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.

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.

Cuba

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.

Africa

Afro-Cuban Dances by African Origin

Nigeria

Origin of:

• Orisha dances
• Bembé

Heritage of:

• Rumba
  • Yambú
  • Guaguancó

Bembé

• Roots: Bembé is both a ritual and social dance associated with Yoruba-derived religions.
• Connection to Nigeria: The drumming and dancing in Bembé ceremonies directly reflect Yoruba ceremonial practices.

• Danced at religious festivals, often in honor of the Orishas.

  
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Oshun

Ochún (also Oshún) is the Orisha of sweet water, love, beauty, and femininity. Her dance is the most sensual and joyful in the Orisha repertoire — flirtatious, flowing, and irresistibly charming.

Yemaya

Yemayá is the mother of all Orishas and the ruler of the sea. Her dance is one of the most visually beautiful in the repertoire — expansive, flowing, and in constant, wave-like motion.

Chango

• Orisha of thunder, lightning, fire, drumming, kingship.
• Toques: Chachachá, Alujá, Obakoso.
• Strong, fiery, powerful rhythms — central to batá tradition.

Oya

Oyá is the Orisha of wind, storms, lightning, and death. She guards the gates of the cemetery and is the only Orisha who does not fear the dead. Her dance is the most dynamic, physically demanding, and dramatically powerful in the Orisha repertoire.

Obatala

Obatalá is the Orisha of purity, wisdom, and creation — the father of all Orishas and the owner of all human heads. His dance is the most controlled and technically demanding in the repertoire: slow, smooth, and dignified beyond measure.

Egungun

Egungun is the Yoruba masquerade tradition honoring the collective ancestors — the Egun, the dead who remain present and active in the lives of the living. In Cuba, the Egungun tradition survived within the broader world of Santería (Regla de Ocha) and the related Arará and Abakuá communities, though in a form shaped by the specific conditions of the island.

Ochosi

Ochosi is the Orisha of the hunt, justice, and the forest. His dance is a study in precision and focus — the patient hunter, alert and controlled, moving toward his target.

Inle

Inle (also Erinle) is the Orisha of fishing, medicine, and the boundary between fresh and salt water. He is associated with healing, beauty, and the natural world.

Babalú Ayé

Babalú Ayé (also known as Asojano in some lineages) is the Orisha of healing, disease, and the earth. He governs illness — particularly epidemic diseases of the skin — and has the power both to afflict and to cure.

Orisha Oko

Orisha Oko is the Orisha of agriculture, the earth, and farming. He governs the fertility of the land and the crops that sustain human life.

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.

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).

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).

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.