Rumba
Origin and history
Rumba belongs to the cantes de ida y vuelta, the styles that traveled with Spanish emigrants to the Americas, mixed there with local music of African and Caribbean roots, and later returned to Spain reinterpreted with a flamenco accent. In the case of rumba, its most direct trunk lies in Cuban son and other Afro-Antillean rhythms that reached Spanish ports, especially through Cádiz and Catalonia, throughout the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
It was in Catalonia where the style found its most characteristic development, thanks to the Catalan gypsy community settled in neighborhoods such as Somorrostro or the Raval in Barcelona. This community fused Caribbean airs with flamenco compás, giving rise to what is now popularly known as rumba catalana, a branch that coexists with other Andalusian variants of the same trunk.
Throughout the 20th century rumba became enormously popular outside the most orthodox flamenco circles, becoming one of the styles with the greatest commercial reach and a usual gateway into flamenco for uninitiated audiences.
Musical characteristics and compás
Rumba is characterized by a binary compás, simple and very marked, which sets it apart from the rhythmic complexity of palos such as bulería or soleá. Its rhythmic base draws on tango flamenco, from which it takes its percussive insistence, but it also incorporates inflections from bulería in its endings and melodic ornaments.
It is an eminently festive cante and baile, conceived for collective enjoyment rather than introspection, with instrumentation that has historically included guitar, palmas and cajón, and which in its more popular versions has naturally admitted instruments foreign to traditional flamenco, such as electric bass or congas.
Representative cantaores and performers
Rumba catalana has a wide roster of Catalan gypsy artists who brought it to fame, among them figures from the Amaya lineage and groups such as los Chunguitos or Peret, the latter considered one of the great popularizers of the style at an international level. In Andalusia, numerous cantaores have incorporated rumba into their repertoire as a festive closing number for their recitals, taking advantage of its accessible and danceable character.
Relationship with other palos
Rumba belongs to the family of the cantes de ida y vuelta, alongside styles such as guajira, milonga or colombiana, all born from contact between Spain and the Americas. Musically it maintains a direct kinship with tango flamenco, from which it takes much of its compás, and it shares with bulería certain ornamental and closing resources.