Music

Danzón

Danzón was the first national dance of Cuba — the form that unified the island's popular music identity in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the ancestor of mambo, cha-cha-chá, and ultimately timba.

Timba

Timba is the music this site is dedicated to exploring. It emerged as a distinct genre in the late 1980s and crystallized in the early 1990s — born in a moment of social crisis, built on the full accumulated history of Cuban music, and still evolving today.

Rumba

Rumba is the most African-rooted of all Cuban music and dance forms — born in the streets, courtyards, and docks of Havana and Matanzas in the late 19th century, with no European instruments, no salon setting, and no pretense of European propriety.

Songo

Songo is the direct bridge between traditional Cuban music and timba. Developed by Los Van Van in the early 1970s, it rewired Cuban popular music by absorbing funk, rock, and jazz into the Afro-Cuban rhythmic foundation — and laid every groundwork that timba would build on.

Casa de la Trova

The Casa de la Trova in cuba"> Santiago de Cuba is the spiritual home of Cuban traditional music — Son, Bolero, Changüí, and Trova. Founded in 1968 on Calle Heredia in the heart of Santiago's historic center, it has been the gathering place for the city's musicians for over half a century.

Percussion Instruments

Cuban music is built on percussion. The extraordinary density and variety of Cuban rhythmic culture reflects the meeting of West and Central African drumming traditions with Spanish, Haitian, and creole musical practices over four centuries. The instruments below form the core percussive vocabulary heard across Son, Rumba, Timba, Danzón, and their descendants.

Clave

The clave is a fundamental rhythmic pattern and organizing principle in Cuban music. It serves as both a musical pattern and a guiding concept, deeply rooted in Afro-Cuban traditions.

Batá

The batá drums are a set of three double-headed hourglass-shaped drums central to Yoruba religious tradition and Afro-Cuban sacred music (Lucumí / Santería).

Timba music

A Cuban popular dance music genre that emerged in the 1980s–90s

• emerged in the 1980s–90s
• influenced by songo, rumba, funk, blues, jazz, pop, rock and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
• Known for complex rhythm shifts, aggressive bass lines, and high energy that push dancers to improvise.