Kva er timba?

For nokre dager sidan fekk eg følgande spørsmål: "Kva er timba?"

Vevleksikonet Wikipedia har ei analyse av timba som bidrar til å gje eit svar på spørsmålet.
Eg legg ved eit videoklipp av Charanga Forever og låta Dice Formell som eit døme på kva timba som musikkform handler om. Her er eit utdrag av Wikipedia sin artikkel:

Stylistic aspects

"Though quite similar to salsa on the surface of things, timba has certain qualities of its own which distinguish it from salsa, similar to the way American R&B is distinguished from soul. In general, timba is considered to be a highly aggressive type of music, with rhythm and "swing" taking precedence over melody and lyricism. Very little "traditional" salsa existed (or exists) in Cuba, the most influential foreign 'salsero' being Venezuelan Oscar d'León, who is one of the few salsa artists to have performed in Cuba. Timba musicians thus rightly claim a different musical heritage from salsa musicians.
At its most basic, timba is more flexible and innovative than salsa, and includes a more diverse range of styles, all of which could be defined as timba. The limits of what is timba and what is not are in fact quite fluid, as many consider timba to be any kind of popular Cuban dance music.
Timba incorporates many elements of Afro-Cuban culture and music. This includes rhythmic elements of Afro-Cuban music (on all instruments), expressions or parts of lyrics in ‘Lucumí’ (Cuban Yoruba, used almost exclusively in a religious context) and references to Afro-Cuban religion, the imperative for improvisation and interaction with audiences during concerts, story-telling in the lyrics, the quoting of melodies, rhythms and/or lyrics from other sources (similar to electronic or digital sampling in modern music), the frequent inclusion of "rap", and sustained sections of coro-pregon (call and response) interaction in songs. Contrary to (early) salsa, timba makes no claim to social or political messages, partly because of the political circumstances in Cuba.
More specifically, timba differs from salsa in orchestration and arrangement. Many timba artists readily concede that they have been more influenced by funk or soul than by salsa. Thus, bands like La Charanga Habanera or Bamboleo often have horns or other instruments playing short parts of tunes by Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang or other US funk bands. In terms of instrumentation, the most important innovation has been the permanent incorporation of a kick drum and a synthesiser. Many timba bands have otherwise kept the traditional charanga ensemble of the 1940s, which includes double bass, conga, cowbell, clave, piano, violins, flute and in timba an expanded horn section that (in addition to the traditional trumpets and trombones) may include saxophones. However, many innovations were made in the style of playing and the arrangements, especially on the bass (with elements of funk and R&B), the piano (with elements of baroque music such as Bach), the horns (complex arrangements known as "champolas"), and the use of the clave (where 3-2 son clave is the standard in salsa music, timba often leans more towards 2-3 rumba clave). Also different from salsa is the frequent shift from major to minor keys (and vice versa), the highly complex rhythmic arrangements (often based on santería or abakuá rhythms), the shifts in speed and the large number of orchestrated breaks, or "bloques."

Dei som er interessert i å vite meir om emnet kan laste ned Jacob Speake sin hovudfagsoppåve: "Timba- 1990ernes nye dansemusik på Cuba." Denne finn ein på High Fidelity Salsa under artikler på lenkene.
Kevin Moore held på med ei elektronisk bok om kubansk musikk, sjå Timba på lenkene våre.
Vincenzo Perna som er amerikansk musikkvitar har skrive boka "Timba- the sound of the cuban crisis." Denne kan ein kjøpe på Amazon.

Issac Delgado i Miami

Her er Diane Padro frå Salsapower sin rapport frå Issac Delgado sin konsert i Miami 23. juni 2007.

" Ok- I`ll admit it- I`m one of those long-time traditional salsa fans who occasionally listen and dance to Timba, but it`s not really my thing, so i`m probably one of the contributing reasons why this style of cuban music has not really hit it big in this country. And true to my Puerto Rican/ New York style salsa roots, I was looking forward on the way to this concert, to hearing and seeing a live performance of Issac Delgado`s Mujer que mas te duele, one of the tracks on his first U.S. released CD, En Primera Plana( La Calle Records, May 2007.) It`s a fine tune- a cathy duet with salsa great Victor Manuelle- and has been getting a lot of play on the local radio stations.

Little did I know, that by the end of the evening, it wouldn`t even matter to me that Issac did not perform this song last night. I was too busy enjoying every moment of his Timba!

It was a triumphant night for the former lead singer from NG La Banda. Issac, after years of much success and popularity in his native Cuba, and in Europe( and up to now, marginally in the U.S.), quietly defected this past year."

The Knight Center was packed solid, but there were pleanty of empty seats- their occupants were all standing, dancing, singing, wawing their arms, and cheering Issac on, with every song Issac chose to sing.

He chose them well. Let me explain: Thanks to the definitive salsa- hit maker, producer Sergio George, En Primera Plana is already on it`s way to becoming another possible Grammy nomination for Delgado. It was, of course, a wise decision to cater to mass appeal by including some great songs( and some great names), in the traditional salsa style in this cd.

But the heart of Issac Delgado is Timba, and Timba was mostly what he performed.

Kind of a really cool bait and switch scheme- sell them salsa, but give them timba live!

And it is surely through his live performances, that Issac will win over the hard-core salsa public to include and support this genre more than ever before.

He´s just so good at at it. Issac has such a way with the audience. He`s gracious, personal and inviting. Last night he easily acquired nearly 4500 more back-up singers, as he invited fans to join in. They didn`t need much encouraging- they sang loudly, clearly, in tune and on clave, to every timba selection. It was quite amazing to experience this sea of people moving and singing in unison with Issac.

To my surprise, during some of the digressions from timba- ballads interspersed with( sometimes too long) commentary, I found myself counting the minutes to the next timba song. Obviously, so was the rest of the audience, because, without fail, it was the driving timba rythms and infectious lyrics that kept the place really jumping.

Last night, Issac Delgado took Miami, and me, by storm."