In March 2023 I went to México City for three weeks on tour with Ester Wiesnerova. On our third night in that crazy city, we went salsa dancing. That was the beginning of a long and purposeful journey back to myself. The magic of México City woke something in me that had been sleeping for a long time. Something wild.
I continued dancing after the tour was over. I danced all the way home to Melbourne, Australia. One night in Fitzroy, a beautiful Colombian man offered me his hand. We danced beautifully together. A song (or three) was as far as that connection could go, but before he left, he tapped me on the shoulder and said “Bonita, te buscare en otra vida.” (Beautiful, I’ll find you in another life.)
Those words echoed in my head. “In another life. In another life.” Ester and I played this game together on one of our days off in Coyoácan. If we moved to México City, where would we live? Who would we be? Back in March it was light-hearted fun, but as my soul sunk its teeth into this idea, my shadow self began to rise. Looking back, that was the moment when I should have invited her to sit at my table and tell me what grieved her. Shadows always make themselves heard eventually – by invitation or by destruction. By then, mine was raging.
My rage brought me back to México City in July 2023. I hired a casa pequeña in Coyoácan for two weeks, borrowed a harp and got to work. I danced, I raged, and in my rapture, I wrote this album that you are holding in your hands. Writing it was easy. Living it was brutal. I met with Gods and men and a couple of ancient volcanoes, and amidst the colour and the chaos, I met myself. Honest. Vulnerable. Starving.
I guess you would call it a “dark night of the soul.” It was a very long night. The process of creating this album led me back to the dawn.
If you have lost your way, follow your joy… The Devil invites you to dance.
album liner notes by Tara Minton
The album artwork is by renowned Méxican muralist and street artist, kober_mx.
Ordinarily I would not include an album’s full liner notes in a review but for The Devil Invites You to Dance it seemed the right thing to do. The title track sets the tone of the album with a strong central bass bass line over which Tara Minton’s spoken vocals and harp play out. The percussion is languorous in delivery with the clipped clava giving a sinister edge to the tune. Miguel Gorodi blows some gorgeous Latino horn lines that leave you in no doubt of the Mexican influence on this opening number.
The salsa rhythm of El Colibrí (The Hummingbird) is lively and upbeat with terrific drumming and percussion from David Ingamells and Emilio Yañez Ruíz respectably. Tara Minton displays excellent scatting credentials alongside her harp work. Miguel Gorodi also shows why Tara chose him to play on this album; such clean lines and great tone. The lyrics to Cariño were written by percussionist Emilio Yañez Ruíz, they are sung in Spanish Mexican by Tara and she adeptly evokes the tragic and beautiful love story of Aztec legend on which the song is based.
The album standout track, for me, is Shadow Dance. The joropo, or Música Llanera, is a musical style resembling the fandango, and an accompanying dance and that is what we listening to on this track. The opening vocals are sultry; the accompanying percussion throughout barely there leaving all the focus on the brilliance of the harp playing. This tune has both style and substance and vividly expresses the wild dance when shadows meet. En Otra Vida is one of three tracks from the album that can be heard, pre-release, on Tara’s Bandcamp page. Sara Colman and Clare Wheeler share their magic on this piece. Their “voices express the power of Nature’s feminine: the feminine that howls, the feminine with teeth, the feminine that bleeds and nurtures and protects.” The song has a powerful quiet about it with the added depth of sound and tonal colour provided by bassist John Williamson.
The Devil Invites You To Dance closes out with with My Heart Is A Song, a lively salsa sung in English and Spanish. The rhythm is infectious, the bass line solid and that trumpet sound? simply sublime. The number is described as “a celebration of returning from my dark night of the soul back to dawn with a renewed sense of self and purpose” and in that respect completes the album perfectly. This is a release rooted firmly in the music and dance of Mexico and flows effortlessly across its ten tracks. There is so much on offer here and, like so many good album releases, only gets better the more you listen and give yourself over to the sound “and [when] you’re spinning and you’re laughing and relinquishing control, [when] elation floods your senses like a joyous avalanche… When the Devil invites you to dance.”
The Devil Invites You To Dance was Recorded at Fish Factory, London in April 2025 and will be released 11 September, 2026. You can pre-order the album through Bandcamp.
Worldwide release on Adhyâropa Records + launch concert Upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s September 11th 2026.
Tracklist: 01 – The Devil Invites You To Dance; 02 – El Colibrí; 03 – Iztapalapa; 4 – Cariño; 05 – Shadow Dance; 06 – Let It Rain; 07 – En Otra Vida; 08 – A More Colourful Life; 09 – Último Baile Con El Diablo; 10 – My Heart Is A Song.
All Music composed by Tara Minton
Cariño lyrics by Emilio Yañez Ruíz
Let It Rain Spanish translation by Paul Shine
Último Baile Con El Diablo Spanish translation by Neus Perris Ferrer
Musicians: Tara Minton (harp/vocals), Miguel Gorodi (trumpet/flugelhorn), John Williamson (double bass), David Ingamells (drums), Emilio Yañez Ruíz (percussion), Ernesto Marichales (maracas track 5), Sara Colman (vocals track 7), Clare Wheeler (vocals track 7).
