Los Van Van: The Cuban Hit Machine That Forged Songo

For more than half a century, the sound of a Cuban dance party has meant one band above all: Los Van Van, the orchestra that modernized Cuban music and helped invent the rhythm at the root of timba.^[1]

Formell's new sound

Los Van Van was founded on 4 December 1969 by the bassist Juan Formell, who had been experimenting with new ideas in the orchestra of Elio Revé.^[1] Striking out on his own, Formell rebuilt the traditional charanga: he brought in electric bass, organ, and electric guitar, replaced the flute-and-strings front line with a group of vocalists, and used the strings rhythmically rather than melodically.^[1]

Songo and timba

Fusing the Cuban son with rock, jazz, and later funk and disco, Formell and his drummer Changuito developed a new rhythm they called songo.^[1] Songo's blend of Cuban roots and modern grooves became the foundation on which the harder, brassier timba of the 1990s would be built.^[1] Across the decades Los Van Van produced an unbroken string of hits and remained Cuba's most popular band.^[1]

Why it matters

Often called "the Rolling Stones of Cuba," Los Van Van — led by Formell until his death in 2014 — bridged the island's traditional dance music and its modern dance-floor explosion.^[1] Their songo concept is the direct ancestor of timba, and few groups have shaped Cuban popular music more profoundly over the last fifty years.^[2]