| About Neil Angilley Trio | The Neil Angilley Trio released their 1st album, 'Havana Club' in 2007. Their new album ‘Chango’ ( released 2013 ) is a homage to the people of Yoruba and their God, Chango. It is a mix of Afro Cuban music and New Orleans Mambo. Both albums are also available from www.angilley.com Neil Angilley (Piano) is joined by Davide Giovannini on drums and Vocals and Davide Mantovani on bass with special guest Snowboy on Percussion The Trio have recently returned from France after a successful series of concerts and were invited to play at the Italian International Jazz Festival in 2009 in Trieste. With what is already a well lived musician career, Neil has worked with many of the brightest in the industry, performing with Maceo Parker, Roy Hargrove, Down to the Bone (Grammy nominees ) Gypsy Kings, Lional Richie, Lisa Stansfield, Shirley Bassey amongst many others. Since 1997 Neil has also worked with Vanessa-Mae as keyboard player, classical accompanist and Musical Director. He has also toured with Michael Ball on Piano and appears on several of his albums and DVD’s. Neil is also an original member of the Black Smoke Band touring arena's with Jeff Waynes live production of The War of the Worlds Neil has also written & produced tracks for David Benoit (GRP), Richard Elliot (Verve) & Negrocan ( Ibiza Prize nominees ) & Snowboy & the Latin Section, 'The Afro Cuban population from the 1700s onwards was made up from three ethnic groups. One group came from Congo which includes where Angola is now. The second were Yoruba people who lived in what is now Nigeria and included Arara people who are close to Yoruba culture. The third group were Carabali people who came from what is now Cameroon. In Cuba, as opposed to other places in The Americas, people of ethnic groups were encouraged to stay together, keep their language and to celebrate their culture, religion and music in their scant rest periods. The slave masters believed this was the best way of keeping the workforce of slaves working and to stop dissent. The music from each of these three cultural groups fed into Cuban music and had it’s own strong identity which was passed down through subsequent generations. In general terms it was this fusion of Spanish music in Cuba and the music brought by the slaves from Africa that made Afro Cuban music. Many Gods are worshipped in the Yoruba Religion, with Chango being one of the most popular Orishas or Gods. He is also known as the God of fire, lightning and thunder, male sexuality and the owner of the drums, including Bata drums. Bata drums are a family of three drums of different sizes which have interlocking rhythms. There is a different rhythm to praise each God. The lyrics for the opening track on the album speak about Chango drinking Aguardiente (Rum) and celebrating life. The Arara chant at the end of the track originally comes from Benin (a country to the west of Nigeria.) The album is not entirely Latin based; Black Magic Woman & Mumbling are two tracks which have a New Orleans flavour. The connection here is with New Orleans Voodoo which was brought by African slaves to the French colony in Louisiana. Voodoo is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions which developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African-American population. Voodoo worshippers also pray to Gods such as Chango. It is the music of all these cultures and their God, Chango, that was the inspiration for making this album; a homage to their music, culture, religion and spirit.' |
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