Search - Eddie Bobe :: Central Park Rumba

For 30 years, people have been gathering in New York's Central Park every Sunday afternoon to celebrate the rumba. These days it's a mixture of Nuyorican and Cuban musicians who do the drumming and singing, and Eddie Bobè has brought together some of the top Big Apple percussionists to offer the sound of two hands clapping (on skin). This isn't Latin jazz; it's much more basic, and in many ways more beautiful. Most of the tracks are just percussion and voice, raw but also very rich (not to mention well recorded). On the tracks with additional instruments, the percussion almost seems like an intrusion, albeit a glorious one. Five percussionists and three voices are all you really need to get the hips swaying and the feet moving, and before you know it you're doing the rumba! With a beat this hot, it's enough to get the melting pot boiling over. --Chris Nickson