MAMBO evolved in Havana, where leading charangas popularized the style in the 1930s. Many sources credit the Cuban flutist ANTONIO ARCANO for creating MAMBO in the 1930s. His band; ARCANO Y SUS MARAVILLAS, was a popular DANZÓN orchestra or charanga in the late 1930s and early 1940's. The brothers ORESTO and ISREAL "CACHAO" LOPEZ, created the "danzón-mambo," a faster, syncopated version of the danzón that added a final, improvised, high-energy section, cementing their role as the authentic inventors of the genre. It is important to consider that other artists may have invented or contributed to the invention of it. Many sources insist that other Cuban musicians and composers like PEREZ PRADO, TITO PUENTE and XAVIER CUGAT further developed the genre in the late 1940's and 1950's. Very often PEREZ PRADO claimed to be the real inventor of the genre. Many nightclubs in New York, Miami and San Francisco featured MAMBO. There was an international "MAMBO craze" in the 1950's and early 1960's that inspired artists throughout the world. This is a classic illustration of the popularity of LATIN MUSIC that contributed towards the development and popularity growth of the BOOGALOO and SALSA genres in the 1960's and early 1970's. Some sources claim that there were discotheques in Cuba and other Latin American countries in the 1950's. We have not been able to verify that. It is not entirely impossible, maybe even likely. One gentleman told us in 1989 that he had an old picture at home of his mother standing beside ELVIS PRESLEY in front of a discotheque on Sparks Street in Ottawa,Canada taken in the late 1950's. His mom had evidently won a 'mambo dance contest'. We have never been able to find any information about any discotheques in Ottawa prior to 1967. Yet the story is intriguing. Some sources have said that many discotheques throughout North America played MAMBO music and that there were popular 'MAMBO dance contests' everywhere. We have never found any evidence of such discos back then also. Dozens of acts recorded MAMBO and variations of MAMBO since the 1950's. Many of which are JAZZ artists like CAL TJADER. With the development of standardized DISCO variations in the 1970's, artists began to experiment with combining MAMBO with AMERICAN DISCO and EURODISCO. MAMBO continues to enjoy popularity throughout the world on a certain level. Today it is so where near as popular as it was in the 1950's. Some of the artists featured today are from the 1990's and 21st century. SHOWBOY from the U.K. and the L.A. based JOHHNY BLAS are classic examples.