Timba

Timba is a Cuban music style. Because of its historical development it represents a variant that no subgroup of Salsa Music

Prehistory

In post-revolutionary Cuba, there was an unwritten law among Cuban musicians for a long time, to avoid the term "Salsa ". The word was simply ignored by the Committee of governmental record company EGREM. Salsa was from a Cuban perspective, a neo-colonial tool of the US-dominated music industry, which tried to occupy the traditional Cuban rhythms in this way. Salsa was of non- Cubans played Cuban music. Since this music was always played in Cuba, there was no need for a new name. That changed in the early 1990s with the promotion of tourism and the new freedom of travel of Cuban musicians who were available from 1993, with foreign music companies under contract. From 1990, one of the state broadcaster of the Cuban television beamed the show " Mi Salsa" from. It created new anthologies with titles like " ¿ Son o salsa? " (1991) or "Salsa Cubana " (1995). The latter was also the title of a music magazine in Cuba, which appeared in the second half of the 1990s. Although it was not the content of the claim to that Salsa is Cuban music exclusively, but to rethink the Cuban leadership revealed: After three decades of polemics against the Salsa, the state authorities were now trying to use the term for their own purposes and to to establish the degree of international recognition. On a music album of the term " Salsa" first appeared in the music group NG La Banda: The song " una amiga Necesita " on the CD " En la Calle " (1988) was referred to in the signature as " balada - salsa". The next production of NG LA Banda consisted of newly arranged Cuban songs, titled " Salseando " (1990). 1991 left the singer Issac Delgado NG La Banda and launched a solo career with the nickname " El Chévere de la Salsa". Even smaller musical groups began to use the name ( such as 1995 " Septeto raison " with "Mi salsa cubana ").

Origin

According to the dictionary means Timba " gambling, card game ". A " Timbero " was accordingly a " card player ". In addition, there is in Cuba a sweet dish, a combination of bread with guava, which is called " pan con timba ". A neighborhood of Havana is also called " Timba". Cesar " Pupi " Pedroso, the former pianist of Los Van Van, referred to this meaning when he titled his debut album " De la Timba a Pogolotti " (1999). Pogolotti and Timba are both neighborhood with a high proportion of Afro - Cubans.

The term " Timba" is therefore firmly rooted in the Cuban context and circulated in the field of music for a long time. " Timba" was used in Cuba for decades as a synonym for Rumba. Issac Delgado stated that in his time at the university in the 1970s, young musicians from Irakere, Chucho Valdés or as Arturo Sandovál, secret jazz sessions were organized, which were then called " tocar timba " or " timbear ". Would have been called " play Timba", also the game of Rumberos when they play music in the backyards. He himself had been called as a good rumba singer " Timbero ". Accordingly, it is a term that came from the streets of Cuba. However, Van Vans singer Mario Rivera sets, however, that the term timba has also been used for years in the state conservatories in the 90s. The Cuban authors Neris González Bello and Liliana Casanella Cué keep the erection of conservatories even for one of the prerequisites for the later emergence of timba.

Development

From the 1990s emerged the term " Timba" increasingly in the Cuban " música bailable " (Spanish: dance music) at the same time with the term salsa on. As the initiator applies flutist José Luis Cortés and his group NG La Banda. It is most associated with " Timba", although the group initially (1990, 1993) also introduced the term "Salsa " in their albums. Your 1989 released album " En la calle " is considered in retrospect at the same time as the first timba album, though the term does not appear right away.

From the mid- 1990s, then put the so-called " Timba explosion" a. The trigger was the group " Charanga Habanera " by David Caldzado with her 1996 album "Me sube la fiebre ". Also, the band leader of Cuba's legendary group Los Van Van, Juan Formell, 1997 went on to call his music " Timba". In particular, the albums " Esto te pone la cabeza mala " ( 1997) and " Llegó Van Van " (1999) reached a hitherto unequaled international success. The state's record company EGREM began increasingly to promote the " Timba" as a trademark Cuban music. A variety of new groups and productions were made. Some well-known groups and musicians are: " pupy y Los que Son, Son " ( Cesar Pedroso pupy, former pianist of Los Van Van ), " Manolín, El Médico de la Salsa ", " Alonso y sus kini kini Pachito ", " Azucar Negra "," Bamboleo "," Charanga Forever "," Tirso Duarte, " Giraldo Piloto (former percussionist of NG La Banda ) and his group " Klimax "," Manolito y su trabuco "and" Paulito FG ".

Buoyed by the success of Buena Vista Social Club in 1996, the Grammy Awards in 1998 and a documentary movie by Wim Wenders 1999, an increase in demand of Cuban music in the world. Cuban musicians did not show themselves unwilling to leave Cuba and settle abroad. Miami has developed due to the many Cuban exiles to the largest stronghold of Timba outside Cuba. There you will find such well-known musicians such as " Manolín, El Médico de la Salsa", Chaka and his group " El Tumbao ", the "Cuban Timba All Stars " and last but not least Jorge Gomez with " Tiempo Libre ".

Style

Timba is, like salsa formally mostly based on the Son montuno, in which a first melodic part (usually stanzas ( estribillo ) and a refrain ) from Montuno, one perceived as increasing, certain of improvisation and repetition of shorter sections part, followed. But while salsa principle is based on the Son clave and the bass usually plays on the 2 and 4, Timba is for other timelines open. The rule is expected to be a 3-2 rumba clave to playing the bass cantando or radio -influenced figures.

The typical instrumentation for a timba group consists of singers, piano or keyboard, bass, drums and timbales, congas and a horn section. In contrary to the tenor of this article, which emphasizes the common of Salsa and Timba and the use of the words as a marketing tool to have in Cuba certain " special traditions " developed in the use of these instruments, which contribute in different combinations to a specific Timba style.

The bass is usually an electric bass guitar, whose role can be taken over or doubled but also from a keyboard. Being compared to the free Salsa role has already been mentioned.

The bass, piano or background strings replaced keyboard is part of the legacy of Van Van. Hugo Morejón, one of the trombonists of the band began to play regularly when the trombone section had break. Contramontunos to the montunos of the regular pianist César " Pupy " Pedroso also belong to his roles. Together with Pedroso variously as contrapuntal signified game leads to downright hyperactive chords, often at high altitudes. Typical of Timba montunos is to say that they can be designed specifically to one piece, so not necessarily come from a traditional fund of game characters.

The expansion to the sound arsenal by E-Drums goes back to a busy among Member of the Van Van trombone record and his drum pad; Typically, however, that even those pads are played by the drummer. Also Timbales are usually part of the drum sets and are thus played while seated; since Changuito operated the ideal drummer in Cuba congas, drums, cymbals, pads and Timbales with all combination of sticks and bare hands and also changes within a piece.

Before hip-hop and reggaeton is popular in Cuba, rapped the lead singer of Timba bands.

The horn section is often a trombone trio, but can be approximated with trumpets and saxophones and the salsa or continue with strings and flute the Cuban charanga tradition.

Importance

The term Timba was initially a pure marketing tool. Leading Cuban musicians such as Issac Delgado, Lazaro Valdés, Juan Formell, and many others, have confirmed this in interviews over and over again. The term " salsa cubana " was rejected by most Cuban musicians as " fashion label ", but appeared to them as the only possible way to assert itself on the international music market. Other terms such as " hipersalsa ", "heavy salsa" or " salsa dura " were also tried, but quickly discarded. But with " Timba" its own related to Cuba 's name was finally found. At the same time he allowed a demarcation for " salsa erótica " and " salsa romántica " from the United States and Puerto Rico. In the case of " Los Van Van " about the adoption of the concept was just too obvious, there was the group at that time but since more than 30 years, without being ever been associated with Timba. Instead, they marketed their music rather under a genre of its own, called Songo.

But the more the term was perceived as something of their own, the more unfolded his identification effect. The NG La Banda, entitled " En la calle " (Spanish: On the road ) was now program. The groups began to develop concepts align their music at " the ordinary people of the streets". The texts were negotiated and other content from now on the joys, sorrows and miseries of the people. The musicians to seek close contact in particular to the Cuban dancers in front of the stage. Own Chants should not only serve as a trademark, but also the bond to strengthen public ( like the famous " ataca chicho! " NG La Banda or the " Ahí, na ' ma'! " By Los Van Van ). The Timba should originate from the Cuban life, the neighborhood of the barrios and the way how people dance there in the streets and celebrate. In particular, emerged the group La Charanga Habanera by strove to modern hip hop group choreography and the appropriately styled outfits at their performances.

Such a conscious emphasis on the special proximity to the road was always accompanied by the effort to establish credibility. The known timba groups consist almost exclusively of studying conservatory musicians, especially with the success abroad and the resurgent music tourism in Cuba (where the entry has been paid to the appropriate music clubs to 2004 U.S. dollars ) to the normal life in the neighborhoods of Havana are largely caught up. In addition, the music conservatories in Cuba had to be less a reputation rooted in the streets, rather than to be steered by the national supervisory bodies.

Many Cuban musicians emphasize that Timba was but no fundamentally new music, but rather an evolution of the Cuban son music so that was always played in Cuba. Also the remains highly doubtful, although some Timba elements can be found in the 1970s in the early music of the group Irakere ( such as the insertion of jazz improvisations in traditional Cuban rhythms or the use of the Bata drums ).

Against this background, the timba music is represented as a difficult braid, which is passed in its presentation and interpretation of different interests and points of view: 1) market policy and commercialization, 2) identification formation and shift away from state institutions to the street and not last 3) of ideological theories of musical continuity in Cuba over all time of time ( see below Giraldo Piloto ).

In the present, one does not expect that the timba music is a subcategory of salsa, let alone a genre of its own, but rather an approximation of Cuban musicians to the salsa. This is all the more understandable when one considers that Cuban musicians for decades excluded from the musical exchange with other countries and unusual were suddenly faced with a globalized market after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this sense, there is even a surprising number of parallels between the Timba to the origins of Salsa in New York of the 1970s, such as the origin of the barrio, the urban character of the music, the greater weight of the texts, their meaning shift, the identification of Education, and the like. m.

Quotes

• At the end of the 80s, people realized that we could no longer continue with the term " Salsa". I was one of the first who understood that " salsa " is just a label, such as " Pepsi Cola ", which is just a soft drink is like " Coca Cola"; it is a simple word that meant the people in Europe, in America and all over the world to express a kind of music that is made in the Caribbean, Latin America, music, dance, " música tropical". [ ... ] Musical genres are, however, the Son, the Guaracha, the Cha Cha Chá, there are rhythms that originated in Cuba, but it is important that there is a common umbrella, an umbrella, as the simple word "Salsa ". It was the luck of the Cubans that the people of Puerto Rico, New York, Venezuela and Colombia, about three or four decades are still going to play Cuban music, in the 70s, the 80s and in the 90s, our music to play, even if under a different name, the name of the "Salsa ", but it was Cuban music. [ ... ] This is fortunate because the sound has remained in the ears of the people. ( Issac Delgado in a 2001 interview )

• In today's Cuba, we play the music differently and no one knows what to call it. People dance differently and there is no name for it, so we call it Timba. There used to be a time when we had to accept the term "Salsa " because of the international situation. At the time we were on the defensive, but now we are on the offensive and we can say, "No, that's not what we do we move somewhere between traditional Son and Salsa. ". ( Juan Formell 1997 at a press conference for his new album " Te pone la cabeza mala " )

• The Timba is a genre, after the Cuban dancer has demanded the result of a process that began over a century ago with the Danzon and is now called Timba, but during all these years has gone through different styles and different ways, and also different ways of looking at the music, ways to dance to feel, and - as we say in Cuba - to " guarachen " (Spanish: enjoy, celebrate ). ( Giraldo Piloto, former percussionist of NG La Banda and now music director of his own group " Klimax ", in a 2001 interview)