The first Havana D’Primera album was called Haciendo historia (`making history’) and there was nothing presumptious about it. Havana D’Primera had been making history with explosive live performances since these 15 all-star Cuban musicians came together in 2007. Actually, most of them had been playing music together in concerts and in recording studios since the previous decade, and that’s where their story and this story about Havana D’Primera begins.

In the 1990s, Cuban timba orchestras were spreading like wildfire: NG La Banda, Charanga Habanera, Paulito FG, Manolín “El Médico de la Salsa”, to name just a few. And of course, timba pioneers Los Van Van and Irakere were helping to fan the flames. But by the end of that decade, orchestra-based Cuban dance music, a tradition that stretches back to the conjunto bands of the 1940s, had reached a turning point. Young Havana was suddenly dancing to DJs spinning reggaeton and its Cuban variant, Cubatón. Hip hop was booming from the tower blocks of Alamar, where the first Festival de Rap Cubano had taken place in 1995. Something had to be done to keep timba and salsa from being relegated to the ash heap.