From practice to theory

"NOWADAYS in Cuba we play music differently, and nobody knows what to call it. People dance differently and there's no name for it, so we're calling it timba." That's what the songwriter and leader of the band Los Van Van, Juan Formell, explained during the presentation of their new CD, Te pone la cabeza mala (It Makes Your Head Spin), upon which musician Edmundo Pina comments on this same page.

Formell's exchange with the press covered various subjects on people's minds today, some of them controversial, causing the atmosphere of the meeting room to heat up at times.

It was interesting to hear Formell attempting to theorize about this new sound he has dubbed timba, which he says lies halfway between the traditional Cuban son and salsa.

Formell began this explanation by expressing his opinion that there is strong musical competition in Cuba these days, and that this is "one of the best moments in the history of popular music." Actually, Formell is speaking about dance music, since Cuban popular music is really a much wider category, as many musicians have pointed out.

According to Formell, a legend in the field of dance music, this boom can be traced back to the first changes introduced by Elio Revé, which were followed by stronger modifications put into effect by his own band, Los Van Van, and of course Chucho Valdés with Irakere. "Later on there was Adalberto Álvarez, who made important changes in the sound; and José Luis Cortés, who assimilated what he had learned as a member of Irakere and Los Van Van, and in his own group, NG La Banda he created a structure which the younger musicians also adopted.

"Timba is the sound being heard on the island," Formell went on, "and it's hard to explain in theory, but the changes we have made are based on the dancers, who for the last five years have been moving differently.

"Each musical genre, and Cuba has 20 or 30, has a dance. To my mind, the interesting thing are precisely the dancers. They're making it clear that there's something new in our music."

He stated that the dancers are the ones who motivate the musician to make changes, the ones who give the clues about what should be done. And Formell must know what he's talking about, because his band has been at the top of the charts for almost 30 years now.

He insists that Cubans are dancing differently now, and that he is promoting the use of the term "timba" because of the new circumstances. "There was a moment when we had to accept the word `salsa' because of the international situation. At that time we were on the defensive, but now we're on the offensive and we can say, `No, that's not what we do. We're somewhere between traditional son and salsa.'"

Is the use of this new term strategic? "We dance and play differently and we didn't have a name for it," he responds, "and yes, by combining our artistic criteria we're going to enter the market. It's a new initiative and it needs a new name, timba, a musical name like rumba or conga."

Mario Rivera, one of the band's singers and considered among the best in his genre, added that this term has actually been used for several years by students in the arts schools. He feels that it is a well-defined musical concept and also a musical attitude.

Formell emphasized his opinion that Cuban musicians (again, this refers to dance bands) have the right to take a new initiative and not just continue with what was done in the '50s.

This is certainly a point of contention with other musicians, maestros of the son and even members of his own generation, who had success by concentrating on the traditional son, some of them with new arrangements and mixing. One example is the group which recently won a Grammy with its CD Buenavista Social Club.

The fact is that in the world of music there is plenty of space and many different tastes. This has been confirmed by the previously mentioned award and by another Grammy in the Latin jazz category, won by the Crisol group, headed by U.S. trumpeter Roy Hargrove and including compositions and arrangements by Chucho Valdés.

Reaffirming his opinion, Formell organized a concert called We're What's Happening, with members of his band and others (but not all) which are the most popular among Cuban dancers: Paulito FG y Su Élite, Adalberto Álvarez y Su Son, Issac Delgado, El Médico de la Salsa, NG La Banda and Charanga Habanera.

In response to the contention that "they almost all sound the same," Formell stated that although they share the same sound and criteria in the general sense, each group has its own personality.

He feels that his new CD is well-balanced in terms of its arrangements and lyrics, and he noted that it has already been launched in Spain but could not be properly presented in the United States because it had been pirated first.

Given the fact that in Cuba there are still very few people with CD players (which are sold only in dollars), some journalists asked how they expect the new CD to reach the dancers whom Formell had credited for the relevance of his work. After a lively interchange of comments, it was announced that the Caribe Productions label would soon sell audio cassettes of the recording in Cuban pesos.

Los Van Van has a very busy international schedule for the rest of this year: Brazil, Panama and Argentina (April), Uruguay and France (May), United States (June) and Europe (July-August). Formell also announced, without revealing specific dates, that the all-star group would put on concerts in Madrid, Barcelona, the Canary Islands, Paris, London and Rome.