Timba - History

History

As opposed to salsa, whose roots are with the Cuban conjunto bands of the 1940s and 1950s, modified with rock, jazz, and traditional music of Puerto Rico, Timba represents a synthesis of a wider variety of popular and folkloric sources. Timba bands draw heavily from international influences such as jazz, rock, disco, funk and hip hop, as well as local folklore like rumba, guaguancó, batá drumming and the sacred songs of santería. According to Vicenzo Perna, author of Timba: The Sound of the Cuban Crisis, timba needs to be spoken of because of its musical, cultural, social, and political reasons; its sheer popularity in Cuba, its novelty and originality as a musical style, the skill of its practitioners, its relationship with both local traditions and the culture of the black Diaspora, its meanings, and the way its style brings to light the tension points within society. In addition to timbales, timba drummers make use of the North American drum-set, further distinguishing the sound from that of mainland salsa. The use of synthesised keyboard is also common. Timba songs tend to sound more innovative, experimental and frequently more virtuosic than salsa pieces; horn parts are usually fast, at times even bebop influenced, and stretch to the extreme ranges of all instruments. Bass and percussion patterns are similarly unconventional.