Timbales à La Irving

Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico y técnico''. Entries for ''Paila criolla''; ''Timbal criollo''. They were developed as an alternative to classical timpani in Cuba in the early 20th century and later spread across Latin America and the United States.

Timbales are struck with wooden sticks on the heads and shells, although bare hands are sometimes used. The player (called a ''timbalero'') uses a variety of stick strokes, rim shots, and rolls to produce a wide range of percussive expression during solos and at transitional sections of music, and usually plays the shells (or auxiliary percussion such as a cowbell or cymbal) to keep time in other parts of the song. The shells and the typical pattern played on them are referred to as ''cáscara''. Common stroke patterns include abanico, baqueteo (from danzón), mambo, and chachachá.

Timbales have average diameters of (''macho'' drum) and (''hembra'' drum). Originally made of calfskin, the heads are most commonly made of plastic for increased volume and durability and mounted on a steel rim. The shells are usually made of metal, although wooden shells are also available. In general, the drums are mounted on a stand and played while standing. Smaller timbales called timbalitos are often incorporated into larger drum kits.

Etymology

In Spain and in classical music contexts across the Hispanophone world, the word ''timbales'' (sing. ''timbal'') refers to timpani (kettledrums). The Spanish word ''tímpano'' is less commonly used. ''Timbal'', ''tímpano'' and ''timpani'' all derive from the Latin ''tympănum'', from the Greek ''týmpanon'', meaning drum. (The Spanish word for drum, ''tambor'', although similar, actually derives from Arabic ''tabl'').

In Cuba and Latin America, ''timbales'' (timpani) were adapted into ''pailas'', which is the name given to various Spanish metallic bowls and pans used as cookware (see paila). ''Paila'' derives from Old French ''paele'', from Latin ''patĕlla''. However, the term ''timbales'' continued to be used to refer to ''pailas'', which is a less common term restricted to Cuba. Because of the historical overlap in the use of timpani and pailas (both called timbales) by danzón orchestras between 1900 and 1930, usage of the term in that period is ambiguous.

Similar ambiguities exist in other languages. For example, in French, ''timbales'' () is also the word for timpani, thus the French refer to Cuban timbales as ''timbales latines''. In Brazil, the term ''timbal'' refers to an unrelated drum, timbau.

History

Origins and popularization

Timpani were imported into Cuba in the 19th century and used by wind orchestras known as orquestas típicas. These were the same general type of drum used in military bands and in symphonic orchestras. They were, and are, played with mallets (sticks with large, soft, round heads). Timpani were replaced by pailas, which were made from the body of a commonly used metal pan (later, cans of lard were used to make ''timbalitos''). These new ''timbales'' were originally designed to be used by street bands. Unlike classical timpani, these are always hit with straight batons (thicker than standard drumsticks, and not shaped: they are of uniform thickness along the length) that have no additional head.

Timbales became an integral part of a smaller type of orchestra that superseded the ''orquestas típicas'' in the early 20th century, the charanga. Ulpiano Díaz, timbalero in some of the most popular charangas in Cuba, those directed by Tata Alfonso, Antonio Arcaño and later José Fajardo, was the first to add a cowbell and to popularize the ''abanico'' technique in the 1930s. In the 1950s, timbalero Silvano "Chori" Shueg became a sensation in the nightclubs of Havana due to his skillful improvisations on timbales and other homemade percussion instruments, while Walfredo de los Reyes and Guillermo Barreto explored new idioms with the instrument in jam sessions known as descargas; they were influenced by American jazz drummers such as Max Roach and often doubled on the drum kit. Walfredo was an important influence on his student Amadito Valdés, later a member of Buena Vista Social Club, and his own sons Walfredo Reyes Jr. and Daniel de los Reyes. In the 1970s, innovations in timbales playing mostly came from songo groups such as Orquesta Revé, directed by timbalero Elio Revé, Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, featuring Daniel Díaz on timbales, and Los Van Van, whose timbaleros, first Blas Egües and later Changuito