Flamenco Havana

Picture the sun-drenched city of Seville where dancers are putting their shoes on, musicians are picking up their instruments and people are arriving from far and wide for the Flamenco Festival, an exciting and vibrant celebration of this spectacular art form.

There could be no better place or time for Naim to have recorded a Flamenco album using musicians and dancers steeped in Flamenco and other artists whose trademarks are joyful expression, innate rhythm and musicality.

Flamenco Havana is a Latin melting pot of hugely dynamic talent. Ranging from up-beat Spanish songs accompanied by all-enveloping Cuban percussion that grabs you with its strength and vitality, to pure Flamenco vocals. Songs of love, loss, passion and regret delivered with power and authenticity. The Cuban brass section joyfully sizzles its way through the album accompanied by palmadas with gunshot handclaps. Marvel at the footwork track in which you can almost smell the smoke coming from the young dancer's feet as he pounds complex rhythms into the floor. A didgeridoo makes a guest appearance as a magical accompaniment to a Flamenco vocal track.

The brainchild of Ramon Ruiz and Anita 'La Maltesa' who provide vocals, guitar and footwork, Flamenco Havana also features the critically acclaimed Rafael Rodriguez on guitar with Segundo Falcon and El Extremeno on vocals.

Produced by Ramon Ruiz