PHOTOGRAPHY
A few weeks ago I took some photos of musician Daniel Marruzzo at London’s Afro Cuban Music Night. He is about to play a conga drum and the lighting gives the whole image a red glow: The conga drum looks red but isn’t. From time to time I miss my old red conga drum. A … Read more
Back in May I wrote a blog post highlighting images of dance and movement at the monthly Afro Cuban Music Night in London. I wanted to post some new images featuring musicians and percussion instruments. This is Richard Sweet on okonkolo, the smallest of the three batà drums used to play traditional Afro Cuban music: This … Read more
The first Tuesday of every month sees London’s Afro Cuban Music Night, run by musicians Vicky Jassey and David Pattman of Bombo Arts. I’ve written several posts about this night, but not since last summer so I thought I’d update with some pictures I’ve taken in the last few months. The evening consists of two … Read more
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
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
When I was in Miami in September I attended a workshop given by one of my favourite Cuban bands, Sintesis. Sintesis fuse rock and other contemporary genres with traditional Afro Cuban music. They use bata drums as part of their percussive sound. Bata drums, when used in Afro Cuban religious ceremonies are only played by … Read more
I sing with the amazing London Lucumi Choir, led by Daniela Rosselson de Armas. We sing songs from various Afro-Cuban genres, accompanied by percussion. Today’s percussionists were Collette Boardman, Bill Bland and Dave Pattman.