko'). Credit has always been slippery — many labels just print 'Derechos Reservados' — but the lineage in this one song is the whole music: Cuban rumba, Puerto Rican salsa, and a santería invocation hiding in plain sight.

Composer

Ignacio Piñeiro

Year

1964

Lineage

guaguancó → salsa