Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance: Timba Music and Black Identity in Cuba

Appendix 1: Timba Timeline

Appendix 1: Timba Timeline 1954 Stadium Tropical (later Salón Rosado de la Tropical) is born as an important dance space that would become the “thermometer of salsa music,” comparable to the Palladium in New York, a crucible of popular music and dance. It was used for night dances while the older “gardens” (Jardines de la Tropical, dating back to 1904) were used for matinee functions. 1959 Fidel and his revolutionary armed forces take Havana on January 1. 1960 Law no. 890 nationalizes many privately owned businesses in Cuba (October 13). Washington cuts off normal diplomatic relations with Havana. 1962 Total trade embargo is imposed (February 27). Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) is created. The school produces musicians of world-class technical and expressive skill. Salon Mambí opens at the old Tropicana nightclub. It is one of the very few dance spaces functioning during the mid- to late 1960s and 1970s in Havana. 1963 Benny Moré, El bárbaro del ritmo, the king of popular dance music in Cuba, dies (February 19). His career marked the development of danzón, son, mambo, and chachachá, all of which are sources of timba. 1964 Cuban record company EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales) is formed. 1967 Orquesta de Música Moderna is founded by the National Council for Culture (which later becomes the Ministry), under the direction of saxophonist Armando Romeu. This group spawns musicians that later join or found other bands of great impor167 tance in the development of timba (e.g., Chucho Valdés, who created Irakere). 1968 Musicians become employees of the state, organized and contracted as members of booking agencies (empresas de espect áculos). All places serving alcohol, including dance spaces like La Tropical, are closed down for at least one year, a blow that slowed the development of popular music. Still, this same year the group Elio Revé y su Changüí is born. Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Eduardo Ramos, and Noel Nicola—all singers from the Nueva Trova Movement—join Grupo de Experimentación Sonora (Sound Experimentation Group). This collective developed the song of social protest and experimented with advanced techniques of composition and performance, sowing seeds that would blossom on the cutting edge of Cuban music’s future—Irakere, Afro-Cuba, Síntesis, and others. 1969 Juan Formell founds Los Van Van after a brief stint with Elio Revé. 1970 José Luis Cortés joins Los Van Van where he plays ›ute and sax, composes, and arranges. 1971 Congress on Education and Culture takes place. The interest of Cuban youth in foreign music is an issue of concern. 1972 Nueva Trova becomes an of‹cially sanctioned movement under the sponsorship of the Communist Youth Union. 1973 Anglo-American pop and folk music is banned from radio airwaves for approximately one year. Pianist Chucho Valdés founds Irakere. 1976 Ministry of Culture is created under the new socialist constitution . 1977 Jazz Cruise to Havana brings renowned North American jazz musicians, like Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, and Stan Getz, to play in Cuba. 1978 Orquesta Son 14 is born under the direction of Adalberto Álvarez . Irakere tours the United States and plays the Newport Jazz Festival. 1979 A concert at Karl Marx Theater in Havana features musicians from United States, including salsa artists Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, and Roberto Roena. The cool reception by the Cuban 168 Appendix 1: Timba Timeline audience suggested that people wanted to hear rock and jazz, not reformatted son (i.e., old Cuban music). 1980 José Luis Cortés leaves Los Van Van to join Irakere. First-ever Festival Jazz Playa takes place (to become famous Cuban jazz festival). 1983 Oscar D’León performs in Havana, reigniting the dance music scene on the island. 1984 Adalberto Álvarez relocates to Havana and founds Adalberto Álvarez y su Son. 1985 El Salón Rosado de la Tropical reopens its doors. 1988 José Luis Cortés together with several other daring musicians founds NG La Banda (New Generation Band). Berman Amendment to embargo regulations allows “informational materials” including ‹lms and sound recordings from Cuba to enter the United States for the ‹rst time in decades. 1989 The Soviet bloc falls and the so-called special period in Cuba starts, during which timba assumes a clear shape and personality. Cubartista, a highly bureaucratic booking agency managing foreign engagements of Cuban musicians, is dissolved and replaced by Artex, another state...