DIÁSPORA UNITED IN THE LATIN BEAT

Clave... To us the word goes beyond explanations and definitions. It means life, salsa, the food of our leisure time, the motion of intense rhythm, the emotion of 20,000 people simultaneously grooving to the natural sounds of life. It’s being played in beat, on key, on clave... It means to be on top of things, to be playing it right... Clave is history, it’s culture. African drums from far off places like Nigeria, Dahomey and Ghana married the Spanish guitar to bring us clave. The seeds were planted in the Caribbean and now their grandchild is Salsa...

Rory's Diáspora was a London-based Latin band bringing you a one-way ticket to the music of the Americas. The 12-piece lineup (4 vocalists, 3 percussionists, 3 brass, piano and bass) leant itself to an expansive big band sound without losing the dynamism and spark of a small group, and combined sensuous vocals, sophisticated horn lines and explosive percussion solos... With their vision to unite the rhythms of the Americas, their music was uplifting, inspiring and unifying, celebrating a diversity of cultures, whilst focusing on the Cuban, Brazilian and globalised salsa sounds which have become significant musical languages and forms of solidarity and cultural exchange among communities throughout the world.

Diáspora was not your regular salsa band... it was a Latin band, in the wider sense; freely mixing salsa with jazz, funk and contemporary popular music styles to create an explosive mix of sounds... it was a big band by its very nature; equipped with all of the credentials to make for an exhilarating live outfit - engaging vocalists, a burning hot rhythm section and a big fat brass section... With their critically acclaimed fusion of rhythms, Diáspora was one of the most exciting projects to emerge on the UK Latin scene today.

“Diáspora... The word has a universal meaning in many languages - it is all about dispersed peoples coming together, and the amazing musical fusions that this has created. Our sound has the spirit of salsa, but the swing of samba, and we combine these rhythms with jazz, funk and infusions of contemporary popular music styles from around the world - it is a real melting pot...” Rory Duffy

Diáspora provided the ultimate catalyst for an engaging live outfit, delicately poised between its infectious appeal among a wide range of audiences yet technically sophisticated sensibility. The original compositions combined influences as diverse as South American pop, Spanish rumba, nu-Bossa, funk and reggaeton with a lyrical interplay between love, musical intoxication and images from the natural world. The arrangements themselves were pretty simple, containing flexible open platforms that allowed the band to really stretch out and explore their musical territory, punctuated with unifying sections that brought the band into triumphant moments of tightness and togetherness. Diáspora became a real vibe band; analogous to a single, living breathing organism, yet free and open at the same time, lending itself to bursts of collective spontaneity - clapping in clave, improvised vocal refrains and onstage swaying. The combination of its expansive 12-piece lineup and its diverse influences from Latin American, mainstream popular and world rhythms rendered Diáspora truly a musical carnival...