Songo is the direct bridge between traditional Cuban music and timba. Developed by Los Van Van in the early 1970s, it rewired Cuban popular music by absorbing funk, rock, and jazz into the Afro-Cuban rhythmic foundation — and laid the groundwork that timba would build on.
In 1969, bassist and composer Juan Formell founded Los Van Van (The Go-Go's) in Havana. Over the next few years, in collaboration with the band's musicians, he developed what became known as songo — though the name came later and Formell himself was sometimes reluctant to use it as a genre label.
The key collaborator was drummer José Luis Quintana "Changuito", who developed a revolutionary approach to the drumset that integrated with, rather than replaced, the traditional Cuban percussion section.
Songo was a deliberate synthesis of:
| Influence | Element absorbed |
|---|---|
| Son cubano | Clave, call-and-response, montuno structure |
| Rumba | Afro-Cuban body rhythm, percussion conversation |
| American funk (James Brown) | Electric bass as lead voice, groove-first approach, rhythmic precision |
| Rock | Electric guitar, drumset energy, amplified power |
| Jazz | Harmonic sophistication, improvisational freedom |
The result sounded unlike anything before it — unmistakably Cuban but also modern, funky, and fresh.
The most important single innovation of songo may be Changuito's drumset technique. Before songo, Cuban popular bands used congas + timbales + bongo as their percussion section. The European/American drumset was seen as foreign.
Changuito integrated the drumset into the Cuban percussion conversation — not as a replacement but as an additional voice. He developed patterns that referenced Cuban clave and rumba rhythms while using the full drumset toolkit. This created a multi-layered percussion texture (drumset + congas + timbales + bongo/campana) that became the standard for all timba bands.
Formell transformed the bass from a background timekeeping instrument into a lead voice. His bass lines were melodic, rhythmically adventurous, and in conversation with the singers and percussionists — not just laying down roots. This anticipates the fiery, improvisational timba bass style by a decade.
Songo introduced the gear change — sudden, coordinated shifts in groove, density, and energy that the whole band executes simultaneously. This became timba's defining structural feature. In songo it was already present: Los Van Van would lock into one groove, then suddenly shift to a completely different rhythmic texture, then back again.
For dancers, these gear changes demanded a new kind of attention — you couldn't just lock into one movement pattern and stay there. You had to listen constantly and respond.
Los Van Van became the most popular band in Cuba for decades. They were the soundtrack of Cuban social life from the 1970s onward. Their music was heard everywhere — on the streets, in the solares, at parties, on radio. When timba emerged in the late 1980s, it was building on a foundation that Los Van Van had already made part of Cuban musical culture.