“Play that piano!” is the sentiment provoked by listening to Cuban musician Tony Perez perform dance compositions by the Boricua Eddie Palmieri, the super-Cuban Arsenio Rodriguez, and well-known founding member of the Fania All-Stars, Willie Colon. In his second release as a soloist, Full Force Jazz, recorded in Mexico in…
Edgar V. seems taken aback. Amid the quiet hum of the AC unit at the offices of Billboardlive, he’s obviously surprised by the question of whether he’s chosen not to pursue a more visible career as a global-circuit DJ. “I want to,” he says emphatically. “The opportunities just haven’t been…
Like a good neighbor, the slogan goes, State Farm is there. And so is Isis, the manager of a team of claims reps here in the insurance company’s South Florida offices. But after hours, the Cuban-American chanteuse offers a different kind of consolation — the kind that fills a smoky…
In its ideal form, reggae is life-affirming, self-aware, and socially conscious. Yet all too often, the genre finds itself in a state of slack. Who better to tighten it up than the all-purpose Screwdriver? Dalton Lindo accepts growth and change but won’t allow anything to overshadow the religious fervor at…
Tabloid gossip, not music, ruled her life: She impulsively married a gringo (and months later divorced him) in Miami. Her ex-husband’s conviction for drug dealing further damaged the reputation of a star who had had her own drug problems (she swore off them in 1997). An attempt to kidnap her…
Marcelo “Bambam” Coelho was asking for a favor, but he never expected such a big return. When the saxophonist asked Ney Rosauro, director of the percussion department at the University of Miami, if he knew of any good drummers looking to play Brazilian music, the UM graduate never dreamed he’d…
Back in the Nineties, Kathleen Hanna kicked off the riot-grrrl movement and kicked ass on the male-dominated punk/hardcore scene with angry albums from her group’s self-titled Bikini Kill (1992) to PussyWhipped (1994) to Reject All American (1996). Now Hanna is back with the all-womyn electro/punk-rock trio Le Tigre, a group…
From 1985 through 1989, guitarist/shouter Jesse Alvare and his band FWA! ruled the roost of the Miami punk-rock scene, playing every legal (and some not-so-legal) venue at the time — including four legendary shows at the Cameo Theatre. In 1987 FWA! released a self-titled LP of raging hardcore salvos with…
Almost ten years ago, Shelton Hank Williams made a deal with the Devil. Even though the grandson of country-music legend Hank Williams and son of Hank Williams, Jr., owed $24,000 in delinquent child-support payments, the self-described long-haired, tattooed slacker with a taste for weed and whiskey was barely eking out…
Cast musician Rosie Flores in a Western and she’d definitely be an outlaw. While she doesn’t sport a black hat or garb (colorful cowboy boots that match her guitar are more her style), the gifted guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist often finds herself at odds with the law laid down by…
If music is a journey, then John Abercrombie is a tour guide through a strange and wonderful land. A ride on the back of his guitar takes a listener through what appears, at first glance, to be a jazzy pastoral landscape. And just when you think the scenery is predictable,…
If you’re not a Spanish speaker, “Contrabando y Traición” by Los Tigres del Norte on the Mexican-music anthology Corridos y Narcocorridos sounds every inch as innocuous as a wedding polka. Jorge Hernandez’s sweet vocals ride a bouncing oompah bass while accordion tootles suggest a nostalgia-laden ranchera that wouldn’t offend a…
Don’t let the title of guitarist John Scofield’s latest album fool you. Ditto for the hallucinogenic, Haight-Ashbury-inspired cover art. This is not your typical jam band — no refried faux funk, aimless Dead-influenced noodling or ostentatious chops-mongering here. Just as he did on 1997’s A Go-Go (featuring Medeski Martin &…
On a rainy January morning in a bar open to the sidewalk in Sevilla’s riverside neighborhood Triana, a construction worker stomps a freshly laid ceramic-tile floor in boots stained with orange-colored clay. He is clapping, marking the rhythm of a flamenco song with palmas. Cigarette clamped between his teeth, he…
The figure wielding the baton is not the usual mature man with wild locks dressed in a fussy tuxedo. Instead a slim woman stands on the stage of the Lyric Theater in a long black gown — wisps of hair escaping from the chignon at the nape of her neck…
Nothing D.H. Peligro says sounds convincing. He’s afraid of each question, perhaps worried that he’ll come up empty-handed when asked, “Why?” Why did he help rob the grave of the dead Dead Kennedys, America’s best-loved primordial punks, after a 19-month legal battle during which singer Jello Biafra and his breakaway…
Nasdaq is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about dance music, but Sharam Tayebi — partner with Ali Shirazinia in the Iranian-born, Washington, D.C.-based DJ duo Deep Dish — recently told DJ magazine of his ambition to list their record label, Yoshitoshi, on the stock…
To every fiefdom, a festival. At least that’s the general rule in the Magic City, where one look at the musical lineup usually gives a pretty clear idea of who will be lining up for tickets. And then there’s the annual Bob Marley Caribbean Festival, the one festival that consistently…
I feel like funkin’ it up. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s the summer weather in the middle of January, or the hot sauce in my beans. Or more likely it’s the distant drums from an approaching brass band workin’ its way down the street, getting louder and louder with…
Many a musician has written a song about love, but few enjoy discussing their intimate lives. Andy LeMaster, singer and mastermind behind the rocking, synthesizer-heavy Now It’s Overhead, kindly volunteers his feelings about his relationship-themed, self-titled debut album and its painful inspiration. On the phone from Presto! Recording Studio in…
Desaparecidos might sound like a Latin alternative band concerned about the disappearance of innocent citizens by some repressive South American regime, but this aggressive rock and roll outfit hails from Lincoln, Nebraska. And these Nebraskans are pissed about the disappearance of the American landscape beneath mammoth chain restaurants and stores,…
In the United Kingdom — indeed throughout much of the European Union — Craig David has been accused of, well, walking on water. His debut single and debut album both went to number one in the U.K. The album sold more than 1.5 million copies there, prompting Britain’s New Musical…
