DJ WaltDigz
Cuban dance music has been setting the world on fire since at least the 1920s. Beginning with Moises Simon’s “El Manisero/the Peanut Vendor” in 1930, dancers in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa have been treated to the sheer bliss of Afro-Cuban musical genius in the form of the Son and Rumba (‘30s) and the Guaracha, Mambo and Cha Cha Cha (‘40s and ‘50s). Since the Cuban embargo of 1962, new Cuban musicians have largely been shut out of the US, while a movement based on Cuban and Pan-Caribbean music led by brilliant Puerto Rican musicians in New York City (Mambo, Boogaloo, Salsa) has had multiple periods of massive popularity down to the present day.
In the 1980s, cassette tapes smuggled out of Cuba revealed the latest brilliance created by Cuban artists, what became known as Timba. Timba builds on the canon of Afro-Cuban styles, adding elements of rock and funk, especially in creative, butt-moving basslines that break the pattern of the classic Afro-Cuban bass tumbao. More recently, Timba has successfully incorporated elements of Hip Hop and especially Reggaeton into the mix, the results of which can be seen on packed, exhuberant dance floors from Zurich to Paris, Miami and San Francisco.
San Francisco is lucky to have an absolutely world class proponent of Timba in local DJ Walt Digz, a veteran DJ and music collector from the San Francisco Bay Area. He's had the pleasure of opening for major acts such as Goapele, Ivy Queen, Don Omar, Tego Calderon, Orishas, Ricardo Lemvo, Cuban Timba All-Stars, Danny Lozada, El Pikete and Charanga Cubana. I have danced Timba in Miami and in Europe, both homes to vibrant pockets of Cuban expats well-versed in the latest Cuban styles, and let me assure you that thanks to Walt, SanFrancisco’s scene is the equal or better to any other city’s.
WaltDigz and his partner DJ Dark Rum of Añejo Productions ran the excellent Timba night (Wednesdays) at Little Baobab for six years, and this writer spent many an unforgettable night drinking Red Stripes and grooving with a room full of dancers to Walt’s selected beats. While the midweek Timba night has now moved to Roccapulco further up Mission street, admission is still only $3 (!) and the music is hot. Another famous night run by Añejo is Tropi-Cal at Il Pirata, where the same expats and their disciples dance the Rueda, where two to four couples (or more!) dance in a synchronized fever. Walt can also be seen at Jelly’s, that so delicious warm weather venue at Pier 50, as well as at the Blue Macaw on Mission.
Saludos DJ WaltDigz! The Bay Area is lucky to have you. Come out and see what I am talking about, you will not be disappointed.
