TROPICAL ENERGY
Cuban ‘timba’ musician aims to ‘make the crowd part of the band’
Cuban-born Jesús Díaz is multitalented. He sings, plays percussion, composes, arranges and leads a band.
But for tonight’s concert at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Díaz will probably stick to singing.
That’s because he’s invited guest percussionist Raul Pineda.
Regardless of who’s in the spotlight, Díaz wants the audience to know that the performances of his band QBA are all about the connections between audience members and musicians.
“I think of my music as dance music,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Oakland, Calif. “I pump up the crowd, which is the important thing about this music. The goal of timba is to make the crowd part of the band. … When you pull people in, then you get that energy going back and forth.”
If one has to put a label on his music, he said, call it timba.
“It’s the new wave of Cuban dance music,” he said.
Timba, Díaz said, has elements of many styles of Afro-Cuban folkloric music, plus jazz harmonies and funk.
A native of Havana, he’s been in the United States since 1980.
“When I was growing up, what I liked most was that there were so many bands and every band had their own style,” Díaz said.
The concert is part of the Domingos en Arte series.