Echu Mingua

by Anga

Product Description:

Personnel: Anga (congas); Baba Sissoko (vocals); Magic Malikon (flute); Manual "Guajiro" Mirabel (trumpet); Davida Alfaro, Ruben Gonzalez, Roberto Fonseca (piano); Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez (bass instrument, background vocals); Dee Nasty (turntables).

Ex-Irakere percussionist Miguel "Anga" Diaz's first solo album is a complex, constantly shifting blend of styles, from hip-hop to jazz to African rhythms. Diaz's international roster of collaborators, including the French DJ Dee Nasty, Chucho Valdes, and the late Ruben Gonzalez (whose final recording this was), imaginatively layer sound samples and breakbeats, as well as more conventional instrumentation, over Anga's percolating percussion. "San Juan Y Martinez" is a litany of legendary Caribbean musicians chanting Santeria-style over Anga's musical conga beats, and there are also deft Latin-tinged salutes to saxophonist John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Charles Mingus's "Round Midnight."