Ileana SantamarÃa and Pedro MartÃnez, both founders of the Ileana SantamarÃa Orchestra (est. 2004) and co-producers of its debut release, What I Want (2005), have decided to build on that album's original repertoire, revamping the project with the following purpose in mind:
Representing contemporary Afro-Cuban popular and folkloric music, and proving that there is a continuity and indeed a symbiosis between forms traditionally relegated to the "folkloric" rubric, like Rumba and Santeria/Yoruba music, and more commercially marketed "popular" forms like Timba and Son/Salsa - all are descended from the same rich Afro-Cuban rhythms, songs, and traditions, and the best Cuban music comes into being when musicians are fully versed in ALL these African-descended traditions and can therefore draw upon all of them.
The Timba Son Rumba story:
The Afro-Cuban musical and cultural consciousness is a family affair with these two, who have developed a family of their own in their band. Pedro and Ileana have worked together in various bands over the past six years, and they have become close friends in the process, or more like siblings, even. Ileana likens it to a big brother/mentor - little sister relationship, as she has had the privilege to study and learn a tremendous amount about the Afro-Cuban musical traditions that mean the most to her, specifically those of Rumba and Santeria music, up close and personal with Pedro.
At the young age of 34, Pedro MartÃnez is already a living repository of Afro-Cuban music, truly a master and a legend in the making. Pedro grew up in Cayo Hueso, a predominantly Black Cuban neighborhood where Rumba and Santeria music were part and parcel of one's musical education, acquired primarily on the streets of Central Havana. Pedro studied Bata drumming, Santeria chants, and Rumba drumming, song, and dance from the age of 12, and by virtue of his talent, dedication, and devotion to his craft, earned the opportunity to play and tour with such legendary groups and performers as Rumba institution Yoruba Andabo and the great percussionist Tata Guines. Since coming to the United States, Pedro began an illustrious career on the right foot by winning first prize in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute’s Latin Hand Drum Competition in 2000. He has spent the past seven years raising his profile through a steady musical and creative output, recording, performing, and touring with artists in a variety of genres, from Jazz (Cassandra Wilson, Stefon Harris) to Latin Jazz (Conga Kings, Jane Bunnett & the Spirits of Havana, Brian Lynch, Jerry & Andy González) to pop, funk, and fusion (Me’shell Ndege’Ocello, Michelle Rosewoman), and he is a founding member, performer, and composer in renowned producer and bandleader Andres Levin’s Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban/Afro-Beat fusion band Yerba Buena.
As for Ileana, the Afro-Cuban musical and cultural consciousness comes to her both by inheritance - her father being the late great Cuban percussionist, composer, Latin Jazz pioneer, and champion of Afro-Cuban heritage and roots, Ramon "Mongo" SantamarÃa, and by concerted effort: Ileana's Cuban mother Ileana Mesa's equal love and reverence for these traditions and constant investment in exposing young Ileana to opportunities to assimilate these traditions as her own, through trips to Cuba to study Afro-Cuban dance, attend concerts of premier Cuban dance bands since she was a child, and through plenty of good music - from Cuba, but also from Brazil, the US, and elsewhere in Latin America - being played at home. This sort of culturally rich and cosmopolitan upbringing set the stage for Ileana's later apprenticeship and collaboration with Pedro, that now culminates in their joint project, Timba Son Rumba.
What’s in a name? Timba Son Rumba as double meaning
Ileana came up with the name when she remembered an ad lib by Mayito “Van Van†Rivera, one of the best-loved and most Afro-Cuban rooted frontmen of the legendary Cuban dance band Los Van Van. The ad lib, or “soneo†(improvised response to a call, a Cuban tradition born out of the African call and response) says “rumba no son bolero, mambo no son cha-cha-cháâ€, which means “rumba ain’t bolero, mambo ain’t cha-cha-chaâ€, referring to different Cuban rhythms. The song, “De La Habana a Matanzas†(“From Havana to Matanzasâ€, the two capitals of Rumba in Cuba) is bandleader and composer Juan Formell’s tribute to the Afro-Cuban Rumba. In this particular ad lib, Mayito is quoting a popular Black Cuban saying from music, and a grammatical mistake, misconjugating the verb “serâ€, figures prominently, reflecting the way some Afro-Cubans traditionally spoke Spanish. The correct conjugation would be “mambo no es boleroâ€, but the particular flavor of the old Afro-Cuban deformation of the verb, from es to son, lends itself to use in the double meaning that gives Ileana and Pedro’s band its new name. Yes, Mambo ain’t Bolero, and Rumba sure ain’t Cha-cha-cha. But what we can say for sure is that Timba, this contemporary Cuban dance music, and Cuba’s answer to New York & Puerto Rican Salsa – which is also rooted in Afro-Cuban rhythms like Son, Mambo, Rumba, Guaracha, and Cha-cha-chá – truly is Rumba in a sense. Timba es, or rather, Timba Son Rumba. For Timba gets its deep polyrhythmic matrix and “pockets†from its deep debt to Rumba clave and straight-up Afro-Cuban folkloric musical forms. Hence, Ileana’s idea – and deep conviction – that Timba indeed is Rumba, or Timba Son Rumba, that without Rumba, there would be no Timba. The dual meaning of the misused verb “son†(from ser, to be), allows the band name to shout out yet another important Afro-Cuban genre, the Son, which has also been the mother of contemporary rhythms like Timba and Salsa.
Text by Ileana I. SantamarÃa
Timba Son Rumba TM 2007 Ileana I. SantamarÃa
