The three time Grammy nominated Cuban music group Tiempo Libre has become known around the world for its joyous, sophisticated, dance-inducing concerts of timba music – a high-energy combination of Latin jazz and traditional Cuban "son." There hasn't been a concert yet where people haven't gotten out of their seats to dance in the aisles. Classically trained at Cuba’s premier conservatories, today the group is a hit in the U.S. and abroad. Tiempo Libre’s members were all enjoying thriving careers in Latin music performing, touring and recording with such artists as Albita, Cachao, Arturo Sandoval, NG La Banda, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Isaac Delgado, when the seven extraordinary musicians came together to realize their collective musical dream: to create the first authentic all-Cuban timba band in the United States. Their eagerness to share their music with others led these multi-talented individuals to come together between projects to develop their new style together, hence the name Tiempo Libre (Free Time).
Since their formation in 2001, the members of Tiempo Libre have been on a mission: to share the musical heritage in which they grew up with as wide an audience as possible, reinterpreting and reinvigorating traditional Cuban music with a youthful, modern sound and forging a new style born from the meeting of their Cuban roots and their new American experience. They have performed on Dancing with the Stars and the Tonight Show and their busy touring schedule in the United States has included performances at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Miami’s JVC Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s in Oakland, CA, SOB’s in New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
