Rumba Catalana Zeleste

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Image courtesy of Jamboree Jazz

At the end of the 1970s, Argentine musician Xavier Patricio Pérez, better known as Gato Pérez, influenced the history of the Catalan rumba with his own way of conceiving it, straddling Latin music and gypsy rumba.

Pérez had discovered the Catalan rumba in the Gràcia neighborhood, and he considered it “the own, characteristic and original music of urban Barcelona.” In his career as a rumbero—from 1979 until his disappearance in 1990—Gato Pérez stood out, not only for his heterodoxy, but also as a songwriter. In the words of his biographer Marcos Ordóñez, Gato Pérez was "the best national lyricist (...), the most lyrical, nocturnal and existential rumbero that the genre has produced." His unique look, excellent also from the literary point of view, is a legacy, a treasure that has influenced subsequent generations; including the musicians who perform in this tribute, Set de Rumba and Dani Txarnego. The third vertex is Quino Béjar, a percussionist from the days of Zeleste and the first records of El Gato.

Within the framework of the program dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Zeleste—Gato Pérez, as well as a rumba player, was a seminal figure in Layetana music—Mas i Mas'23 remembers the great Gato in the corner of the most Latin Barcelona, and also more rumbera.

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