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La rumba Catalana
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 11:31
During the 40’s, the Gypsies of the Cera st. in Barcelona (in the neighborhood of the Portal (part of the Raval, near San Antonio) started with what we call the “rumba catalana”. Orelle, a flamenco gypsy, started playing the guitar and singing in every neighborhood’s event.
Another gypsy, called el Toqui, that often act at Gypsy weddings invented a way of playing the guitar, combining rhythm, melody and percussion. Others say it was the Onclo Polla or Onclo Gonzalez who came up with this magic formula, and showed it to his son, Pescaílla, and thence to Peret (Pere Pubill Calaf), who accelerated the rythms.
Peret always explains that when he was young he went to the Rialto Hall, to dance the mambo by Pérez Prado, dressed as a rock: for him, mixing Cuban and rock music was fundamental in the creation of the rumba catalana.
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Two aspects defines the rumba catalana: a peculiar way of playing the guitar, which combines with the strumming hand percussion on the body of the guitar, resulting in a strengthening of its rhythmic base (which has been in called "the fan") and a focus on happy issues like parties, in contrast to the expression of pain common in flamenco singing. As in the Cuban son, in the rumba catalana you will listen to hot stories and with double meaning.
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