[Tango-L] Burlesque clip

[Sandhill Crane]

--- On Sat, 11/20/10, Nina Pesochinsky <nina at earthnet.net> wrote:

> Actually, this is not a tango rhythmically, but a rumba. :) 
> Common mistake...  Rumba rhythm can be played to hint tango,
> but it is still a rumba.

Well, it's probably pointless to try to assign this Burlesque
piece to any genre (although I'll give a try anyway), since
it's just some show biz hack's pastiche of "exotic" music.
Somebody was assigned the job and told to listen to "Por una
cabeza" and the "Addams Family" theme song, and presto!
Look at what we got. It's also an obvious "Cabaret" rip-off,
as well. 

That said, it's entertaining and maybe a little informative
to consider just what it is. It's probably equally tango and
rumba (and not very much of either one), if only because tango
and rumba (some forms of it, anyway) share the Afro-Cuban
habanhera (sorry, no enhe on this keyboard; so I'll write it
like the Portuguese) rhythm. The phrasing seems to hint at
tango, and the rhythm seems to suggest the jazz variety called
rumba in the United States. It's neither fish nor fowl, really.

As an aside, rumba is a very broad term, musically.
Rumba specifically means an Afro-Cuban music and dance
which is close to its African origins. More generally
rumba encompasses several forms of Cuban music. I was
told there are seven forms of rumba: rumba proper, son,
guaguanco, charanga, and ... I forget the other three.
Son is probably the best known outside of Cuba; it is
the immediate predecessor of salsa. Then there is the
jazz rumba in the US; I'll hazard a guess that there is
actually some connection with Cuban rumba via New Orleans
or some other port. Even farther afield is ballroom rumba,
which (I'm guessing from what I've seen) is an adaptation
of steps appropriate for son (via mambo?) to "romantic"
pop music. Blearghh.

Elsewhere in this thread someone mention cha cha.
Cha-cha-cha (not cha cha, that's a ballroom term) is a
slow son, which means there's time to throw in a few
more swipes on the guiro, cha-cha-cha. I don't hear
the son clave in "Burlesque", nor the cha-cha-cha,
so, while it might arguably be some form of rumba,
it's definitely not cha-cha-cha.