Timba

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. But since the 1990s, timba represents Cuba's intense and slightly more aggressive music and dance form.

The popular dance bands that emerged in the decades of the '60s and '70s had already begun exploring the influences of North American popular music—albeit on a somewhat clandestine level. Pioneer groups such as Los Van Van (and its founder, bassist/composer Juan Formell) created a fusion of American rock inside the Cuban son, and developed a new sound called songo. Songo explored the textures of American music and fully expanded upon the son with other Cuban rhythms, added the American drum-set and trombones to the revamped charanga orchestra, and paved the way for a new kind of Cuban dance music as well as inspired new ways of dancing. Heralded as the "Rolling Stones of Cuban music," Los Van Van is one of the island's premiere dance bands today.

By 1990, several bands had incorporated elements of funk and hip-hop into their arrangements, and expanded upon the instrumentation of the traditional conjunto with American drum set, saxophones and a two-keyboard format. Along with the Cuban congas and timbales, the drum set provided powerful funk and rock beats that added more punch to the rhythm section, and the bass players began to incorporate the playing techniques associated with funk, slapping and pulling the strings in a percussive way. The combination of the trumpets and the saxes gave the horn section a more jazz-tinged sound, and the harmony began to evolve on a more contemporary level (as it already had in salsa music). Singers would interrupt the song and engage the audience in a participatory shout-out while the music changed its texture, providing a musical "breakdown" reminiscent of the James Brown era in American soul and funk.

Some vocalists even began to rap in Spanish during these sections. One of the first bands to do this was NG La Banda, lead by flutist/composer José Luis Cortés, and many bands would follow suit. Cuban dancers reacted to this new, edgy, more aggressive sound by moving tirelessly in hip-churning motion to the funkier beat. Today's best timba bands include Bamboleo, Paulito FG, Issac Delgado, Manolito y su Trabuco and many others. Timba is the dance music of the new generation, with topics that reflect the social and economic changes in Cuba since the dawn of the postrevolutionary "Special Period." —Rebeca Mauleon