Cuban artists pay tribute to Juan Formell's musical legacy

Cuban artists paid tribute on Saturday to one of the most respected creators of popular dance music in the Americas, the Cuban bassist and composer Juan Formell, on his 78th birth anniversary.

The creator's legacy of the popular Los Van Van orchestra transcends music as he coined many phrases - turning them into the colloquial language of the Cuban people - which even described behaviors, such as 'Titimania.'

This is still the name given to the preference of some older men to start a relationship with much younger girls.

The popular basis of his sayings never came into contradiction with the musical exquisiteness, marked by a peculiar sound that embodies the traditional and the modern music.

Formell founded Los Van Van in 1969, a legendary band that has been recognized, inside and outside Cuba, as 'the train of Cuban music.'

In honor of the director, in 2019, the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban Institute of Music, along with other entities of Cuba's culture system, sponsored the 1st Timba Festival ... forever Formell, which in 2020 had to postpone the 2nd edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.