Good evening my friends!

Today I would like to briefly introduce the band which is accredited with the creation of Timba as a musical genre, back in the mid 80’s… yep, I am talking about NG La Banda and no other!

NG La Banda, which is mostly interpreted as “band \ group of the new generation”, is exactly that; a large group of the most talented young musicians of the day, who banded together to conquer the Cuban music scene, and will end up changing the world of Latin music forever!

In that time, in Habana, a group of talented musicians came together to form an “all star” orchestra; Tony Cala, the lead singer, came from Ritmo Oriental; Isaac Delgado, the 2nd lead vocal, from Pachito Alonso’s group; German Velazco from Orquesta Reve; Jose Manguia from Irakere; bnad leader and flautist Jose Luis Cortes played and written for Los Van Van… it also had some musicians from major Cuban jazz bands, such as Gonzalo Rubalcalba and Calixto Oviedo.

The musical style of the band wasn’t Son, or Rumba, Songo or Son Montuno, Jazz, or anything else which was defined… it was something new, and this vision of his Jose Luis Cortes called “Timba”.
Some years later, Jose Luis would say this in an interview:
“…I wanted to do something with the flavor of Van Van and the musical aggressiveness of Irakere…to give the same artistic and aesthetic value that we give to other great forms of music…” .

The band’s legendary album “en la calle”, created during 1988 and released in 1989, is considered a Timba classic, and just like Los Van Van, Irakere, and Ritmo oriental influenced most Cuban musicians in the 80’s (NG La Banda included), NG La Banda was the foundation for most new Cuban musicians in the 90’s and beyond…
Issac Delgado, Giraldo Piloto, Paulito FG, Manolin, and many others were with the band at one time or another, or were heavily influences by its work.

This time around the clip is not a “studio version”, but rather a much more powerful and interesting live show from 2008.