Arsenio Rodríguez (born
Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull; 31 August 1911 – 30 December 1970) was a
Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the
tres, as well as the
tumbadora, and he specialized in
son,
rumba and other
Afro-Cuban music styles. In the 1940s and 1950s Rodríguez reorganized the son conjunto ('son group') and developed the
son montuno, the basic template of modern-day
salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the
mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs.