While the style has adapted to the times and new influences, at its core it has remained much the same for a century or more. Eventually, the tumbantala was replaced by the marimbula, a wooden, boxlike instrument of African origin that served as a sound chamber for four steel bars, tuned to a tonic scale and plucked to provide bass notes. By the early twentieth century, the upright double bass, used in European classical music and jazz, began to be employed in son groups. The string bass joined an ensemble that has traditionally included Spanish guitar, the tres (a smaller Cuban guitar), maracas, and bongo drums. Later, conga drums and the guiro, a gourd with deep serrations cut into its surface and played with a stick scraper, were added to the growing instrumentation. "If you give a traditional son group four trumpets and a piano, you would have a salsa group without changing anything," notes Solorzano.

"Son is our most original music," says one of Santiago's best young musicians, bassist Alexis Rojas Montero. He sums up why he believes this fundamental Cuban style continues to capture the interest of an increasingly diverse global audience. Today, fans of the music range from residents of small towns in the land of its birth, bastions of the son tradition, to a vast international audience that has become jaded by the increasingly vulgar tone of popular music and thirsts for more elemental styles. "It has a minimal amount of influences," he continues. "It's easy to listen and dance to. It's tranquil. And, perhaps most important, it has pleasure and heart."

Mark Holston writes about political, social, economic, and cultural issues in Latin America for Americas, Hispanic, Seis Continentes, and other international publications. The assistance of Inter-Continental Hotels in making this report possible is acknowledged.