The Cuban "Timba"

    "The timba's sonority is the richest, most varied and exciting. It is charged with incomparable rhythm and flavor. We also try to be different amongst ourselves; nobody sounds like anybody else, each group expresses its own personality."
         Paulo Fernández, group leader for "Paulito y su Elite"

In the last couple of years, production of Cuban dance music has skyrocketed, making more and more inroads in Latin America, Spain and the United States, and catapulting its best performers to fame: Van Van group, Adalberto Alvarez, Charanga Habanera, Isaac Delgado and Orquesta Original de Manzanillo, among others.

The "timba," as the danceable stream of contemporary Cuban music has been called, has deep roots that go way back in time. In the words of Juan Formell, group leader of Van Van: "The timba came over to Cuba fragmented among Columbus' caravels, the black slave ships and Chinese immigrants, and then the necessary fusion took place."

However, most musicologists agree that timba's closest relative is "salsa," more specifically so-called "Nuyorican Salsa," which in Cuba has been on a roll in the nineties, and which has ended up in a process of dance music uniformity wherein each group contributes its own style, timbre and personality.

"Nuyorican Salsa" has its origins in the sixties and seventies, when Puerto Rican musicians living in New York incorporated mambo and mountain strains in their arrangements and then added their own distinct flavor, with roots sunk deeply in everyday life within New York's barrios. These artists - who were joined later on by musicians from Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and the Dominican Republic - began composing themes with greater social content in more hectic times. In Cuba, meanwhile, young musicians picked up on new ingredients to salsa and continued mixing, throwing in elements of rock, jazz, hip hop and even rap.

The timba, a child of fusion, has gone on to become the island's preferred music, as well as having huge demand in the overseas market.

The timba's sound is marked by a definite and well-marked beat, and an overwhelming presence of strings and occasional electric guitar chords. Performers sing the melody solo or as a duo in a style reminiscent of American rap but with a very distinctive Cuban flavor.

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