Buena Vista All Stars and Triptic


Celtic Connections
Glasgow Royal Conert Hall
January 20th 2026


A blur, a whirr, a carousel of lights, joy & mucsic – & that was just the bus ride into Glasgow. Only joking – what a couple of sets that was – the cerebral grooves of Triptic follow’d by a full on Buena Vista Social Club extravaganza. I was well into it, as was everybody else all around me – young, old, western, eastern. ‘There’s space in the aisle there for dancing’ – I told the salsa teacher in front of me I’d been chatting to. ‘Are you asking’, she replied.

So, not very Celtic, but defintely Cuban, & I was no longer in a freezing cold Scottish city in January, but was now in downtown Havana freaking out, sweat breaking out, & having a right old rhumba in the sultry summer Las Yuagas streets. That is the power of music. That is the power of Celtic Connections.

Damo