WOMAD

Roberto Pla’s Latin Ensemble

From Colombia

How the UK does Latin music. Everybody salsa!It would be easy to cast the Colombian percussion king Roberto Pla as merely one of the founding fathers of the UK salsa scene. But that would ignore a CV of many colours, one that included working with an eclectic caravan of musicians and bands – Joe Strummer, Boney M, The Cure, Japanese funsters The Frank Chickens and even those monsters of rock Motorhead. But – having come to our shores via a spell in the late ’70s salsa hothouse of New York City – it’s as co-founder of the near-legendary Sonido de Londres and leader of the Robert Pla Latin Ensemble that’s he’s stamped his existence on our collective consciousness. And with the energetic chap leading the line, the Latin Ensemble are a finely tuned unit, tight and disciplined in defence but full of freewheeling flair upfront. Ecstatic audiences across Europe can’t be wrong, not can those celebrities who’ve hired the band’s talents for their private parties (including Joan Collins, Prince Albert of Hannover and even Sandhurst Military Academy). This is a smoking salsa outfit of pedigree and distinction.