06:47 25.07.2008
Rumberos Catalans - Son de Perpinyá
Credits to AmbroseBierce

Rumberos Catalans
Son de Perpinyá
Al Sur ALCD 260, 2000


TRACK LISTINGS

01. Chiquita ven!
02. A esta mujer
03. Gitano Antَn
04. Carmela
05. Fandangos, corrits
06. Mata me!
07. La Baraka
08. Han arribat
09. Tanguillos catalas
10. Que cantante grande!
11. Enamorada estoy
12. Palabras!

Joseph "Mambo" Saadna - vocals, guitars, palmas
Amar "Bruno" Saadna - vocals, guitars, palmas
Farid "Roberto" Saadna - vocals, solo guitar
Estephan "Abraham" Gonzalès - vocals, guitars, percussion
Francis Varis - accordion
Pascal Stalin - bass
Guests:
Abdelkrim Sami - vocals (1)
Thiery Robin - ud (4)
Renaud Pion - saxophone (8)


Saint-Jacques, City Center and Heart of the Question
Saint-Jacques (or Sant Jaume, as they call it there ) is part of the city center of Perpignan, though it remains rather marginal. Some people avoid this labyrinth of tiny streets, where laundry bangs drying outside apartment windows, where young and old alike loiter on the tiny sidewalks, where people yell to each other from one building to another, and the crows of fighting cocks can be heard through open windows.
Yet for gypsy music-today for the rumba- Saint Jacques is the heart of the question! Since the early 15th century, numerous gypsy caravans came through this area from Greece, mostly likely passing through the Roussillon. It was at Perpignan in 1493 that the Spanish king Ferdinand ordered the liberation of one of these groups, who had come from Calvi the intention of going into Spain, and had been detained by Admiral Bernat de Vilamari. Before the Pyrenees Treaty, there was hardly any documentation concerning gypsies in this between 1550 and 1595 at Ille-sur-Tet and Thuir, and a police report in 1623 about a brawl between rival bands at Vernet, now a suburb of Perpignan. It wasn't until the 19th century that one of the streets of Saint- Jacques was named "rue des Bobemiens". And it was even more recently - in the 1940s, after the Jews bad abandoned many houses in the quarter- that the gypsies began moving into the defunct army barracks at the place du Puig. Previously they had mostly camped at the edge of town and by the banks of the Tet river.

Hubrid Quarter, Hybrid Music
The uniqueness of Saint-Jacques is that it is not an ethnic ghetto. Although they are a majority, gypsies are not the only group there, Catalonians, Spanish, many North Africans, and French from all over the country, live together in the network of tiny streets which fans out hybrid music par excellent, a confluence of Africa, Spain, And Latin America) underwent a major development towards the end of the 1950's, in a world dominated by flamenco.

The Saadna brothers, founding members of the Rumberos Catalans, are truly born representative of Saint-Jacques, with a North African father and a Catalonian gypsy mother. Clearly music follows spoken language here, since it is the gypsy aspect which dominates, with the musical transmission mostly coming from their maternal uncles, the Gimenez brothers. Uncle Chele is a master of several flamenco styles-bluerias, soleares, tanguillos - whereas uncle Luis has especially concentrated on the rumba. In his day it was all the rage in Barcelona, where Cuban rhythms were undergoing rapid development in this new context, at the bands of great gypsy artists such as El Pescailla and Peret. Horns and percussion were replaced by guitars, with lyrics often sung in catalan. themes were also adapted, with songs about the local neighborhood and family. For example, it was in homage to his father that Peret composed El Mig A ("Half-Friend"). Uncle Luis was one of the fist to bring the rumba to Perpignan. His nephew, Bruno and Mambo Saadna, were quick to carry the torrch, founding the Rumberos Catalans in 1971. Of course they played for many marriages and family parties, but they also began very early to play in night clubs and small concert balls. the big stars of that era in barcelona were Peret. El Chacho, and the Amayas, and their bits were quick to cross the border. In perpignan, People would jam themeselves into cars to listen toon the radio- cassette player. Our Saint- Jacques Rumberos also drank deeply from this stream, yet adapting the music to their own style and voices, always strong and energetic.

In 1982 the group grew when Aand Roberto, the two younger Saadna brothers, joined. Following in the footsteps of Gato Perez, the Rumberos shifted from rumba towards salsa, and their new sabor de salsa included as many as 10 musicians.

From Nantes to Zenith
1989 was also a pivotal year. At the instigation of guy Bertrand, a professor at the Perpignan Conservatory, some 30 gypsy musician piled into a bus and headed for the Nantes Summer Festival. Coming from different, sometimes rival, neighborhoods, the found themselves on the same stage, and playing together for the first time. This created many new contacts, both among themselves and with the other groups at the festival. Much of this was due to the charisma of Chabo, their elder spokesman, who had been a guitarist in Manitas de Plata's group, and who, along with Pedro Soler, helped the young musicians' progress. Every performance was a huge success, with the audience dancing. For these underprivileged youth of Hunt Vernet and Saint-Jacques, it was a sort of retribution for the contempt and humiliation they had so often suffered in their own towns. Harboring no bitterness, they were proud to represent Perpignan and the Roussillon on center stage at a major international festival. But they were especially interested in promoting and supporting their own neighborhood, and it was in 1991 that some 15 of them recorded their album on Al Sur label, with the perfect title "De sant Jaume Son" ("They're from Saint-Jacques"). The Rumberos group had two songs, Tanguillo and Matame, with their characteristic dynamism already evident. That same year, the Rumberos joined the Gitans de Roussillon ("Gypsies of Roussillon"). Again with the help of Guy Bertrand, this Group played at the Printemps de Bourges festival, where they won the honor of "greatest discovery of the year."

The year 1993 brought the collaboration with Thierry Robin, who mixed the voices and guitars of the Rumberos with the flamenco singing of Paco El Lobo, and the Indian voice of Guravi Sapera. Another record called "Gitans" (naive/auvidis) was soon released, with tours of Africa, Canada, Japan, Germany, Portugal, and Italy. In 1999 the group performed with Idir at the Olympia in Paris, and is now preparing their conquest of Zenith there in March 2000, still with Thierry Robin and Idir.

"Han Arribat"
This new record offers a complete unity of tone and rhythm (essentially that of the rumba), while avoiding any monotony. Two flamenco tanguillos return us to their Saint-jacques musical origins, enlivened here by the memory of Camarón. This great flamenco singer, the cantaor de La Isla, who died prematurely in 1992 at the age of 42, had an extraordinary impact on all young gypsies in Spain, France, and elsewhere.
The diversity of the album is found in this themes, melodies, arrangements, supplemental instruments, and languages. Spanish alternates often with Catala, sometimes with Arabic and Kaló. In this era of experimental hybrid mixtures, that of the Rumberos Catalans is anything but artificial. It reflects the musicians' own origins, and the reality of life in their native Saint-Jacques. One might characterize it as a "pure" hybrid, with no additives or artificial coloring. The subtle appearance here and there of an oud, an accordion, a saxophone or Percussion, is by no means a departure from authentic Perpignan rumba, and its unadulterated gut feeling. At the same time, the numerous refrains are enlivened by the characteristic "Sant Jaume" style, vibrant and muscular. Whether they are playing rumba or salsa, the feeling is far from caribbean languor. These artists' voices were tempered by the toughness of life in a quarter where they have been singing in the streets for small change since early childhood. Like the voice of Piaf or an Amalia Rodriguez, their voices disturb us and shake us up, for they show the effects of the harsh realities of daily life from early childhood on. Beware, good people of"Han Arribat.."--they've arrived! The Rumberos of Saint Jacques!

320 kbps mp3, including full booklet scans

Download Part One
Download Part Two

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