erally employs the acoustic/baby bass, trombones, and no drum-kit, timba uses the
electric bass, trumpets/saxes, and a drum-kit). Timba also differs from salsa in its
structure (with a minimal narrative section and an extended second part replete
with coros , i.e., anthemic choral refrains), intricate rhythmic texture (played by per-
cussive and melodic instruments and often dominated by rumba guaguancó clave ),
and vocal style (resonant with rumba but also, often, Latin Soul).
Extremely popular among black audiences, timba is typically played by a 12-
piece or more big band and relies much on the technical virtuosity of an almost all-
black line up, thus expressing both the esthetic ambitions of Cuban musicians and
their loyalty to Afro-Cuban popular culture. Its origins can be traced in the process
of re-Africanization of Cuban popular music visible in the work of seminal dance
bands in the 1970s and 1980s such as Irakere, Los Van Van, and Ritmo Oriental,
who experimented with fusions including Afro-Cuban folklore, jazz, and rock.
The emergence and success of timba in the 1990s was inextricably tied to the spe-
cial period ( período especial ): the abysmal economic crisis caused by the collapse
of the Soviet Union that prompted the Cuban government to legalize the circulation
of foreign currency, open up to tourism, and attract foreign investment. With the
arrival of masses of foreigners and the opening of new hotels and clubs, the early
1990s saw a revitalization of Havana nightlife and a boom of live dance music (and,
sadly, of sex tourism). In that context, the challenging attitude and flashy lifestyle
of timberos, together with the controversial content and the perceived closeness to
the street of their songs, gave musicians the status of popular heroes among increas-
ingly disaffected barrio youth.
Economic reforms encouraged the arrival of foreign record companies in Cuba
(not from the United States ) and extensive touring by Cuban dance bands (including
in the United States), leading them to rule the Latin live circuit in various European
countries and elsewhere. By the mid-1990s, timba had become the most popular
style in Cuba, dominating radio programs and live shows and granting bandleaders
such as José Luis Cortés of NG La Banda, David Calzado of La Charanga Habanera,
and Juan Formell of Los Van Van significant symbolic and financial power.
In addition to its more rhythmically charged version, timba developed also a
romantic, salsa -leaning variant embodied by singers such as Manolín Gonzalez
404 | Timba
(“ El Médico de la Salsa ”), Paulito FG, and Issac Delgado. In terms of content, the
style thus was able to navigate between escapism and social chronicle, with lyrics
dealing with topics such as love and everyday life in the barrio, but also producing
(often ambiguous and sexist) comments on tourism and prostitution (NG La Banda’s
song “La bruja”; La Charanga Habanera’s “Superturística”), materialism (Los Van
Van’s “La Chopimaniaca”; NG La Banda’s “La apretadora”), official attitudes (NG
La Banda’s “Picadillo de soya” and “Cara de guante”), black identity, and Santería
(e.g., Adalberto Alvarez, Los Van Van, NG La Banda), often touching on issues of
gender, class, and race (La Charanga Habanera’s song “El temba,” for example,
started as a love ballad and ended with a refrain that parodized a revolutionary poem).
Composers generally avoided censorship by using slang and metaphors and pro-
moting an image of timba as good-time, tropical dance music, which in a sense
was true. By the mid-1990s, however, the style had given a new visibility to Afro-
Cuban popular culture (which the revolution had previously celebrated, but also
sanitized and sometimes repressed), hinting at a process of crystallization of a new
black Cuban and possibly separate social identity (in 1994, for the first time after
1959, black people were seen rioting in Havana against the government). As the
soundtrack of Havana’s new dolce vita, timba also appeared dangerously close to
rampant black economy and sex tourism. In many ways, timberos challenged main-
stream values even without singing challenging lyrics: by consciously confronting
dominant codes of music (hedonistic versus engaged music, foreign versus national
music, working class versus elitist expression), language (black slang versus articu-
lated language), content (life in the barrio versus abstract love), clothing (by wear-
ing Santería necklaces, golden chains and American symbols), and dance (sexy
individual dancing as practiced by jineteras (prostitutes) versus couple dancing,
in a social context where young women were becoming the new breadwinners).
The very reasons that made timberos successful with their audiences, therefore,
made them increasingly unwelcome in official circles, leading the state-controlled
press to portray them as new rich and scapegoats for the social inequalities of the
special period. In the second half of the 1990s, the mild recovery of the Cuban
economy brought about restrictions in economic freedom, crackdowns on crime
and political dissent, and a repression of the perceived excesses of timba, thus mark-
ing the end of institutional tolerance. After their allegedly offensive performance
during a televised mass concert in 1997, La Charanga Habanera were banned from
playing, broadcasting, and travelling for six months (they later disbanded and re-
formed with only two original components, including leader Calzado). The repres-
sive wave made popular artists more cautious, and later persuaded some to leave
the island in search of better artistic chances in the United States such as singers
Manolín, Carlos Manuel Pruneda, and Issac Delgado.
Another important factor in the taming of timba was the phenomenal success
of Buena Vista Social Club, the record project and loosely formed band of elderly
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405
Cuban artists conceived in 1996 by American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder.
Since then the Buena Vista Social Club has become enormously popular with mil-
lions of albums sold and countless tours. They have promoted, on a global scale, an
unchallenged image of Cuban traditional music that has further marginalized con-
temporary music. Not surprisingly, the Buena Vista Social Club album was hailed
by Cuban critics of timba as the authentic image of national music and opposed to
the overindulgence and vulgarity of dance music.
In the 2000s, timba has faced limited success abroad and a relative artistic stale-
mate, partially explained by its lost of novelty, tendency to increasing commer-
cialization, and difficulty in distributing their recordings outside Cuba (due both
to the U.S. trade embargo and to its own specific features: Hispanic audiences find
timba much more arduous than salsa in terms of lyrics, rhythm, and dance style).
With bandleaders on the defensive and a musical scene now remarkably diversified,
timba has thus entered a settle-down process at home but it continues to be the most
popular form of recreational music among adult blacks. Timba has represented an
important moment of rearticulation of black Caribbean identity through music and
&n
bsp; dance, and a crucial, if deeply controversial, response to the material and moral
crisis of contemporary Cuba. It has played a key role in the process of revitaliza-
tion of black Cuban culture now visible not only in music (with the revival of black
folkore, the popularity of rumba and son, the international success of Cuban jazz; the local popularity of rap and reggaetón ), but also in the growing role played by
Afro-Cuban performing arts and religion both locally and internationally.
Further Reading
Moore, Robin D. Music & Revolution. Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006.
Perna, Vincenzo Timba. The Sound of the Cuban Crisis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Timba, http://timba.com (The Home of Cuban Music on the Web).
Watrous, Peter. “Havana Jazz Festival: International Dissonance Aside, Harmony in
Cuba.” The New York Times, December 24, 1997.
Vincenzo Perna
Timbal
Commonly known as timbals in English, the timbal is a set of two drums, usually
with metallic shells. It developed in Cuba where it is also known as paila or tim-
bals criollos. The larger drum, known as hembra (female), is commonly 15 inches
in diameter, while the smaller drum, called macho (male), is often 14 inches in di-
ameter. The drumheads are usually made of plastic, though they were historically
made of goat hide. It is standard practice to attach at least one cencerro (cowbell),
406 | Timbal
though two is more common, and they are often accompanied by a woodblock,
cymbal, and even a bass or snare drum. The timbal is mostly played with sticks and
is usually responsible for playing cascara (literally shell, referring to the part of the
timbal where the rhythm is played) and abanico (fan), a rhythmic segue consisting
of a rimshot, roll, and another rimshot landing on beat one.
In Cuba, timbal and paila are mostly synonymous, a carry-over from the Colo-
nial Era when the terms were used to refer to the kettle-shaped orchestral tympani
brought from Europe. Timbals (from the French word for tympani) or paila (kettle)
appeared in Cuba by the mid-1700s and saw use in theaters and military bands,
eventually making their way into the dance music of high society. Those who per-
formed on timbal ( timbaleros ), however, were usually at least partly of African de-
scent. It is no surprise, then, that the musical performance of the timbal is heavily
based on an African esthetic.
The popularity of the spherical timbal increased with styles such as the dan-
zón until the early 1900s when the modern shell construction appeared. The
Puente, Tito
Ernest Anthony Puente (1923–2000) was born to Puerto Rican immigrant par-
ents in Spanish Harlem. He was later to become known as the king of Latin
music or simply El Rey. As a prolifi c output as a bandleader, percussionist, ar-
ranger, and composer, he was key to the development of various Latin styles
during the second half of the 20th century. In addition to Cuban music, Puente
was infl uenced by the popular music of his youth, especially big-band jazz.
With infl uences from Machito and Mario Bauzá, Puente became a leading
force in the mambo revival of the 1950s.
Puente was infl uential in the development of Latin jazz and may be consid-
ered a forefather of salsa, a term he never embraced. He was the fi rst to move
the timbal to the front of an orchestra and introduced the vibraphone into
Latin music. He recorded well over 100 albums but is most widely known for
the song “Oye Como Va,” which was popularized by Carlos Santana. Through-
out his career, Puente earned many honors, including six Grammy Awards, a
National Medal of the Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Further Reading
Loza, Steven. Tito Puente and the Making of Latin Music. Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 1999.
Nolan Warden
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407
catalyst for this change is unclear, but there are two plausible explanations. The
most common oral history of this process is that at some point the kettle ver-
sions had their bottom halves removed, possibly for economic or other practi-
cal reasons. Another theory is that the modern construction was influenced by
early jazz drumsets that were making their way to Cuba. Cuban dance bands
began to play both jazz and Cuban music, thus the drumset’s early tom-toms
(which were often single headed like the modern timbal ) might have been used
as musical substitutes for the larger kettles, eventually being separated from
the drumset itself.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the timbal began to be known worldwide as it was cen-
tral to the mambo style popularized during those decades. The most influential
timbalero yet has been Tito Puente, often known as El Rey del Timbal (King of the
Timbal). As a bandleader, Puente brought the timbal out from behind the horn sec-
tion and stood while performing, both innovations that are now standard practice.
His skill and showmanship on the instrument helped make the timbal the well-
known instrument that it is today.
Further Reading
Quintana, José Luis, and Chuck Silverman. Changuito, a Master’s Approach to Timbals.
New York: Manhattan Music Publications, 1998.
Nolan Warden
Timbalada
Timbalada is a Brazilian bloco afro established in the 1990s, based in the Candeal
neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The group is known for their innova-
tive, percussion-dominated pop songs, and upbeat music that mixes Afro- Brazilian
styles with Caribbean and American dance rhythms. They have integrated two per-
cussion instruments into Brazilian popular music, the timbau and the tres surdos .
The latter is a set of three differently sized surdos (bass drums) set on a rack,
played by one percussionist. They won the Prêmio Sharp award and Troféu Bahia
Folia Carnival awards.
The group is named after the timbau , an Afro-Brazilian drum the group’s direc-
tor, percussionist and composer Carlinhos Brown adopted from the streets of Can-
deal. Brown established an outreach organization to engage local youths and train
them in percussion. In 1990, he began running weekly public rehearsals and the top
percussionists from these sessions formed the group Vai Quem Vem, which subse-
quently participated in the Grammy-winning recording Brasileiro. Brown changed
the name to Timbalada and in 1993 the group released their first recording, Tim-
balada. Since the group’s inception, they have inspired Brazilians to dedicate
408 | Timbau
themselves to percussion and Afro-Brazilian culture and have contributed to the
development of Candeal.
Further Reading
Perrone, Charles A. and Christopher Dunn. Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization.
New York: Routledge, 2001.
Thomas Rohde
Timbau
The timbau (also spelled timbal ) is a long, conically shaped drum commonly used
in axé music and a variety of other Afro-Brazilian music styles from Bahia, Brazil.
It is usually made of wood and has one, tightly tuned, plastic head that produces its
characteristic high-pitched p
opping sound. The instrument is loud and lightweight
and can be mounted on a stand or easily carried using a strap. It is usually played with
the hands, in the same fashion as the djembe and atabaque ( conga -like drum used in the Afro-Brazilian religion candomblé ), but sticks are sometimes used. The timbau
produces a variety of sounds and is often used as a lead instrument to call breaks and
mark transitions. Its basic tones are open, high-pitched slap, and low bass.
There are many theories about the origin of the timbau. The instrument’s roots
and playing style were established and continue to be developed in the Brazilian
folkloric genre samba de roda (circle samba ), and in the neighborhoods and streets of Bahia. During the late 1980s, the percussionist Carlinhos Brown adopted the instrument from the streets of Candeal, Bahia, and began integrating it into Brazilian
popular music. It soon became a prominent feature of Brown’s group Timbalada ,
whose name was derived from the instrument. For their 1992 Carnival debut, the
group used 200 timbaus. The success of Timbalada quickly popularized the instru-
ment, making its use standard in blocos afro and axé music. It is currently being slowly integrated into many other Brazilian styles.
Further Reading
Crook, Larry. Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern
Nation. ABC-CLIO World Music Series. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Thomas Rohde
Tiple
The tiple is a small guitar that appears in several countries such as Spain, Colom-
bia, Guatemala, Argentina, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican
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409
Republic. Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, which applies to the tiple
itself since this instrument is a smaller version of a guitar and it has a higher pitched
voice. The tiple’s sizes and tunings are not standard and vary from region to region.
Scholars agree that the tiple from the Canary Islands was the predecessor to the
Colombian and Puerto Rican tiples. The instrument has four or five strings like the
first Colombian and Puerto Rican tiples. It was probably brought to the Caribbean
during the early colonial time, changing the number of strings and tunings over the
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 69
