• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • Art
  • Books
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre

Tiempo Libre

Tiempo Libre plays Cuban timba at The Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase College in Purchase, New York (White Plains) on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3pm. From $11.25

Get tickets at www.artscenter.org


Cuban Timba

Timba is Cuban pop dance music that came up in the 1970s and 80s. Now legendary bands like Irakere led by Chucho Valdes, and Los Van Van led by Juan Formell, mixed salsa, American funk/R&B and Afro-Cuban folk music with a level of virtuosity that made everyone get up and dance.

Timba was Cuban music made in Cuba for Cubans, but it also brought outside influences in.

Cuba has a very good classical arts education system. It produces such good artists that it’s easy to think that all Cubans are just supernaturally talented.

But in the early 1990s, the island lost the patronage of the Soviet Union which had collapsed. During the hard times of the so-called “special period” timba provided an outlet for the frustrations of young people. When times are hard, you just have to dance harder. Cuba’s amazing classically-trained musicians drove the music forward.

Dancing styles changed with timba too. It isn’t shy about being naughty.

Cubans brought the sound with them to Miami. Nowadays, everybody loves timba. It’s a high energy, very polished and danceable sound.

Some people use the term “salsa” to mean all Latin music, but timba goes places that the salsa won’t go.


Tiempo Libre

Tiempo Libre is one of the most successful of the bands that brought timba to Miami and the U.S. They were teenagers in Cuba when timba was brewing.

Their second album ‘Arroz con Mango’ (Rice with Mango) earned a Grammy nomination for Best Salsa/Merengue Album in 2005.

“Lo que esperabas’ (What you’ve been waiting for) earned a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy in 2006.

‘Bach in Havana’ (Sony Masterworks) earned a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album Grammy in 2009.

“Tiempo Libre” means “free time” in Spanish. It has a double meaning.

  1. There’s the need to cut loose and be free when times are hard
  2. The way timba freed Latin music from the limitations of salsa

Follow the band at tiempolibremusic.com


Tiempo Libre Tickets

Tickets are available at the Box Office in the Performing Arts Center lobby, by phone, and online

Box Office

Wednesday-Friday, 12-6pm
Extended hours before performances

Phone

(914) 251-6200

Online

www.artscenter.org


The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY, 10577

You can get to Purchase College on Metro North’s Harlem and New Haven lines.

 


Published April 7, 2019 | Updated September 5, 2022.

Filed Under: Cuban, LATIN MUSIC, People, Purchase College Performing Arts Center

Primary Sidebar

Colombian Salsa

Pablo Mayor Folklore Urbano NYC "El Barrio Project" (courtesy)

The Pablo Mayor Folklore Urbano Orchestra Plays Colombian Salsa for Uptown Nights at Harlem Stage

RISE Theatre Directory

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE. Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in September 2023

Things to do in NYC in October 2023

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine™

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's weekly email.

Follow

New York

Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.