Lo Ke Ba is a ten-piece Salsa band that I started with Matt Baker. We play exciting, original, contemporary Afro Cuban music. Our music is a celebratory mix of the beautifully rich range of musical traditions and styles rooted in Cuba. Lo Ke Ba live takes the audience through the worlds of traditional Afro Cuban folkloric music, classic salsa and contemporary timba into the world of Lo Ke Ba - an elegant, energetic combination of tradition and creativity that brings the vibes, makes you dance and leaves you wanting more.
Expect to hear modern and tradtional classics from the worlds of Cuban Salsa and Timba as well as tracks from our new album ‘Delirio’ , which has received acclaim in the UK, the USA and across Latin America.
Our story...
The story of this band and our album 'Delirio’ is long, convoluted, goes back many years and owes a debt of gratitude to many exceptional people. Here is a brief synopsis:
From 2002, I journeyed from the UK to my teacher, friend and mentor Chaguito (Santiago Garzón Rill) in Havana. Ten years after my first trip, I sat on the roof of the Hotel Lincoln in Havana listening to Frank ‘El Matador’ Oropesa: ‘It’s good to have spent all of these years coming to Cuba to learn our traditions but now you must make the music your own’. The message from the world renowned bongocero planted the seed that was to become ‘Delirio’.
Not long after recording with Rich in the studio of El Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñero, Adriana Lord set off on her own journey, from Cuba to the UK. After establishing herself as a singer in the UK music scene, Adriana once again met up with Rich and the pair started writing, joined by Matt Baker on piano.
Matt completed the circle with a journey to Havana to meet and work with Chaguito on ideas for the album, bringing not only Chaguito’s words and melodies, but the events which surrounded their writing, to the songs themselves. *
In Delirio, Adriana, Matt and I created eight songs, sung in both Spanish and English by Adriana, about the world as we see it, the lives we've led and the struggles we've encountered, within ourselves and between people, under two opposing ideological systems. It’s an album that makes you want to move and gives you something to think about.
The Axis Percussion Trio – Me with Dave Boston (bongos) and Simon Bowhill (timbales) – form the rhythmic backbone to Lo Ke Ba accompanied by Matt Baker on piano. The album features performances from Colombian singer and percussionist Rodry-Go (Mercado Negro), trumpeter Giovanni Siveroni and trombonist Landy Díaz and grooves on a bed of bass provided by Dimitris Christopoulos and baritone saxophonist Nichola Pope.
Delirio was produced by myself and Matt Baker in collaboration with Alex Wilson and Eliane Correa. It was mixed and mastered by Jose Mendoza Colmenares (Oscar D’ León). The cover design is by Cuban artist, RAUPA.
*Embodied in pieces such as ‘Piano Apiloneao’ (a homage to Cuban pianists)