Aye, This Salsa Band Has a Scottish Accent

Pop music fusions have become a cliche these days. Everybody’s mixing ethnic elements, so new combinations are no longer so surprising.

But hold on to your Highland cows, compay. What’s this? Salsa played with bagpipes and Scottish whistles by men wearing kilts?

Let’s give a big melting-pot welcome to Salsa Celtica, a band of merry Scottish musicians who fell in love with the music of more tropical climes. They learned the cha-cha from scratch just six years ago, and now, you guessed it, the Scots are hot.

Salsa Celtica, a 10-member outfit based in the ancient capital of Edinburgh, makes its California debut tonight at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. The band is on a nine-city North American tour promoting its latest CD, “The Great Scottish Latin Adventure.”

Salsa purists may be surprised to find that the group plays with skill, energy and an uncanny feel for the real thing. Publicly, the players bill themselves as “most probably Scotland’s finest salsa band.” Privately, they admit they’re also Scotland’s only salsa band.

That unexpected blend of North-meets-South has been the key to Salsa Celtica’s success, says founder and leader Toby Shippey. “People love it because it’s totally new,” says Shippey, who abandoned rock ‘n’ roll when he discovered Afro-Caribbean rhythms.

The band was started in 1995 by a group of mates who played a variety of styles, from jazz and funk to classical and folk. In the beginning, they knew next to nothing about Latin music. They just liked its beat and heat in their cold climate. “You hear salsa in the middle of winter and it gets you going,” explains Shippey.

They soon attracted followers from the country’s small Latin community who would come by the pubs, check out the set and afterward gently correct the band’s Spanish pronunciation. Fans also recommended more music. The hungry musicians studied the old classics of Cuba’s Beny More. They discovered the streetwise, ‘70s salsa of the Fania All Stars. They took musical side trips to the cumbia of Colombia. Finally, they wound back to modern Cuba, the cradle of salsa twice visited by these Scottish salseros since 1996. “It’s been a big education,” Shippey says. “It’s such a deep music, such a massive journey, you can go anywhere.”

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Salsa Celtica plays tonight at Sportsmen’s Lodge, 4234 Coldwater Canyon Blvd., Studio City, 10 p.m. $15 before 2 p.m. $20 after. (310) 450-8770.