Leading Conguero Anga Diaz Dies
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Miguel “Anga” Diaz, who is best known for his acclaimed album Echu Mingua that was released last year, has died, in Spain, having suffered a sudden heart attack.
Born in San Juan y Martinez in the Pinar del Rio province of Cuba in 1961 he had lived in Spain for the last three years and performed with his group in Barcelona only a week before his death on 9 August. His musical journey began before he started his studies at the National School of Art in Havana as a teenager having started to study percussion aged 10. Later, as a full time musician he began his career with the group Opus 13 and later became known for his work with the Afro-Cuban All Stars. He later was a member of Roy Hargrove's Afro-Cuban band Crisol and performed with US saxophonist Steve Coleman.
On his own album Echu Mingua, the sparkling version of John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' will act as a fitting epitaph for the superbly talented musician who toured in England last year with pianist Omar Sosa and Dhafer Youssef. On the album he evokes images of his homeland, drawing on his beliefs in the Yoruba religion. In the sleevenotes he wrote: "I liken the record to a musical religious service, using sounds to resonate and to invoke the spirits to come down to join us on earth.”
On his own album Echu Mingua, the sparkling version of John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' will act as a fitting epitaph for the superbly talented musician who toured in England last year with pianist Omar Sosa and Dhafer Youssef. On the album he evokes images of his homeland, drawing on his beliefs in the Yoruba religion. In the sleevenotes he wrote: "I liken the record to a musical religious service, using sounds to resonate and to invoke the spirits to come down to join us on earth.”