Cuban batá music is synonymous with batá drums, Cuban instruments that provide its driving beats.
Cuban batá drumming is part of a religious tradition that has firm ties to Yoruba (Nigerian/Beninese) religion and culture. Religious batá drumming is meant to inspire the orishas, the spirits, to inhabit the bodies of dancing priests. In the 1930s batá started to appear in folkloric situations and, as you can envision from watching the drummers in this video, the art of batá drumming has developed an appeal worldwide.
