Chapeando Cuban Club

Timba History

Before it became the newest Cuban music and dance craze, timba was a word with several different uses, yet no particular definition, mostly heard within the Afro-Cuban genre of rumba. A timbero was a complimentary term for a musician, and timba often referred to the collection of drums in a folklore ensemble. We can use the word "timba" for dance as well. According to Alberto Valdes at Cubamisalsa Cyprus 2011, if dancers have the "timba", they have the passion, the energy, the soul of a real dancer, they interpret the music and they don't just follow the steps and figures!

Since the 1990s, timba represents Cuba's intense and slightly more aggressive music and dance form. As opposed to salsa, the roots of which are with the Cuban conjunto bands of the 1940s and 1950s, modified with rock, jazz, and traditional music of Puerto Rico, Timba represents a synthesis of a wider variety of popular and folkloric sources. Timba bands draw heavily from international influences such as jazz, rock, disco, funk and hip hop, as well as local folklore like rumba, guaguanc?, bat? drumming and the sacred songs of santeria. According to Vicenzo Perna, author of 'Timba: The Sound of the Cuban Crisis', timba needs to be spoke of because of its musical, cultural, social, and political reasons. Ιts sheer popularity in Cuba, its novelty and originality as a musical style, the skill of its practitioners, its relationship with both local traditions and the culture of the black Diaspora, its meanings, and the way its style brings to light the tension points within society. In addition to timbales, timba drummers make use of the North American drum-set, further distinguishing the sound from that of mainland salsa. The use of synthesised keyboard is also common. Timba songs tend to sound more innovative, experimental and frequently more virtuosic than salsa pieces; horn parts are usually fast, at times even bebop influenced, and stretch to the extreme ranges of all instruments. Bass and percussion patterns are similarly unconventional.

The groups of the early 1970s opened the door to the idea of using new harmonies in Cuban music: rock and soul in the case of Los Van Van, jazz and classical music in the case of Irakere and their followers. In the 1980s there was a general trend for harmonies to become more traditional and less eclectic, but even the principal architects of this trend, such as Adalberto Alvarez, added new harmonic ideas like secondary dominants and inverted triads. In any case, the timberos crashed through this partially open door and never looked back.

The most famous and popular timba artists and bands are :

Juan Formell y Los Van Van
Irakere
NG La Banda
Alexander Abreu y Havana D' Primera
Pachito Alonso y sus kini kini
Calle Real
Az?car Negra
Bamboleo
La Charanga Habanera
Charanga Forever
Los Dan Den
Issac Delgado
Tirso Duarte,
Manol?n "El M?dico de la salsa"
Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco
Paulo FG
Pupy y Los que Son Son (directed by Cesar "Pupy" Pedroso, former pianist of Los Van Van.

Timba dance and culture

In the broadest sense, people dance timba in a style called casino that was around well before 1989, but certain rhythmic elements of timba arrangements inspired completely new ways of dancing. In some cases, dancers would respond to changes in the music by switching between casino and the new dance styles, providing perhaps the strongest single argument for the claim that timba is an independent genre and not simply "modern son montuno" or "Cuban salsa."-Moore (2010: v. 5: 11) Timba harmony.
The timba for us means an interpretation of music, motion of each cell of our body. The expression on the dance floor of all the emotions caused by this complex, multifaceted music. Mixing all Cuban dances when music seeks to (salsa, afro, afro-rumba, reggaeton, son, cha cha cha,). Energy, a trip across the terrestrial level, another dimension. A nirvana from which we return only when the song ended. A wandering in all aspects of the culture of Cuba which we love so much. These are the main reasons for trying to expand timba in Cyprus. We want to motivate people to feel all the emotions, love and excitement we do while dancing or listening to this amazing music!

Chapeando Cuban Club