Catalan rumba

The tradition & historical record

The Catalan rumba (Catalan: rumba catalana, IPA: [ˈrumbə kətəˈlanə]) is a genre of music that developed in Barcelona's Romani community beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. Its rhythms are derived from the Andalusian flamenco rumba, with influences from Cuban music and rock and roll. The Catalan rumba originated in the Romani communities in the Gràcia, carrer (street) de la Cera del Raval and Hostafrancs neighborhoods. The Romani community in those neighborhoods is long-established and bilingual in Catalan and were influenced by the heavy Andalusian immigration to Barcelona during this period. The genre is based in a fusion of Catalan-Andalusian flamenco singing and the Afro-Cuban claves. It is in 44 time, and consists of vocalists and handclaps, accompanied by guitar, bongos, and güiro; later groups also incorporate timbales, conga drums, small percussion instruments, piano, wind instruments, electric bass, and electric keyboard. Among the most important early artists in the genre were Antonio González "El Pescaílla", Peret, Josep Maria Valentí "El Chacho", followed by the duo Los Amaya. In the 1970s, Gato Pérez rejuvenated the Catalan rumba.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Catalan rumba”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

Catalan rumba is music genre and type of dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹