This is way in advance, but another reason to visit Montreal this summer!
Timba enthusiasts have settled on Jose Luis Cortes' NG La Banda as the first to fit the modern meaning of "timba music", around 1988... which developed into the pre-eminent dance music of the world today...
But for decades leading up to that, Chucho Valdes' group Irakere was reaching young crowds... and giving them something that got them dancing. Bacalao con Pan ( a hit in 1974 and again in 1982 ) was the big song of those years...
When you see how it got young people dancing, and check the instrumentation... even the jazzy feel is not such a big step away from NG La Banda early years.
Montreal Jazz Festival touches the other side of Irakere, jazz. Chucho has said he needed to mix both dance music and jazz in the Irakere years... and eventually jazz did make his career, lifting him to international fame. The Festival has announced they will feature his quintet July 2 ... it won't be primarily dance music, but you will hear the dance music of Cuba in much of what they do.
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