Music

Okay, so the guy headlined New Times Vibe 2001, our multifaceted music blowout that nobody attended. But that doesn’t mean we were deaf to other rock singers in town. Nil Lara just happened to be the frontman who didn’t make our ears bleed. Lara’s soulful voice and pleasant inflections are…

Psycho Daisies guitarist and frontman John Salton has the kind of personal track record that would make even Keith Richards blush, but like that grizzled rock veteran, Salton keeps rasping and rolling along with equal parts admirable grit and laid-back cool. Two decades after the Daisies’ original heyday backing Charlie…

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Andres Juliao did not have much opportunity to hear the accordion. It was only when he visited his family in Barranquilla that he came to appreciate the sound that is the backbone of vallenato, one of the many traditional musical genres of Colombia’s Atlantic coast…

No man is a prophet in his hometown. So maybe that’s why in six years of gigging like crazy all over town, pan-Latin rockers Bacilos registered nary a mention in New Times. Now that they’re off to greener pastures, touring Latin America for the Miami-based WEA Latina label, the trio…

Another lonely Saturday night? Tune into to Edwin “El Huracan” Bautista’s dance program on Classica 92 from 7:00 p.m. to midnight and connect to dozens of Latin house parties happening all over Miami. For two years Bautista has been building a steady following with an intoxicating mix of salsa, merengue,…

For night owls who like their jazz straight-ahead with no frothy filler, Bob Parlocha’s show is as bracing as a shot of espresso. Saxophonist and record producer Parlocha brews an eye-opening dose of bebop and a smattering of contemporary interpretations by the masters from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. weekdays…

Paquito Hechavarria has played and recorded with everyone from bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez to vocalists Gloria Estefan and Christina Aguilera (“You know, she doesn’t speak any Spanish”). Back in the old days, he played with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., at the Fontainebleau. Currently he sits behind the baby…

More than a decade since Luther Campbell’s 2 Live Crew grabbed the nation’s headlines, South Florida still seems to be living in that outfit’s shadow, saddled with the widespread notion that its hip-hop scene is just one long porn film. On Dirty Life Miami’s latest rap hopeful, X-Con, doesn’t exactly…

No, he’s not a DJ, though he does spin vinyl, which he usually has to borrow because he deals in CDs and engineered beats. No, he’s not into the club scene or making it past the velvet rope, though he currently spins at hot spot Blue. Nah, for James Wagner…

Lucky us: The pull of the Latin music industry means we can count among us monsters of song like Cuban crooner Francisco “Pancho” Cespedes, who moved from Mexico to Miami Beach this year. Fortunate were clubgoers who caught his show at Club Tropigala or his impromptu guest appearances at Radical,…

Okay, so it’s not a rap group. It’s a label. It’s a lifestyle. It’s the Dirty South, straight outta Liberty City. Founded in 1994 by Ted Lucas and home to Miami’s number one nann, Trick Daddy, Slip ‘N Slide represents the 305 to thugs worldwide. A graduate of Uncle Luke’s…

It’s hard enough to be a working jazzman in South Florida, let alone one who treads the avant-garde side of the tracks. So rather than worry about pleasing club owners searching for nothing more than background noise, saxophonist Keshavan Maslak (a.k.a. Kenny Millions, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the local success-crazed…

For two young men who appear smiling goofily in virtually every picture snapped over the past year by their increasing number of international media admirers, Phoenecia’s Romulo del Castillo and Josh Kay sure produce some creepy music. Indeed Brownout may be their darkest work yet, slowing down the frenetic pace…

Awarding kudos to a record label may seem a bit odd initially. After all, it’s the artists that make the all-important music. The labels simply are a conduit to the public. It’s hard to imagine saluting, say Sony Records, for its selfless contributions to mankind. But Beta Bodega Coalition isn’t…

An artist’s muse can be tricky to pin down. It’s easy to recognize when a musician is in touch with it, drawing on some vibrant inner force. But what exactly causes that creative well to run dry? Fans of the singer and original Grupo Nostalgia band leader Luis Bofill have…

Can you define Southern rap? We mean beyond the obvious identifier of being made by rappers raised in the South. (Gee, thanks, professor!) Is there a telltale sign, an ingredient that makes a song undeniably from below the Mason-Dixon Line? Well, forget about drawled accents, thugged-out attitudes, or even a…

An evening of exquisite understatement began when pianist-vocalist Shirley Horn took the stage at the Coral Gables Congregational Church and caressed the keyboard as she hadn’t in Miami since the late Eighties. Joined by drummer Steve Williams and bassist Charles Ables, the 66-year-old Horn was touring in support of her…

Not even Hurricane Debby could rain out the Rhythm Foundation, the organization that for thirteen years has brought the very best in world music to Miami. When a twenty-minute downpour drenched the North Shore Community Bandshell in Miami Beach where Brazilian artists Chico Cesar and Rita Ribeiro were scheduled to…

Beloved Dominican television host Rafelito Marerro began his career at age four, dancing rumba with the voluptuous starlet Tongolele in the Fifties. In the Sixties he earned the nickname “pampered child of Dominican society,” for his talk shows featuring international stars. In the past decade, he made his way to…

Lady Bug, Lady Bug, fly on the microphone! Your lyrics set fires; your message hits home! No woman or man, from her witty acoustic pan, can take on the global-military-industrial-masculine-musical-complex as well as she can…

This is the nightmare: Madame de Boredom and her band are on stage again. Off in the shadows stands a juggler from Hollywood. Suddenly out of nowhere he leaps onstage. The juggler goes for the jugular! Madame de Boredom runs out. The reality is that there is no Madame de…