Ned Sublette
Author of Cuba and Its Music — the most comprehensive English-language history of Cuban music ever written, essential background for anyone who wants to understand where timba"> timba comes from.
About
Ned Sublette is an American musician, producer, and writer who has worked extensively with Cuban artists. His deep personal connection to the music — he is himself a working musician with long relationships in Cuban musical culture — gives his writing both scholarly rigor and human warmth.
His book Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the mambo"> Mambo (Chicago Review Press, 2004) is the result of decades of research. Starting from Cuba's colonial origins and the arrival of African slaves, it traces every major development in Cuban music through the mambo"> mambo era in meticulous detail. It is required reading for understanding the historical context behind every Cuban genre and dance form.
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.
Lees meer >Mambo
In Cuban music, especially in salsa and son,
the " mambo" section typically refers to a brassy, rhythmically intense instrumental break,
often featuring repetitive horn lines, call-and-response patterns, and building energy toward the climax of a song.
Mambo
In Cuban music, especially in salsa and son,
the "mambo" section typically refers to a brassy, rhythmically intense instrumental break,
often featuring repetitive horn lines, call-and-response patterns, and building energy toward the climax of a song.
Son dance is the foundation of all Cuban popular partner dancing — smooth, intimate, grounded, and musical. Every Cuban dance style that followed (mambo, casino, timba) builds on the body vocabulary and structure established by son.
Lees meer >Mambo was Cuba's first global music explosion — the form that put Cuban rhythms on dance floors from New York to Tokyo in the late 1940s and 1950s, and the direct ancestor of the Latin big band sound.
Lees meer >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.
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