We are a small group of professional Composers, Arrangers and Producers with years of experience in the music industry. We have written and produced music both for companies and independent artists in a variety of genres. As a company we specialise, however, in Latin Music genres. We provide authentic digital sheet music arrangements in a variety formats (Printable Charts, MIDI and Audio Multitrack) for performance and education-related purposes.
Mastering the performance of genres such as Salsa, Timba or Latin Jazz involves much more than just building a repertoire; it’s about gaining an understanding of the various components that make up the underlying style, or “sello” as it is called, that gives each orchestra their unique and characteristic sound. Our mission is to provide you with the necessary tools to make that possible, helping you craft your own unique sound within the Afro-Latin music realm.
We decided to share with you a short story which lies at the root of why we decided to do what we do.
Salsa, Timba and Popular Latin Dance Music in general is a worldwide phenomenon whose popularity has been rising steadily since the ’70s, when it was originally developed. It is fair to say that a large part of this global interest lies on the “dance side of things” with thousands of people around the world keen to join salsa dance classes and similar events.
This is however, not the only way of venturing into world of latin music: these infectious rhythms have inspired the hands of musicians as well as the feet of the dancers.
Throughout history, Popular Latin Dance Music has long struggled to be recognised officially by music institutions and up to this day, despite its complexity and refinedness, it has not yet found a an official spot in Conservatoires. It was born and developed in the streets of the barrios (neighbourhoods) of the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean and New York City. In Cuba, during the 90s, Conservatoire-trained musicians revolutionised the genre creating what would later be known as Timba, introducing elements of Classical music, Jazz, Funk, Pop and Hip-Hop amongst others, marking the beginning of an era of unprecedented musical innovation.
Unfortunately, due to a number of different factors, sheet music and transcriptions have always been very hard to come by, making it very hard for non-cuban musicians to gain a deep and comprehensive understanding of the technical details of the genre.
The Political and Economical situation in Post-Revolutionary Cuba had a direct impact on the way Timba developed.
After the Revolution, Cuba entered a period of Economic Crisis and there wasn’t much earning potential as far as recorded music, additionally economic reforms to music recording and contracting meant that records didn’t play an economically significant roles in musicians’ lives. Musicians earned their bread and butter mainly by playing live gigs. Bands quickly realised that focusing all of their efforts on live performances was the way forward. Anyone who has been to a Timba gig will have realised that the live version of the songs played is often much longer than the recorded version you listen to on CDs or iTunes. This is because Live Timba is more than just a performance: It’s an interactive experience between the Band and the Audience. The Band assesses the vibe of the audience and creates arrangements on the spot extending the performance through improvisation and moving between different sections through the use of what became known as gears until it feels that the audience has received a satisfactory “dose” of the tune in question.
So how does this relate to what we do?
By providing accurate transcriptions and explanations in context of defining features characteristic of these genres, such as “gears“, we aim to give you an insight into the underlying psychology of how these live performances were put together providing you with a fresh perspective and inspiration for your future live gigs.
The video below shows a live performance from Los Van Van of one of their most iconic hits, “Somos Cubanos“, with legendary Mayito Rivera as lead vocalist. If you compare the length of the studio version of the song with the one in the video, you will notice that the live version is nearly twice as long. There is an extended solo by Samuel Formell as well as improvised sections. Towards the end, the coro from another one of their tunes “El Montuno” is borrowed and adapted to “Somos Cubanos” with Mayito ad-libbing in between coro repetitions. You can see from the video that the crowd’s energy called for this extended improvisation. This is one of many examples of the concept of interactive experience between the artists and the crowd outlined earlier. The energy of the crowd and their response to the artists’ performance determines the length of the live arrangement which is extended by means of improvisation and use of “gears“.
