by jorge » Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:44 pm
Another factor is that there are very few salsa, merengue, bachata, ranchera or cumbia musicians in the US that are capable of playing most timba charts. Aside from the classically trained US musicians who also play jazz and popular latin music, plus a few outstanding natural talents like Giovanni Hidalgo or Jimmy Bosch, the level of musicianship required to play and improvise good timba is just beyond what we have here. Cuban timba musicians are trained in classical music, Afrocuban religious music, son, changui and everything in between and can play wickedly difficult charts like NG, Manolito, Irakere, and other top Cuban bands play, plus improvise in clave to those themes. Not many US musicians can do that, music training here is nowhere near as comprehensive as that in Cuba. Few US based salsa percussionists, bass players and pianists can play or hold a songo or timba rhythm, and even fewer can improvise within that. Even singing timba lead vocals and coros is different and has a different relation to clave than in salsa or other US based latin music.
Dancing to timba, songo or rumba is also, as I said in previous posts, very different than dancing to salsa or other US based latin music and most Latinos in the US are outside their comfort zone trying to learn to dance to Cuban music. Promotion of Cuban bands when on tour in the US is usually absolutely abysmal, and many of the top Cuban bands played to near empty clubs in NYC this past year, mainly because there was almost no media promotion and what there was was often wrong. In defense of those promoters who have tried to book Cuban bands, visa problems often make it almost impossible to do these bookings far in advance and really know which of the band members will be able to actually come. Frequently several of the top players in a band won't get visas and the rest will. So saying timba has not caught on in the US is pretty accurate with a few exceptions, but the underlying reasons why that is so are important to understand.
Bottom line, our US system of music education is far inferior to that in Cuba, when it comes to learning to play all types of music and improvise well. Some Juilliard professors who are virtuosos in classical or occasionally jazz don't even know what clave is. Most Berklee grads I have played with can't improvise in clave, although they could play Cuban charts. Faculty at less well known music schools, even worse. And the young musicians in the US who have the burning desire and the talent to really learn often can't afford to go to a top music school anyway. I know more than a few of those.