There is technically good music, then there is good music.  A friend used to try to convince me that Steely Dan was a technically great band....

Maybe. But that doesn't mean I would ever go out and buy their album.

I listen to a fair amount of Cuban music. But one guy I could never get into was Isaac Delgado. It was very slickly produced, with synth and everything.

But I am now playing in a group for a salsa and timba class, and my appreciation of Isaac Delgado has changed significantly.  Because I've learned to listen to the song featured in the video above.

But first .... timba? Well, it's Cuba's "native" form of salsa, mixing other influences into the melody and rhythm parts. There's more to it than that of course, but that's a much longer and more debated story.

For class, I have been studying what at first I thought was a very cheesy salsa song (Ayunque Me Voy). Yes, it features synths and a gushy female singer.   It is waaaay over-produced. 

But damn if I can keep up with the changes in the song!  Turns out that the song is far more complex under the surface than I first realized.  We're playing four slightly different rhythms that get cut up among almost a dozen breaks.  Several times during the song, the breaks start halfway through one bar and end halfway in the next.  It's a technical mindfuck (songfuck?) that Cubans love doing.

And since I've taken this class, I've listened Isaac Delgado again.  And now I'm embarassed to admit what I thought was a cheesy salsa number was actually a pretty ripping timba tune.  Well, with gushy vocals and synthesizers, but now I can enjoy listening to it despite that.

Taking this course has made me appreicate some of this music I used to disregard - and it's because I've had to undertand it to play it.  Its like reading a tough book for English class - sometimes you are most satisfied with yourself for making it through the thing and being able to talk about it in a paper than with the actual story. Its the process, not the end unto itself.

Oh right, that is what i have been talking about the whole time on this blog.....