Salsa Celtica - El Agua De La Vida (The Water Of Life)

(February 2003) 9 tracks (46 mins): Cumbia De Celtica * El Sol De La Noche * Guajira Sin Sol * El Agua De La Vida * Whisky Con Ron * Ave Maria De Escocia Medley * Maestro * Adios Adios * Auld Lang Syne.

An exciting album with a big, big sound! Salsa Celtica have established themselves as one of the hottest bands on the World, Latin and Celtic music circuits, having performed their own special blend of Latin and Scottish music worldwide, from Hollywood (via Toronto, New York, Gran Canaria, Paris and Edinburgh) to Singapore.

The past couple of years have seen the band share festival billing with top Latin acts such as Sierra Maestra and Guayacan, performing at New York's Lincoln Centre, the WOMAD Reading Festival, and the huge Antilliaanse festival in Belgium.

Twenty three musicians from Scotland, England, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, New York and Shetland feature on El Agua De La Vida, with most of the material written by Toby Shippey and other members of the band.

El Agua De La Vida translates from Spanish into Scottish Gaelic as 'uisge beatha' - 'the water of life', more popularly known as whisky!

Salsa Celtica's 2001 album The Great Scottish Latin Adventure was a top seller in Scotland and ranked highly in international World music charts.

The band are: Toby 'El León' Shippey (trumpet, coro) * Lino Rocha (lead vocals, coro, perc) * Steve Kettley (saxophones, flute) * Fraser Fifield (saxophones, pipes, whistles) * Ryan Quigley (lead trumpet, coro) * Dougie 'El Pulpo' Hudson (congas) * David 'El Chimpo' Robertson (bongos, bell, coro) * Guy Nicolson (timbales) * David 'Demus' Donnelly (bass, coro) * Chris Stout (violin) * Kenny Fraser (violin, tres guitar) * David Patrick (piano).

Special guests: Chris Grieve (trombone) * Ricardo Fernández Pompa (coro, perc, lead vocals) * Roland Perrin (piano) * Phil Alexander (piano) * Javier Chernicoff (timbales, perc) * Emeris Solis (congas) * Tommy Beavitt (coro, chicken) * Riley Briggs (coro) * John Somerville (accordion) * Ricky Manning (guitar) * Éamonn Coyne (tenor banjo, tenor guitar). The album was produced by Jim Sutherland.

"The Highland Habaneros' terrific third album, mixing timbales and bongos with fiddles and banjo, then bunging on a great horn section... Their take on Auld Lang Syne is a beauty." (Mojo)

"Not content with effecting a musical marriage that seems unlikely enough to begin with, they continue to push creatively at its parameters. Irish tenor banjo might seem the bizarrest imaginable dance-partner for Latin music, but there it is... Elsewhere, the gypsy-jazz swing of twin fiddles, the croon of bagpipes and a wealth of brasswork play merry hell with those genre divides." (Sue Wilson)

"A stunning marriage of musical styles... Virtuosos to a man" (The Scotsman)

"Salsa Celtica have now proven there are Celts among us whose blood runs pure chilli..." (Cork Examiner, Ireland)