¡Rumba and Son!
Rumba and Son can be considered as the mother and father of Salsa. Even if their origins go back to more than 150 years ago, they never lost popularity.
¡Rumba!
Rumba emerged in the 19th century from a mixture of cultural influences brought to Cuba by african slaves and spanish immigrants. The rythm is based on the clave, a rythmic pattern having its roots in african music. The spanish influences mainly come from Fandango, a dance of the Flamenco family. Rumba is a very theatrical dance which is both performed by a couple and by men alone.
There are several Rumba styles, and the most popular are:
Yambú, the slowest of the rythms, is danced by a couple. The dancers move mostly side by side and often mimic old and tired people. Guagancó, faster than Yambú, is an erotic game in form of a dance. The dancers move around each other, without loosing sight, with fluid upperbody moves and rythmically virtuous footwork. The male dancer makes gestures to imitate a sexual act, by pushing out his pelvis, or by kicking his foot in direction of the woman, who protects herself by covering her pelvic area with the hands. This gesture is called vacunao (spanish for vaccination). Columbia, the fastest of the Rumbas, is danced by male soloists. It is a very acrobatic and energetic dance, and the dancer tries to show his virtuosity and virility. In Columbia the spanish influences are the most obvious.
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Guagancó demonstration by Didio Guevara and Yaqueline Abiaque. -
Columbia demonstration by Yoannis Tamayo.
¡Son!
Son is much closer to Salsa than Rumba, and even many Cubans use the word Son to refer to Salsa music. For them Salsa is just Son played with a specific style and feeling. The roots of Son go back to mid-19th century, but Son has never lost popularity in Cuba, and is still being re-invented constantly. Outside of Cuba traditional Son has had a big revival thanks to Buena Vista Social Club.
There are a lot of different Son-styles, Son Montuno, Son Guajira, Son Changüí, to name only a few. As the Rumba (and most cuban music), the basic rythmic pattern is the clave. Traditional Son is played on very basic instuments lead by the "tres" (kind of guitar with three pairs of strings). The trumpet was added in the 1920's, and in the 1930's, piano, brass instruments and more sophisticated percussion instruments were introduced. This gave rise to a style, called Son conjunto, which is considered to be the first expression of what is now called Salsa.
Son is a very elegant dance, where the couples mostly dance in closed position. There is only a limited number of figures in traditional Son, but they are done with even more expression and feeling. Dancers do a lot of footwork improvisations on the rythm, moves which were later synthezised to "shines" in north-american Salsa styles.
For a demonstration of traditional Son by soneros from Santiago de Cuba, click on the link below:
- Traditional Son demonstration by Luis Mendoza and his daughter.