Cuban Music aka Timba

And I am sure that FRIEND is a wonderful person, to give up a Manolin CD . . . .

None of these closet rockists are going to know about it.

If you are familiar with Buena Vista Social Club, you can think of timba as having that music as a base in terms of rhythm and the way the song is put together. But the new Cuban music is much more modern and international in its sound, including not only the traditional Cuban instruments but also a standard drumset, two keyboards, and often electric and/or bass guitar. Timba draws a lot more heavily from hip-hop, rock and reggae than its BVSC ancestors, and the lyrics are usually based on the experiences of Cubans in Cuba. A lot of times they include references to other songs, sometimes English ones.

It's a very interesting new style of music. And you are right in thinking that it is largely a phenomenon of the 1990's. Nothing that was played before then had all of components looked for in timba.

Maybe u just have to go to Cuba . (Not that I have ever been.)

When I bought this RMM New York Salsa Festival compilation I am listening to now, around the time I started taking salsa classes, it didn't take long at all to find some favorite tracks. (La India's "Mi Primera Rumba" was one of the first salsa songs I ever really liked.)

Ironically, earlier tonight, when I put this compilation on after having been listening to the Salsa Timba CD, I was sort of remembering some of the things I didn't like about salsa initially. That big brassy horn sound was often a stumbling block. Also, I found it hard to believe in all the excitement in the music. (I'm not sure how else to say that, for the moment.)

My favorite tracks here are the least timbaesque: Paulito F.G.'s "Son De Un Amigo" (which apparently real keeps to a fairly traditional Son feel), Las Nuevas Estrellas De Areito's "Realidad y Solucion" (which is quite close to straight up salsa), and possibly my favorite, the last track, a remake of an old Brazilian song, Sixto Llorente "El Indio"'s "Mi Magdalena."

But the songs by timba heavy hitters: Manolito y Su Trabuco, Klimax, Charanga Habanera, and Azucar Negra mostly don't grab me. I like, say, some of the singing on the Klimax song, but not the overall feel. The breakdown/rap/chorus sections of these songs lose me. I wonder what they would be like live.

I don't know what Azucar Negra are singing about in this song about the politics of PR/NYC salsa vs. timba, but I'm not sure I want to know. Timba isn't as modern sounding as all that. Yes, it's new, but I'm not knocked out by its incorporation of a smooth jazz feel and of rather primitive rapping.

Ha ha, bachata is probably a lot bigger among Latinos in general than timba is ever going to be.

Manolin has done some good songs, but I don't know that he's a great vocalist, and now that he's defected to the U.S., he's trying to make it big with pure Latin pop, but nobody is noticing (except for old fans who are disappointed in him).

The "rapping" or whatever you want to call it is really annoying. It's not just my general distaste for rap. This rapping sounds so dated and it all kind of sounds the same to me. I would much rather hear a decently done salsa/reggaeton mix than timba.

There isn't even anyone here to argue with. I could take it to rec.music.afro-latin, but then certain people who are really heavily into it will make lots of helpful suggestions, and I just want to unconstructively complain, not try to enjoy it.

Damn, I don't even like the sound of the horns in this stuff most of the time, and it's all kind of the same to, to me. (I'm sure there must be differences that the timba fan would notice.)

The Angel Bonne CD that kaysee sent me is Bonne & Bonne Co., from 2002. I'm still getting a sense of it. I think that Angel Bonnes' singing is, by far, the strongest point of the CD. Some of the "quiet storm" type production here and there is annoying.

I was in Cuba in Feb. 2003, and was 'guided' by a Havana local to a club called Casa De La Musica in Miramar (the Beverly Hills of Havana, so I was told). This got my friends and I off the beaten tourist path, and I actually met Giraldo Piloto (apparently Klimax is his brainchild). Very nice guy, although there was a considerable language barrier that really got between us having an in-depth discussion of music. Actually, the club was too loud to really talk anyway...

I don't know much about timba music... but I do know that if you have musical aspirations musican (I play piano) and can get to Cuba, lessons are easily available for around 20 bucks an hour with some of the world's finest musicians - I believe Piloto's rate was in this neighbourhood. I'm looking at his card right now...

This is probably still my favorite choice. Weaknesses: an annoying announcer at the beginning of each CD (but not anywhere else on the discs), poor transitions at a couple points, a weak first song on disc-1, and too much dubbed in applause, etc. on the second disc (and maybe a bit on the first as well, though most of that sounds live to me); and the second side in general has a fair amount of mushy salsa romantica, though I still think it's pretty good. So it sucks? Not exactly. The selection is mostly very good and it brings together key performers you aren't likely to find on one compilation elsewhere: Fania artists like Celia Cruz and Willie Colon; alongside El Gran Combo and Sonora Poncena out of Puerto Rico; alongside a singers from Venezuela (Oscar D'Leon), the D.R. (Jose Alberto), and Colombia (Grupo Niche).

This is pretty good too, but it's limited to Colombian salsa, so it won't be as varied as the compilation above. (Alfredo de la Fe isn't really Colombian, but he was living there for a while and collaborating with Colombian artists.)

Another way to go is get a best of for one of the major performers who has collaborated with a lot of people, like Willie Colon. There are a couple good collections out for him (like La Experiencia, which Paul in Santa Cruz bought, and I think liked to some extnt. It won't bring you as up-to-date as some other things, but if you aren't that interested in dancing to salsa to begin with, sticking to pre-80's recordings might not be a bad idea (to start with anyway). Fania has been putting out a lot of new compilations for the various performers in their stable.

Incidentally, I consider timba to be a distinct genre from salsa, although it can reasonably be considered a sub-category. (The whole thing is pretty vague.)

2. Por Eso Yo Canto Salsa - Fania All-Stars [not a favorite]
3. Pedro Navaja - Willie Colon & Ruben Blades [great]
4. Azucar Negra - Celia Cruz [great]
5. El Cantante - Hector Lavoe [not a personal favorite, but very popular]
6. Sonora Pal' Bailador - Sonora Poncena [great]
7. Dejame Sonar - Tito Puente & Tony Vega [great]
8. Mi Primera Rumba - India & Eddie Palmieri [great]
9. Mentiras - Oscar D'Leon [great--I wish more of his material had this much edge to it]
10. Salsa Caliente - Orquesta De La Luz [okay]
11. Los Tenis - El Gran Combo [great]

Disc: 2

1. Sonambulo - Tito Nieves [good--would be better without audience noise, and with less synth. crap]
2. Si Tu No Te Fueras - Marc Anthony [so-so, I got sick of this song a long time ago]
3. Experto En Ti - Cheo Feliciano [I love old 60's/70's Cheo Feliciano recordings--this is okay]
4. Otra Noche Caliente - Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz [good--might seem a little too wimpy to you]
5. Oue Manera De Quererte - Gilberto Santa Rosa [I like this song a lot--again, too bad about the dubbed in audience sounds]
6. Salsumba - Tito Puente & Domingo Quinones [good]
7. Una Aventura - Grupo Niche [not one of my favorite Grupo Niche songs, but better than it sounds at first]
8. Torero - Orquesta Guayacan [okay]
9. Disculpeme Senora - Jose Alberto 'El Canario' [so-so, I'm not a big Alberto fan]
10. Puerto Rico - Frankie Ruiz [GREAT]

Haha, why, do I strike you as particularly anti-wimpy???

The bad thing is that you probably aren't going to be able to find this in a store, since it's an old release.

@d@m, not sure, just covering myself. I'm just imagining an unsympathetic outsider listening to some of these songs, or myself, say, before I liked this music. (This mostly just applies to the second disc.)

http://muchoswing.com/

Choice
November 1, 2005 0-7546-3941-X; 978-0-7546-3941-1
This thoroughly researched study of Cuba's popular-music scene focuses on timba, its most prevalent form of dance music during the economic crisis of the 1990s (after the Soviet Union withdrew its patronage). Perna (an independent ethnomusicologist) sees timba as the authentic voice of urban Afro Cubans, a population marginalized from a society that prefers to project a "Cuban" (i.e., Hispanic) image over an African one. As such, timba is an antidote to the old-fashioned, unthreatening music presented in the popular film Buena Vista Social Club, a music that has attracted more non-Cubans than Cubans. A fusion of foreign and indigenous styles, timba challenges authority and reaffirms black identity. Consequently, Cuban cultural authorities have often been uncomfortable with it (but have only occasionally censored it). Perna reveals that timba is created and performed by highly skilled, even conservatory-trained musicians, giving it a quality often missing in mass-mediated popular music. Although his methodology is that of culture studies, not ethnomusicology, Perna's writing is relatively jargon free. He includes musical analysis with examples, but alas no CD to aid those unfamiliar with the timba sound. Including history, musical style, language and text, and full range of social issues, this is a comprehensive treatment. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. T. E. Miller emeritus, Kent State University

Reference & Research Book News
August 1, 2005 0-7546-3941-X; 978-0-7546-3941-1

Timba is a style of avant-garde dance music currently favored by Cuba's black urban youth that combines the spirit of the popular barrio with sophisticated arrangements. In this study, Perna documents the rise of this hot new genre and accounts for its controversial status both on the island and elsewhere. He also places timba within a larger context of other socio-musical developments and the Cuban economic crisis. Freelance music journalist Perna holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the U. of London. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

http://yemayasverse.blogspot.com/

I'm suddenly turning up promising-looking Latin music blogs, in the course of trying to track down information on this and that.

Victor Rodriguez, director of the Provincial Music Center, recognized people from the host-city of Mayari at the gathering that has been held for the past 17 years after beginnings with only the effort and will of its founders, such as musician Jorge Cabrejas. Rodriguez considers the greatest achievements of the gathering as being the popular impact and the fact that the most important popular music groups in the country have passed through Mayari - including Los Van Van, the Aragon Orchestra, the Ignacio Pineiro Septet, NG la Banda , the Original of Manzanillo, and Candido Fabre, among others.--http://www.ahora.cu/english/SECTIONS/holguin/2005/noviembre/16-11-05a.htm

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/images/10508.jpg

What happened to Cuban music after the heyday of mambo, cha cha cha and, finally, the pachanga? In New York, some enterprising musicians combined those styles with R&B, jazz, and even rock and roll to create salsa. [You might want to mention Puerto Rico's plena and bomba as contributing elements as well, bud.]But back in Havana, groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and, finally, NG La Banda started playing a jazz-inspired dance music called timba. This coming Friday, Tiempo Libre, a group of Cuban expatriates who have formed a new U.S.-based timba coalition, will be playing at Celebrate Brooklyn's Prospect Park stage.

"The story of how we got together is a very amusing one," said Jorge Gómez, leader, arranger and keyboardist of Tiempo Libre, whose name means "free time." "We all studied in the same school in Cuba. Then each one of us went to a different country: Argentina, Spain, Italy, and reunited here in Miami. When we formed the group, we worked with different artists, like Cachao, Albita, Celia Cruz, and Arturo Sandoval. But in our free time, we would get together in our houses and put on a party, a little rumba. Then people wanted to hire us for their party, and finally our professional debut was opening for Celia Cruz in a festival in Chicago."

Having toured around the country and Asia, the band, which plays in jazz, timba, and educational contexts, is determined to make a universal language out of their sound.

"Our timba is new, because the genre is constantly evolving," Gómez said. "In Cuba a timba orchestra typically has 14 to 18 musicians. We're only seven, but we sound like 14!

"The first album we made was all traditional Cuban music like 'Lágrimas Negras' and 'Son de la Loma,' played in timba style. It's basically playing jazz with a singer and choruses - it's all the musicality, power, arrangements and harmony of jazz, but you can dance to it."

Tiempo Libre's new album "What You've Been Waiting For/Lo Que Esperabas" (Shanachie) has a rich, multilayered sound that is a tribute to its members' many years of study at Havana conservatories. "A Bayamo en Coche," originally written by legendary Cuban vocalist Adalberto Álvarez, takes the listener on a musical journey to the eastern city of the song's title. "Ella Tiene," about a man enraptured with an elusive woman, has an easy swing that encourages an extra turn on the dance floor.

But even though timba is very much analogous to salsa music, and Gómez proudly admits inspiration from that genre's greats, there's something a little different about dancing to it. "Timba is a genre that's very open, because it was always a mix of things," Gómez said. "To dance it doesn't have a scheme, like salsa. You dance to salsa, three steps, three steps, and the turn. To dance to timba you simply move your body the way you like to best, and if you want to dance salsa, great, but it's not obligatory. It's more sensual, you move more the bottom parts of the body, a lot of erotic things."

It's true that salsa dancing tends to be structured (especially these days) but "three steps, three steps, and the turn" as a description of salsa dancing is just a travesty. A relatively experienced dancer who is dancing in a fairly structured way is still unlikely to be doing anything that really resembles that. But of course, beyond that, in practice you see salseros doing all sorts of things. From what I've seen of timba I'm not convinced it's more sensual either.

I have heard some okay songs by Tiempo Libre, although the one song I've heard from their new album was just awful. Most timba just sounds like an ill-conceived mix of Cuban roots, funk, smooth jazz, and really really bad rapping in chorus.