The London Lucumi Choir recording session: a behind the scenes gallery

Over the weekend The London Lucumi Choir travelled to Nottingham to record tracks for our upcoming 4th album. We’ve recorded at the Paper Stone Studios before and had a positive experience. The acoustics suit our music which are sequences of Afro Cuban spiritual song and percussion and the engineer is calm and understands the production … Read more

George Michael’s Memorial Garden in Winter

December 25, 2017 – Christmas Day – marks one year since singer George Michael died. A few days ago I went to visit his memorial garden in Highgate which is in a small green outside his former home. I had visited this garden at the height of autumn and was curious to see it in … Read more

Images of London’s Afro Cuban Music Night

London’s Afro Cuban Music Night is something I look forward to. Currently taking place the first Monday of each month. I find myself multi-tasking; singing, dancing and taking photographs. Here are a few of my favourite images from the last couple of months. In the first few images hands are a central theme; whether clapping … Read more

rhythm and clapping

Amongst the first words I ever uttered was the Farsi phrase “das das”.  It literally means “hand hand” and was accompanied by repeated simultaneous clapping movements – das das, das das  – an endless source of entertainment and distraction when Bibi, my paternal grandmother who I lived with, played with me in this way. Later on … Read more

Afro Cuban Music Night, April 2016

Back in January I wrote a piece on London’s monthly Afro Cuban Music Night and I thought I would provide an update with some images focussing on a few of the veteran percussionists on this scene.  I first met David Pattman, Hamish Orr and Patrick Cameron back in the 80s when the African and Latin music … Read more

Afro Cuban Music Night

Bombo Productions runs a monthly Afro Cuban Music Night in Dalston, usually on the first Monday or Tuesday of the month. Last week’s session was graced by the presence of the incredible Cuban-born singer Martha Gallaraga, known to many simply as Martica. I don’t normally take photos at these sessions as I tend to sing … Read more