Nuevocastillo has up to nine members and specialises in the songs and dances of the Afro-Cuban people: rumba (yambu, guaguanco, columbia); conga; guiro; bembe; Palo; Makuta; Arara; Ijesa; and Santeria (on bata drums). Each of these musical styles has it's own dances and we perform a selection of these. The songs are sung in Spanish and a variety of languages of African origin.

Nuevocastillo first performed at the Gateshead Flower Show on 1st August 2004. We had a busy summer in 2005 playing at city festivals in the north-east. I am hoping to set up a tour for the spring of 2006 of NE theatres and arts centres where we can show our full dance repertoir. If there is space to move we like to demonstrate a cople of dances for audience participation.

I have the good fortune to represent the band at Womex which is coming to Britain for the first time to 'the Sage' in Gateshead at the end of October. Womex is the trade exhibition for the 'world music business'. Who knows?, we could be playing at world music festivals around Europe next year!

We do much educational work in schools and community groups teaching drumming, dance, and vocal harmony. We can combine our visits to perform in festivals / theatres / arts centres with instructional classes.

I (Tim) have been lucky to have received generous help in my professional development from the Arts Council by financing me to study under the top folkloric players in Cuba which started with attending residential courses run by LaTimbala (see links page). We are also lucky to have Carlos Rivera resident in Tyneside with his young family. He's from Vinales where he directed the folkloric dance show 'Lamento Cimmaron'. He's a great drummer, he has a great voice, and he does these really complicated and athletic dances - what an assett! We also have our lead vocalist Ged Camille who studied in the Institute of Folkloric Music in Bogota, Columbia, and then went busking round, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil for several years. Then theres Aylen who lived as a child in Cuba before moving to Argentina. Her family hold 'rumbons', and fiestas where they sing to the orishas (African gods). The rest of us are English (and Italian) drumming enthusiasts who love these rhythmms and the beautiful vocal harmonies. Even the yougest of us (17 years) have been students of rhythm for many years.

I'm still wrestling with website design protocol, and will have some audio and video downloads as soon as I'm winning

 

My other websites are:

ritmo.org.uk Information on the range of educational workshops that I run in music, dance, and carnival arts.

 

kingconga.org.uk Dedicated to drumming and Caribbean cultural history.

 

I also play with a group called Proyecto Flamenco. We consist of myself (percussion), two guitarist / singers from Spain, and a flamenco dancer also from Spain. Sometimes we play with a bass and a flute. We have a flamenco set and a set that consists of bossa-nova from Brazil and son from Cuba.

Contact by E-mail for availability and prices of either of these bands for performance and/or educational workshops.