Bamboleo (band)

Bamboleo is a Havana-based Cuban salsa and timba band formed in 1995, and emblematic of the "timba brava" generation of Cuban bands in the 90s.[1] Their albums also include boleros and reggaeton.

The group was founded by Lázaro Valdés, a keyboard player,[2] and initially fronted by two female singers, with a distinctive female "voice" and perspective in the lyrics.[3] This was reflected on the first album cover, Te Gusto O Te Caigo Bien? (1996) which featured prominently the singing duo Haila Mompié and Vannia Borges, but Haila Mompié left the band after the first album and Valdés contracted various other singers. Overall the feminine voice element of the band was later pulled back, with Valdes explaining in interview "That was important until the public got used to the sound of our music. The singers are the visual element, but you really have to get people accustomed to your particular sound."[4]

Discography
  • Te Gusto O Te Caigo Bien? (1996, Bis Music )
  • Yo No Me Parezco A Nadie (1998, Ahí Namá)
  • Ya No Hace Falta (1999, Ahí Namá)
  • Ñño! Qué Bueno Está (2000, Ahí Namá)
  • Quimica De Amor (2002)
  • El Virus (2005, self-released)
  • Mi Verdad (2006, Latin Pulse Music)
  • En Vivo Galiano at la Casa de la Música (2007, Latin Pulse Music)
  • Quien Manda? (2010, Bis Music)

References
  1. Ed Morales The Latin Beat: The Rhythms And Roots Of Latin Music From Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond 2003 "At the same time, many followers of Cuban music in and outside of Cuba were looking to a younger group of musicians who were taking the momentum created by timba and taking it further. Bamboleo, formed in 1995, has become one of the primary proponents of timba brava, a timba with no holds barred, one that tries to go where no salsero has gone before."
  2. Philip Sweeney The Rough Guide to Cuban Music 2001 p.300 "Bamboleo Of all the timba generation, Bamboleo, a late-comer, offered the most varied, inventive and unformulaic music. The group was founded by Lazaro Valdes, a keyboard player and arranger with an impeccable pedigree: grandfather, : grandfather, Oscar, was the percussionist of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, his great-uncle Vicentico was a bolero star, ..."
  3. Vincenzo Perna Timba: The Sound of the Cuban Crisis 2005 p.149 "These bands, together with female-fronted Bamboleo, have brought into timba an attitude of striking back at men reminiscent of female African-American and Latin rap."
  4. Eugene Robinson Last Dance in Havana 2012 "Wasn't this abandoning theidentity that made Bamboleo famous, the dominance of a matched pair of women singers? Wasn't it like serving coffee with no sugar? Lazarito gave another shrug. “That was important until the public got used to the sound of our music. The singers are the visual element, but you really have to get people accustomed to your particular sound. The force of the group is in themusic".... the music executives wanted Bamboleo to play undemanding “salsa romántica,” maybe, or better yet something along the lines of what Carlos Santana ... At a stand still, Bamboleo was doing surpassingly well by Cuban standards — and just fairly well by world standards.
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