Havana Club Rumba Sessions

Beginning with the evocative, unaccompanied beat of the wooden clavé, the base of all rumba – an elemental Cuban genre defined here as a combination of ‘music, mind, rhythm, party, thought and comedy’ – this collection of remixes is as varied and left-field as one would expect from Brownswood. Those with little knowledge of rumba would do well to watch the accompanying documentary, La Clavé, an investigation into this raw, energetic music led by London-based Ade Egun (Crispin Robinson), and one that traces the three main styles of rumba (guaguanco, yambu and columbia) from the streets of Havana and Matanzas to Western dance floors.

Here, then, are a dozen takes on recordings of the three forms, by producers from Berlin and Japan to Canada and the UK. Opener ‘Yambu’ by Daisuke Tanabe and Yosi Horikawa moves quickly from that solitary clavé to a percussion-and-bass undercurrent over which a rumbera's voice soars magnificently; Tenderlonious from South London's 22a collective does deft and moody things with the vocals of rising star Daymé Arocena on ‘Rumba Tierna’. Motor City Drum Ensemble go four-to-the-floor with a loping groove that loops around a solo male chant and some unfettered laughter.