John Storm Roberts states that "the habanera reached the United States 20 years before the first rag was published."Roberts, John Storm (1999: 12) Latin Jazz. New York: Schirmer Books. Scott Joplin's "Solace" (1909) is considered a habanera. For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk, ragtime and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African American popular music.Roberts, John Storm (1999: 16) Latin Jazz. New York: Schirmer Books. Ned Sublette postulates that the habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk",Sublette, Ned (2008:155). Cuba and its Music; From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. while Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass."Roberts, John Storm (1999: 40). The Latin Tinge. Oxford University Press.
