The full Mojito 7 Piece Salsa Band line-up includes vocals, piano, bass, timbales/kit, congas and 2 brass. Personnel is as follows :
Damian Castillo Diaz – Vocals
Damian is a natural front-man from Havana. His performance exudes the natural style and confidence of a vocalist who practised his craft in the melting-pot that is Havana Cuba. His vocal style is raw and powerful – with mc’ing and rap skills that feed naturally into the salsa styles the band excel at. He is a trained dancer as well as a versatile singer and again this comes across in the bands live performances – his exuberance and sexy dance moves are infectious!!
Rich Sliwa – Timbales/Kit
Rich has been a professional percussionist/kit- player for 25 years.As a kit-player he has toured throughout the UK and Europe with C-Charge, now legendary Mancunian reggae crew. He then joined Inner Sense, the groundbreaking samba band and was off again playing exotic places such as Egypt,Oman,Yemen,Uzbekistan,Malaysia and Palestine. As musical director of this band he produced their best-selling CD “Devotion”. One track from this album “Samba Bahiana” was released on the acid jazz label for London DJ/Conguero Snowboy who played the track out to fantastic response on the London latin/dance scene.
He has studied extensively in Cuba and Brazil. In Cuba he trained with major folkloric groups such as Clave y Guaguanco and Yoruba Andabo and has played in Havana with the cream of rumba musicians .He has also played at carnival in Brazil with maracatu group Leao Negro.
In the UK his skills have been in constant demand and he has worked with many latin bands such as Latimbala, Descarga, Charanga del Norte, Bourbon y Tequila and Salsa Pa’gozar. He has also worked as session percussionist and has recorded with The Doves and The Charlatans.
As well as playing for MOJITO he produces music under the name 2FO and has released tunes on Mettle Music, a well-respected Manchester-based latin/house label.
He is now focussing mainly on MOJITO as a live act and is starting to develop MOJITO-ELECTRONICO a latin remix project.
Howard Jacobs – Vocalist – Tenor/Clarinet – All Percussion
Brass Arranger/Transcriber/All Percussion/Vocals/Clarinet/Tenor, Royal College and Royal Northern College of Music trained, Howard is also the brass arranger and Co-director of the La Timbala big band as well as Clarinet and Percussion there in. He has worked with contemporary music groups such as ‘Chinook’ Clarinet Quartet and The Cornelius Cardew Ensemble . His reputation has earned him resident percussionist with experimental group Homelife, RSL, Graham Massey’s Toolshed amongst others. Howard has also studied extensively in Cuba.
Christian Weaver – Conga
Christian Weaver (percussion, vocals, director of La Timbala) has over twenty years experience of performing, teaching, researching, composing and directing percussion based music. He has performed solo with leading contemporary dancers and theatre companies over much of the world; designed workshops and educational projects for community groups, schools, universities and colleges; directed and composed for groups of from three to thirty people. He has trained extensively with master drummers in Cuba and now performs with one of the leading carnival groups ‘Los Componedores de Batea’ and the traditional Afrocuban group ‘Iré Otonoguá’. As the Musical Director of La Timbala which, he founded in 1995, he is responsible for devising and overseeing all of La Timbala’s performance and workshop projects. Website : www.latimbala.com
Dave Tompkins - Bass
Dave started playing bass guitar in rock bands at the age of 16. He started playing double bass in 1989/90. Since then he has been an active player on the jazz & latin circuit in the North West. Regular bands have included D’Semble, Eddie Robert’s Organisation, Basil Clarke (ex Yargo), Johnny Dangerously (John Bramwell from I Am Kloot), The Moochers, The Gary Boyle Quartet, The Nat Birchall Quartet, Mike Hope’s Jazzmahoot, & RSL.He started playing with Christian Weaver’s La Timbala in 1998 playing in all it’s myriad incarnations from a 5 piece up to the 27 piece Orquestra. He joined Mojito in 2010 having worked with most of the members in other bands. Current bands include his own quartet, The Bowline Ensemble; Cusp with Keith Phillips and Chris Bridges (trombone w Timbala) & Mojito.He is also recording and rehearsing a new flamenco project with Joe Botham from RSL.
Jonny Enright – Trombone
Jonny studied at the Royal College of Music and has performed with artists including Alfredo Rodriquez, Tito Allen, Orlando Watusi, Adalberto Santiago, Jimmy Bosch, Joe Bataan, Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers, Jack Costanzo, Snowboy, Alex Wilson, Finn Peters, Jason Yarde, Dennis Brown, Max Romeo, Gregory Isaacs, Bootsy Collins, Kesiah Jones, Lofidelity Allstars, Billie Piper, Tony Christie, Badly Drawn Boy, Elbow.
TV and radio appearances include BBC Later with Jools Holland (Gregory Isaacs), BBC Blue Peter (Grupo Folia), ITV Man O Man (house band). MTV (Rockers HI-Fi). MTV (Lo Fidelity Allstars), Channel 4 Jo Whiley Show (Lo Fidelity Allstars), BBC Radio 1 Steve Lamaq (Lo Fidelity Allstars), BBC Radio 1 Andy Kershaw (La Clave), BBC Radio 4 Kaleidoscope (Jesus Alemany’s Cubanismo), South Bank Show (Elbow).
Jonny formed Latin jazz/ boogaloo 8-piece Grupo X in 1996. Three critically acclaimed albums have won them many friends worldwide. From latin and jazz radio stations and TV commercials across the USA to a host of international club DJs (Louie Vega, Gilles Peterson, Osunlade, Patrick Forge, Bobbito Garcia, Rainer Truby, Nicola Conte, Jazzanova, Snowboy), Grupo X’s music has been much loved and played extensively.
Andrzej Baranek
Andrzej Baranek is a highly regarded jazz pianist on the Manchester jazz scene. Born in 1982, Andrzej has worked with an impressive array of artists, including Alan Barnes , Scott Hamilton and Jimmy Bosch. Aside from Mojito , Andrzej is also busy with the Shakedown jazz band and the Magic Hat Ensemble.
