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55 albums · 1930–2023

Music of Cuba, from the son and the mambo to nueva trova, timba, Buena Vista Social Club and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Four older musicians in white hats playing on a cobbled street against a stone wall, one with maracas, two with guitars and one with a double bass, a hand-painted sign beside them
Los Van Van on a big open-air stage under white and yellow lights, the crowd in the dark in frontOmara Portuondo in an orange dress and headband singing into a microphone on a dark stage
A son group playing in the street in Trinidad, Cuba, 2015. Photo: Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Los Van Van at the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique in Montréal, 2015. Photo: Bull-Doser, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · Omara Portuondo in concert in Vilanova i la Geltrú, 2009. Photo: Ajuntament de Vilanova i la Geltrú, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cuba's music has a form at the root of much of it, the son, which came to Havana from the east of the island and which Trío Matamoros and Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto played on the tres, the bongó and the trumpet; around it the Orquesta Casino de la Playa with Miguelito Valdés, Beny Moré and his Banda Gigante, Pérez Prado's mambo, Orquesta Aragón's charanga and cha-cha-chá, Cachao's descargas, Ernesto Lecuona at the piano, the filin and bolero of José Antonio Méndez and Omara Portuondo, the rumba of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Celeste Mendoza with Bebo Valdés and Yoruba Andabo, and the batá drums and orisha songs of Lázaro Ros, traditions with roots in West and Central Africa, Celina González's punto guajiro, La Lupe, Celia Cruz with the Sonora Matancera and later with Johnny Pacheco in New York, Mongo Santamaría, Los Zafiros, Orquesta Ritmo Oriental and Elio Revé's changüí, the nueva trova of Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés and after them Carlos Varela, Irakere, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Chucho Valdés for jazz, Síntesis for rock, the timba of NG La Banda, Los Van Van, Adalberto Álvarez, Issac Delgado, La Charanga Habanera and Havana D'Primera, Gloria Estefan's Mi Tierra from Miami, Buena Vista Social Club and the Afro-Cuban All Stars with Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer and Eliades Ochoa, Habana Abierta, Orishas, Los Aldeanos and Danay Suárez for rap, and X Alfonso, Interactivo, Buena Fe, Gente de Zona, Daymé Arocena, Cimafunk and Harold López-Nussa since. The list has 55 records from 1930 to 2023, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; the oldest are the collections Deezer has, dated by their recordings as well as they can be, and the danzón orchestras of Antonio María Romeu and Barbarito Díez, the septetos of Ignacio Piñeiro, the comparsas of the Santiago carnival, the classical tradition beyond Lecuona and the reggaeton and reparto of today would each need a list of their own. About 47 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Latin 46%Jazz 18%Hip hop 3%Other 33%
  • Latin 46%
  • Jazz 18%
  • Hip hop 3%
  • Other 33%

The genres named most: son cubano, latin, bolero, afro-cuban jazz, jazz, salsa.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Cuba 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1930s

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.