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Salsa
Celtica’s remarkable success story began in
1995 in the bars and clubs of Scotland’s Edinburgh
and Glasgow.
They were an immediate hit with the locals and the
newly arrived Hispanic community. After recording
their debut album 'Monstruos y Demonios' (Monsters
and Demons), Salsa Celtica took their music around
the village halls of Scotland, from Skye to Mull,
Iona to Barra, Lewis to Orkney, and everywhere in
between. After this they saved up their pennies
and headed off to Cuba to hang out with salsa groups,
including Son14 and Sonora La Calle, and to generally
soak up Afro-Cuban sounds in Havana and Santiago
de Cuba.
Swapping whisky for rum they were asked to join
in at musical / religious "bembe" gatherings
and were invited to worship the Afro Cuban "orichas".
After acquiring new tastes and skills they returned
to Scotland to sign to Scottish label Greentrax
and to release two albums ‘The Great Scottish
Latin Adventure’ and ‘El Agua De La
Vida’.
Following on from a sensational breakthrough in
2003 when ‘El Agua De La Vida’ reached
number 5 on the World Music Chart of Europe, reached
number 24 in the end of year round-up 2003 World
Music Chart for Europe and was also their first
album released in the US on Compass Records, 2004
saw the band take their unique fusion of Latin and
Celtic sounds on tour in England for the first time.
The nineteen date tour highlight was a sold out
headline performance at the UK’s premier World
Music venue, Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s
South Bank as part of the La Linea Festival, which
saw the entire audience on their feet throughout
the show and led to much dancing in the aisles.
In support of the 2004 tour, Salsa Celtica re-released
the album El Agua De La Vida. The album gained a
prestigious Top Of The World recommendation in the
UK’s foremost World Music magazine Songlines,
‘This is a tremendous album which further
establishes this unique group as a dynamic force
on the world scene.’
The album also achieved the paper’s highest
rating for its review in London’s Evening
Standard, ‘Just what it says on the tin, a
great Scottish salsa band that manages to combine
the Cuban charanga sound of flute and fiddles with
a Highland blend of flute fiddles and bagpipes.
One style flows naturally into another and there
is a fizzing instrumental musicianship. Live, they
are a storm.’
During the tour the band were featured on BBC Radio
2’s flagship folk programme The Mike Harding
Show. The same month The Andy Kershaw Show on BBC
Radio 3 also broadcast a session and interview with
the band, specially recorded at the BBC’s
Maida Vale Studios in London. The tour was followed
in the summer by a series of high profile festival
dates including Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Dublin’s
Temple Bar Festival, Gent’s (Belguim) Pole
Pole Festival, Northern Ireland’s Celtic Fusion
Festival and the National Theatre’s Watch
This Space Festival on London’s South Bank.
In Autumn 2004 they performed in front of 40,000
people as part of the prestigious BBC Proms In The
Park and in November were chosen to close Belfast’s
Queen’s Festival. Salsa Celtica had established
themselves as an important force in World Music
in the UK and beyond, winning new fans and reaching
a new level of profile and critical acclaim.
In 2005 tours of the UK and Canada followed as well
as one off shows in Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy,
Scotland and more.
In June the band travelled to London to film two
scenes for the movie Driving Lessons, starring Julie
Walters and Rupert Grint.
Then in the Autumn the band went back into the studio
to record a new album, after a three year break,
bringing in Calum Malcolm as producer and including
a collaboration with folk diva Eliza Carthy.
On March 6th 2006 Salsa Celtica’s fourth studio
album, El Camino (The Road), is released on the
band’s own Discos Leon label. The release
will be followed by Salsa Celtica’s most extensive
UK tour to date, taking in twenty five venues in
March and April. A full festival season will follow.
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Photos of concerts
Salsa Celtica |
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