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timba

Timba

Cuba · 1990s
DancingIntenseHappyEpic
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Description

Timba is a high-energy Cuban dance-music genre that emerged in the 1990s, characterized by explosive rhythmic drive, complex arrangements, and a modern, urban attitude. It extends the lineage of son cubano and salsa by integrating songo’s drumset-driven groove, rumba’s rhythmic vocabulary, and jazz/funk harmony and horn writing.

Hallmarks include gear changes (sudden shifts in groove and orchestration), tightly synchronized bloques (arranged hits and breaks), virtuosic piano tumbaos, aggressive bass lines that “gear up” and release tension, and call-and-response coros with streetwise soneos/rap interjections. Percussion sections typically blend congas, timbales, bongó, and a full drum kit, creating a polyrhythmic engine built around the clave while allowing dramatic rhythmic modulation.

History
Origins (late 1980s–early 1990s)

Timba crystallized in Havana during the early 1990s as a next step after the 1970s innovation of songo by Los Van Van. Bandleaders and arrangers—most notably José Luis “El Tosco” Cortés with NG La Banda—reimagined the salsa/son format by importing a full drum kit, funk-influenced bass approaches, and jazz harmonies, while maintaining Afro-Cuban rhythmic foundations (clave, rumba, batá-derived phrasing). The urban social context of post–Special Period Cuba shaped timba’s edgy lyrical stance and performance energy.

Golden Era (mid–late 1990s)

Groups such as NG La Banda, Charanga Habanera, Issac Delgado’s bands, Paulito FG y su Élite, Manolín “El Médico de la Salsa,” Bamboleo, Manolito y su Trabuco, and Klimax developed a competitive, virtuosic scene. Signature features emerged: gear changes (cambios/“gears”) that shift groove intensity, elaborate bloques to spotlight dancers and singers, and piano/bass parts that escalate tension (bomba sections). Horn sections adopted dense, syncopated mambos influenced by jazz/funk.

2000s–present: Expansion and Hybridization

Despite industry and travel barriers, timba’s influence spread globally via tours, recordings, and diaspora scenes. Veterans formed new ensembles (e.g., Pupy y Los Que Son Son), while later groups like Havana D’Primera refreshed the style with refined songcraft and powerhouse brass. Timba’s rhythmic and arranging language filtered into modern salsa bands outside Cuba and into Cuban popular hybrids, notably feeding into reggaeton fusions (cubatón/timbatón) and contemporary Latin jazz projects.

How to make a track in this genre
Rhythm and Groove
•   Anchor everything to the clave (often 2-3 or 3-2), but allow strategic tension by delaying or anticipating hits. •   Use a full percussion battery: congas (tumba/marcha), timbales, bongó + campana, and a drum kit for backbeat accents, fills, and songo-derived motion. •   Design gear changes: pre-plan sections that escalate or relax intensity (e.g., bomba breakdowns, despelote sections), using bloques—tightly arranged hits—to cue dancers and transitions.
Bass and Piano
•   Write bass lines that “gear up” (register shifts, rhythmic density, slap/ghost notes) and lock with kick drum; alternate tumbao patterns with pedal points in breakdowns. •   Compose piano tumbaos with layered syncopations, octave doubles, and montuno figures that evolve across sections; feature reharmonization to build excitement.
Harmony and Horns
•   Employ extended chords (9ths/11ths/13ths) and jazz-funk voice-leading while respecting Afro-Cuban cadences. •   Arrange horn mambos with sharp unisons, close voicings, and rhythmic hooks; intersperse call-and-response riffs with coros.
Vocals and Form
•   Blend coro–pregón with soneos and occasional rap interjections; lyrics often reflect urban life, humor, bravado, and social commentary. •   Structure songs as evolving modules (intro–cuerpo–montuno–gears–breakdowns–coda), allowing improvisation over planned hits.
Production and Performance
•   Favor live, dynamic interplay—rhythm section cues drive dancer-facing moments. •   Capture percussion transients and horn punch; keep bass and piano forward to showcase the tumbao engine.
Top albums
Llegó Van Van
Llegó Van Van
Los Van Van
Tremenda Rumba!
Tremenda Rumba!
Maraca
Pasaporte
Pasaporte
Alexander Abreu y Havana D'Primera
Ay Dios, Ampárame!
Ay Dios, Ampárame!
Los Van Van
Tremendo Delirio
Tremendo Delirio
David Calzado & The Charanga Habanera
En Primera Plana
En Primera Plana
Issac Delgado
Main artists
Influenced by
Son Cubano
Son cubano is a foundational Cuban genre that fuses Spanish-derived song forms and harmony with Afro-Cuban rhythms and percussion. Born in eastern Cuba (Oriente) and crystallized in Havana in the 1910s–1920s, it became the backbone of much of 20th‑century Latin popular music. Typical ensembles began as sextetos (tres, guitar, bongó, maracas, claves, and bass or marímbula) and later evolved into septetos with trumpet. Conjunto formats in the 1940s added piano, congas, and multiple horns. The music rides a son clave (in 3‑2 or 2‑3 orientation), features interlocking tres guajeos, a walking/tumbao bass that anticipates the downbeat, and call‑and‑response vocals in the montuno section. Harmonically it is rooted in I–IV–V with bluesy dominant sevenths and occasional secondary dominants. Lyrically it balances romance, everyday life, and streetwise wit, always aimed at dancing and social gathering.
Songo
Songo is a modern Cuban dance-music style that fuses the charanga ensemble tradition (flute, violins, piano, bass) with drumset-driven Afro‑Cuban percussion and contemporary pop, funk, rock, and jazz elements. Rhythmically, it is defined by a drumset pattern that interlocks with congas, timbales, bongó/campana, and the 3–2 or 2–3 clave (often rumba clave), creating a buoyant, syncopated groove designed for social dancing. Harmonically, songo leans on cyclical vamp-based progressions and piano montunos, while arrangements feature coro‑pregón call‑and‑response and dynamic textural shifts. Pioneered by Los Van Van under bandleader Juan Formell with drummer José Luis “Changuito” Quintana, songo embraced electric bass, synthesizers, and studio innovation. It became a cornerstone of post‑revolution Cuban popular music and a direct ancestor of timba, while also informing salsa and Latin jazz rhythm sections.
Salsa
Salsa is a pan–Latin dance music forged primarily in New York City by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Caribbean diasporas. It synthesizes Afro‑Cuban rhythmic blueprints, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, jazz harmony, big‑band horn writing, and Nuyorican street culture into a tightly arranged yet improvisation‑friendly style. The music lives on the clave (either 2‑3 or 3‑2), with layered percussion (congas, bongó, timbales, cowbell, güiro, maracas), a tumbao bass that anticipates the beat, and piano montuno guajeos that interlock with the rhythm section. Call‑and‑response vocals (coro/pregón), punchy horn mambos and moñas, and instrumental solos energize the montuno section. Tempos range from medium to fast in 4/4, optimized for social dancing (commonly “on1” or “on2”). Across decades, salsa has branched into harder, percussion‑forward “salsa dura,” smoother “salsa romántica,” and regional scenes in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia, while continuing to influence—and be influenced by—neighboring tropical and jazz idioms.
Rumba Cubana
Rumba cubana is an Afro‑Cuban secular music and dance tradition born in the working‑class solares and dockyards of Havana and Matanzas in the late 19th century. It is percussion‑driven, sung in call‑and‑response, and danced in a highly interactive way. The genre revolves around the rumba clave (in 3‑2 or 2‑3 orientation), interlocking conga (tumbadora) parts, wooden sticks (palitos) on the drum shell, and often cajones (wooden boxes) and chekeré. Its main substyles are yambú (slow and graceful), guaguancó (medium tempo, playful “vacunao” courtship gesture), and columbia (fast, often in 12/8, originally a solo male competitive dance). Rumba cubana is distinct from the ballroom “rhumba.” It is a community practice that blends Central/West African rhythmic logics with Spanish song poetry, improvisation, and dance theater.
Jazz
Jazz is an improvisation-centered music tradition that emerged from African American communities in the early 20th century. It blends blues feeling, ragtime syncopation, European harmonic practice, and brass band instrumentation into a flexible, conversational art. Defining features include swing rhythm (a triplet-based pulse), call-and-response phrasing, blue notes, and extended harmonies built on 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Jazz is as much a way of making music—spontaneous interaction, variation, and personal sound—as it is a set of forms and tunes. Across its history, jazz has continually hybridized, from New Orleans ensembles and big-band swing to bebop, cool and hard bop, modal and free jazz, fusion, and contemporary cross-genre experiments. Its influence permeates global popular and art music.
Funk
Funk is a rhythm-forward African American popular music style that centers on groove, syncopation, and interlocking parts. Rather than emphasizing complex chord progressions, funk builds tight, repetitive vamps that highlight the rhythm section and create an irresistible dance feel. The genre is marked by syncopated drum patterns, melodic yet percussive bass lines, choppy guitar "chanks," punchy horn stabs, call‑and‑response vocals, and a strong backbeat. Funk’s stripped-down harmony, prominent use of the one (accenting the downbeat), and polyrhythmic layering draw deeply from soul, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, and African rhythmic traditions. From James Brown’s late-1960s innovations through the expansive P-Funk universe and the slicker sounds of the 1970s and 1980s, funk has continually evolved while seeding countless other genres, from disco and hip hop to house and modern R&B.
Mambo
Mambo is a Cuban dance music style that crystallized in the late 1930s from danzón and son montuno, then exploded internationally in the 1940s and 1950s. It is characterized by layered syncopations under the Afro‑Cuban clave, driving bass tumbaos, piano montunos, and powerful antiphonal horn riffs known as moñas or "mambo" sections. In its classic big‑band form, mambo blends Cuban rhythmic vocabulary with jazz and swing arranging, featuring trumpets, trombones, and saxophones over a rhythm section of congas, bongos, timbales, cowbell, bass, and piano. The result is high‑energy, riff‑driven music built for social dancing and floor‑filling excitement.
Charanga
Charanga is a Cuban dance‑music style and ensemble format distinguished by its elegant, salon‑influenced sound led by flute and violins over a light, syncopated Afro‑Cuban rhythm section. Emerging in Havana in the 1910s from the orquesta típica tradition, charanga shifted the danzón repertoire toward a more refined timbre by replacing brass and reeds with strings, wooden (later Boehm) flute, piano, bass, timbales, and güiro. Charanga bands popularized danzón and later became central to the birth and worldwide spread of the chachachá and pachanga. Their arrangements balance European classical phrasing and counterpoint with Cuban rhythmic cells such as the cinquillo and the clave, often expanding into coro–pregón call‑and‑response and montuno sections. The style’s combination of grace, clarity, and danceable groove has influenced multiple Latin genres up to songo, timba, and strands of salsa.
Descarga
Descarga is the Cuban tradition of extended, largely improvised jam sessions built on Afro‑Cuban dance grooves and montuno vamps. Emerging in 1950s Havana and later flourishing in New York, it brought the spontaneity of jazz to Cuban popular forms such as son, mambo, and chachachá. Typically recorded by all‑star studio ensembles, descargas feature rotating solos over repeating guajeos (ostinatos), anchored by the clave and a driving percussion section. They are celebratory, high‑energy gatherings where arrangers set up simple harmonic frameworks and horn "moñas" (riffs), then let the players stretch out.
Santería Music
Santería music (música de la Regla de Ocha/Lucumí) is the sacred Afro‑Cuban repertoire used to venerate the orishas, blending Yoruba religious song and drumming with elements absorbed in colonial Cuba. It is characterized by polyrhythmic ensembles of batá drums (iyá lead drum, itótele, and okónkolo), iron bell (ogán), and beaded gourds (chekeré). Voices are organized in call‑and‑response between a lead singer (akpwón) and a chorus, sung in Lucumí (a Yoruba-derived liturgical language) with occasional Spanish refrains. Melodies are mostly syllabic and narrow in range, prioritizing rhythm, timbre, and ritual text over harmonic development. Performances center on codified rhythmic cycles (toques) and song suites associated with specific deities (e.g., Changó, Yemayá, Ochún, Elegguá, Ogún). In ceremonial contexts, the music serves divination, invocation, and possession trance, while public bembé gatherings and staged folkloric versions adapt the same vocabulary for secular presentation.
Latin Jazz
Latin jazz is a fusion of jazz harmony and improvisation with Afro–Latin American rhythms, song forms, and percussion. It combines the swing, bebop, and big-band traditions with clave-based grooves such as son, rumba, danzón, and mambo, and later integrates Brazilian feels like samba and bossa nova. Typical features include the use of the clave (2–3 or 3–2), piano montunos (guajeos), bass tumbao patterns, timbales cáscara, conga marcha, and call-and-response horn "mambo" figures. While the rhythm section locks into cyclical patterns, soloists improvise using the vocabulary of jazz, creating music that is both danceable and harmonically rich.
Rock
Rock is a broad family of popular music centered on amplified instruments, a strong backbeat, and song forms that foreground riffs, choruses, and anthemic hooks. Emerging from mid‑20th‑century American styles like rhythm & blues, country, and gospel-inflected rock and roll, rock quickly expanded in scope—absorbing folk, blues, and psychedelic ideas—while shaping global youth culture. Core sonic markers include electric guitar (often overdriven), electric bass, drum kit emphasizing beats 2 and 4, and emotive lead vocals. Rock songs commonly use verse–chorus structures, blues-derived harmony, and memorable melodic motifs, ranging from intimate ballads to high‑energy, stadium‑sized performances.
Hip Hop
Hip hop is a cultural and musical movement that emerged from Black, Latino, and Caribbean communities, centering around rapping (MCing), DJing/turntablism, sampling-based production, and rhythmic speech over beats. It prioritizes groove, wordplay, and storytelling, often reflecting the social realities of urban life. Musically, hip hop is built on drum-centric rhythms (from breakbeats to 808 patterns), looped samples, and bass-forward mixes. Lyrically, it ranges from party anthems and braggadocio to political commentary and intricate poetic forms, with flow, cadence, and rhyme density as core expressive tools. Beyond music, hip hop encompasses a broader culture, historically intertwined with graffiti, b-boying/b-girling (breakdance), fashion, and street entrepreneurship, making it both an art form and a global social language.
Conga
Conga is a Cuban carnival processional music and dance associated with comparsas (street troupes), most famously from Santiago de Cuba and Havana. It is characterized by a driving 2/4 or 4/4 march-feel, layered Afro-Cuban percussion, call-and-response vocals, and simple, repetitive melodic vamps that can be played for long parades. Distinctive local colors include the corneta china (a piercing double-reed horn) in Santiago’s conga santiaguera and large drum sections that propel massive groups of dancers in a line or serpentine formation.
Cuban Music
Cuban music is the rich, syncretic musical tradition of Cuba, shaped by the meeting of Spanish/European song forms and West/Central African rhythms. Its heartbeat is the clave—a two-measure rhythmic cell (3–2 or 2–3) that organizes percussion, melody, and harmony across styles. From the contradanza and habanera of the 19th century to danzón, rumba, and son cubano in the early 20th century—and later mambo, cha-cha-chá, nueva trova, songo, and timba—Cuban music has continually reinvented itself while retaining its core Afro‑Cuban rhythmic language. Typical instruments include the tres (Cuban guitar), bongó, congas, timbales, güiro, maracas, cowbell, bass, piano (playing guajeos/montunos), and bright horn sections. Beyond the island, Cuban music has profoundly influenced global popular music—fueling the rise of salsa and Latin jazz and reshaping dance music worldwide—while continuing to honor deep connections to Yoruba/Lukumí religious drumming and Spanish lyrical traditions.
Jazz Fusion
Jazz fusion (often simply called "fusion") blends the improvisational language and harmonic richness of jazz with the amplified instruments, grooves, and song forms of rock, funk, and R&B. It typically features electric guitars, electric bass or fretless bass, Rhodes electric piano, clavinet, analog and digital synthesizers, and a drum kit playing backbeat- and syncopation-heavy patterns. Hallmarks include extended chords and modal harmony, complex and shifting meters, brisk unison lines, virtuosic improvisation, and a production aesthetic that embraces effects processing and studio craft. The style ranges from fiery, aggressive workouts to polished, atmospheric textures, often within the same piece. Emerging in the late 1960s and flourishing through the 1970s, jazz fusion became a bridge between jazz audiences and rock/funk listeners, shaping later styles such as jazz-funk, smooth jazz, nu jazz, and parts of progressive and technical rock/metal.
Has influenced
Cubatón
Cubatón is the Cuban take on reggaeton, fusing the dembow pulse with Cuba’s deep dance-music traditions such as timba, son cubano, and songo. It keeps reggaeton’s club-ready tempo and MC-driven hooks, but adds montuno-style piano vamps, clave-aligned phrasing, horn riffs, and coro–pregón call-and-response rooted in Cuban popular music. Lyrically it is streetwise and party-focused, packed with Cuban slang, humor, and double entendre, and designed for high-energy social dancing.
Salsa
Salsa is a pan–Latin dance music forged primarily in New York City by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Caribbean diasporas. It synthesizes Afro‑Cuban rhythmic blueprints, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, jazz harmony, big‑band horn writing, and Nuyorican street culture into a tightly arranged yet improvisation‑friendly style. The music lives on the clave (either 2‑3 or 3‑2), with layered percussion (congas, bongó, timbales, cowbell, güiro, maracas), a tumbao bass that anticipates the beat, and piano montuno guajeos that interlock with the rhythm section. Call‑and‑response vocals (coro/pregón), punchy horn mambos and moñas, and instrumental solos energize the montuno section. Tempos range from medium to fast in 4/4, optimized for social dancing (commonly “on1” or “on2”). Across decades, salsa has branched into harder, percussion‑forward “salsa dura,” smoother “salsa romántica,” and regional scenes in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia, while continuing to influence—and be influenced by—neighboring tropical and jazz idioms.
Latin Jazz
Latin jazz is a fusion of jazz harmony and improvisation with Afro–Latin American rhythms, song forms, and percussion. It combines the swing, bebop, and big-band traditions with clave-based grooves such as son, rumba, danzón, and mambo, and later integrates Brazilian feels like samba and bossa nova. Typical features include the use of the clave (2–3 or 3–2), piano montunos (guajeos), bass tumbao patterns, timbales cáscara, conga marcha, and call-and-response horn "mambo" figures. While the rhythm section locks into cyclical patterns, soloists improvise using the vocabulary of jazz, creating music that is both danceable and harmonically rich.
Salsa Dura
Salsa dura ("hard salsa") is a gritty, high-energy branch of salsa built for dancers and live band firepower rather than pop polish. It foregrounds intense rhythmic drive, brassy horn mambos, extended montuno vamps, and instrumental solos, keeping the spotlight on the groove. Developed in New York City by Afro-Caribbean musicians, salsa dura draws directly from Cuban son and mambo, Puerto Rican bomba/plena, and Latin jazz jam traditions (descargas). Arrangements emphasize heavy trombone lines, call-and-response coros, and vigorous percussion that stays locked to the clave. Compared with later salsa romántica, salsa dura sounds tougher, faster, and more streetwise.
Reparto
Reparto is a Cuban urban dance style that splinters from reggaetón and the local cubatón scene, marked by hard-hitting dembow drums, rubbery sub‑bass, bright syncopated synth leads, and chanted, hook‑driven vocals. The word “reparto” in Cuba refers to suburban districts or housing developments, and the genre’s lyrics often reflect the everyday life, slang, humor, and bravado of those neighborhoods. Tracks are built for parties and street systems: fast, percussive, and repetitive, with producer tags, call‑and‑response “coros,” and breakdowns that keep dancers moving. Musically, reparto sits between dancehall/dembow rhythm and Cuban timbral sensibilities, sometimes borrowing trap textures and flow switches. It prioritizes groove, immediacy, and crowd interaction over elaborate harmony or melody.
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