Afro Cuban
After slavery was abolished in Cuba in 1886, dark skinned slaves, who couldn’t stay in rural areas because of lack of income and land, had to move to towns and cities, giving a beginning to so called solares (small communities).
Solares existed before, but after the slavery was abolished, more people came to live there. Those communities included many African tribes brought to Cuba by Spanish and white people, who worked in plants and local shops.
In those communities emerged a sort of party called rumba, after which rumbero (party goers) were named, and rumbear – parties all over Cuba and the Carribean.
Because people there lived in poverty, the furniture and tools were their first instruments used to play rumba.
Soon they started using cajones (boxes), in which cod was imported, because of a very good quality of the wood that the boxes were made from. Rumba the cajón (music from boxes) accompanied a person who sang and created the rhythm using special sticks called clave. Later on the boxes were swapped for three drums (tumba, llamador and quinto), which were all called tumbadoras.
Then one more person was added to the band. He played one of the drums with two sticks. It was called a cáscara. In the end the cáscara was replaced by an instrument known as a cata (an empty log hung up in the air).
From all that, at the end of the 19th century emerged rumba de tiempo de España (Spanish times rumba) which was practised in Cuba when the country was dominated by Spanish. The influence of Afro-Americans brought to Cuba is obvious too.
Cuban Rumba
It needs pointing out that the Cuban Rumba is totally different from Ballroom Rumba.
Rumba consists of three different musical elements:
Diana – introduction – when a soloist sings meaningless syllables to create a special atmosphere.
Décima – the singer improvises, presenting a story – main motif of rumba.
Rompe la rumba – drums start playing. A pair of dancers comes to the front (or one dancer – in columbia style). The singer points out one phrase to be repeated later on by a choir taking turns with the soloist.
There are three rumba styles:
Rumba Columbia – fast rumba performed traditionally by male dancers. It consists of acrobatic movements adopted from dance styles called iremes and diablito cubano, which were performed to the rhythm played by a quinto drum. Even though La Columbia is practised in Cuba, it has also spread to the Caribbean.
Rumba Guaguancó – the most important of rumba styles. It features a singers performance, when the soloist describes an event or a character from local community. The dancers (a male and a female) are acting as if they were trying to attract each other, but at the same time they don’t let the partner come to close. The man tries to vaccinate (vacunar) the woman, but she tries to hide to avoid it.
Rumba Yambú – slow rumba when the dancers make movements characteristic for the elderly people. In opposition to guaguancó one won’t find movements aiming at vaccination. They even sing en el yambú no se vacuna, which means you don’t vaccinate in yambú to say how one should dance. Nowadays only professional dance groups in Cuba practise Rumba Yambú.
