Songo
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A modern Cuban dance rhythm that fuses son and rumba with jazz, funk and rock, distinguished by a groove-based drum-kit-and-conga interplay rather than the traditional timbal pattern and by a prominent, funky electric bass. Charanga instrumentation is updated with trombones, synthesizers and a trap set, and the feel is looser, syncopated and dancefloor-driving, built to keep couples moving through open vamps. Its rhythmic signature — attributed to drummer José Luis 'Changuito' Quintana and bandleader Juan Formell — reorganizes the clave feel around a kit-based backbeat. The result is earthy, propulsive and unmistakably contemporary Cuban.
History
Songo was developed in the 1970s by Juan Formell's band Los Van Van, founded in 1969, with percussionist Changuito refining a drum-set-based groove that modernized Cuban dance music without abandoning its son and rumba roots. Los Van Van's string of hits made songo the island's dominant popular rhythm through the 1970s and 1980s, and its bass-and-kit approach and openness to funk and jazz directly paved the way for timba in the following decade. Irakere and other bands adopted and extended it, and songo remains a foundational groove in Cuban music and a widely studied concept among drummers and bassists worldwide.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Ned Sublette, Cuba and Its Music (2004)
- Robin Moore, Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba (2006)
- Rebeca Mauleón, Salsa Guidebook (1993)