Los Van Van

About Los Van Van

Founded by bassist Juan Formell in 1969, Los Van Van were the band that dragged Cuban dance music forward decade after decade. They added drum kit, violins, and synthesisers to the son tradition, invented the songo rhythm, and through the 1980s and 1990s became the prototype for what would crystallise as timba. After Formell's death in 2014 his son Samuel kept the orquesta on the road.