descarga

What it means

1. 1.

   A jam session: musicians playing together without a set arrangement. The term is Cuban and gave its name to a whole recorded genre in the 1950s.

2. 2.

   By extension, an informal get-together with music, drink and no plan.

3. 3.

   The verb descargar also means to let rip verbally — to unload on someone, or to hold forth at length.

Literally: Discharge, unloading.

Examples with translations

• Se armó una descarga en el solar hasta las tres.

  An impromptu session got going in the courtyard until three in the morning.

• Se descargó conmigo por algo que yo no hice.

  He unloaded on me over something I didn't do.

Where it comes from

Literally an electrical discharge or the unloading of cargo, taken up by Havana jazz and son musicians for the improvised after-hours sessions that Israel 'Cachao' López put on record from 1957. The party sense followed the musical one.

First attested: 1950s