The Roseland State Ballroom in Bos ton's Back Bay, just down the street from Symphony Hall, was jumping last week.
It was jumping higher than Bostomans had seen in a long while. Cause: the mambo a dance named (some claim) from a slang word used by Cuban sugar cane workers meaning "shake it." The Boston crowd (1,140 Paid admissions) was shaking it with glee. So were the bright-sleeved musicians on the band stand and their round-faced, sleepy-eyed leader Perez Prado, self-confessed inventor of the mambo. In his dress suit and stiff shirt Prado never even blinked at the deafening brass screeches that...