Rumba has been around for over 100 years, and has evolved to encompass many different unique styles. It has it’s genesis in the music that slaves used to play in Cuba, and was popularized in Havana when that city became the center of the cultural universe during prohibition. The flavor of Rumba that famed British DJ Gilles Peterson ethnomusicologist Crispin Robinson collects here is rustic, polyrhythmic and deeply spare and soulful. It’s a pleasure to read these two trade tracks. A note on this playlist: Spotify’s catalog is spare, and some songs have been substituted for other tracks by the artists they selected. We really wanted to bring you a Rumba playlist and this is the best we could do.
