Variations on jazz come particularly from the Caribbean and most notably Cuba. Miami-based duo Pan con Bistec melds Latin jazz with original arrangements influenced by the rhythms and musical stylings from North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean, including Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, candombe, swing, bebop, R&B, and funk. Comprising Uruguayan…
Though few luminaries from jazz’s golden era are still alive, and though performances from that small group become increasingly rare, the question remains: Why should you see one of them today? Well you could reason that you probably won’t get another chance because they’re getting old. But you have to…
Like the Teddybears, Whitey carries a beer-bar-danceable message from Europe, but where Teddybears want (and do, in fact, own) the TV-commercial airwaves, these guys have scummier things up their collective raincoat sleeve, namely alt-disco sleaze tricked out with Euro-dance beats, an odd way of reinterpreting Donovan Leitch’s deal and a…
Don’t think there is a power failure when you suddenly find yourself sitting in pitch darkness inside the theater. This just happens to be the beginning of Universo Particular, the heavily produced show that Brazilian-born Marisa Monte — in her first U.S. tour in five years — organized to promote…
As autumn has slowly descended on Greater Miami, so have a number of world-renowned senior musicians. The season has already brought piano maestro Bebo Valdés, master percussionist Candido Camero, and Candido’s Conga Kings cohort Carlos “Patato” Valdés — all of them in their eighties. Now Lou Donaldson, the great alto…
There’s something to be said for straight-ahead, unpretentious, wholly exhilarating rock and roll without the woes or hand-wringing that seems to underscore the petulance afflicting so much of today’s music. The Format provides the antithesis to that approach, as evidenced by its latest outing, the ironically dubbed Dog Problems. An…
Although most saxophonists could be called one-dimensional — their playing being that single dimension — saxophonist Ed Calle is a polyphonic layer of talent. Not only does Calle have masterful control over the saxophone, but also he’s an accomplished composer, arranger, flutist, clarinetist, and MIDI wind player. Over the past…
“It looks on the first face of it that maybe this isn’t so hip,” admits Andrea Marcovicci, referring to her cabaret show titled Andrea Sings Astaire. “But what’s been happening is that young people come to a performance and then go out and rent every Fred Astaire movie.” Netflix, take…
It’s official: Laundry Bar is single-handedly fomenting a local drum ‘n’ bass revival. Recent weeks have seen DJ sets by kings of the genre like Florida’s own AK1200, jazz-borrowing Londoners Aquasky, and one of the cofounders of the legendary Metalheadz imprint, Doc Scott. This Friday another Brit brings the choons:…
In late August, the New York Times identified a South Korean man as the star of a YouTube.com video. In it Lim Jeong-hyun (calling himself “Funtwo”) played Pachelbel’s Canon on his electric guitar. The axe wizard has mad skills, but what really sparked the media investigation is that the video…
The laws of music journalism state that when a precociously good new band comes along, one must harp on the members’ ages. So, okay, blah blah blah, the four members of be your own PET, from Nashville, are all teenagers, the oldest just barely legal. Great — now that’s out…
Three master congueros, each with a distinctive style, lend the Conga Kings’ accelerated pulse, but the name is meant to highlight the heart of the group, not describe the entire body. As do all the top percussionists in Latin jazz, this conga drum triumvirate displays a deep sense of context…
Detroit is known for producing its share of renowned musicians. Rock-star bad-asses Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop and Motown legends the Temptations and Diana Ross all paved the way for what would become known as “good music” today. It’s no wonder that the Detroit Cobras — hailing from such fertile…
Way back before the King Khan and BBQ Show ever began, Mark Sultan (a.k.a. BBQ) and King Khan (then referred to as the Blacksnake) were in a Canadian garage band known simply as the Spaceshits. Ten years and several continents later — after Khan had fostered a faux-celebrity explosion in…
Like some unseen beast that emerges only in shadows to claim its prey, indie rock stalks Miami with as much Omaha, Nebraska soil between its toes as sand. Four-piece Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs and their compatriots in Blue Moon, both from Miami, do their absolute best to channel Bright…
Awe-inspiring traditional African beats fuse with contemporary reggae-rock sounds when Ba Cissoko and his group decide to jam. Born into a musical family in West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau, Ba Cissoko is a master of the regional 21-string harp-lute called the kora. Kourou Kouyaté, Sékou Kouyaté, and Ibrahim Bah round out the…
In an era when political correctness is pursued to unyielding extremes, singer-songwriter Randy Newman is an astute observer, immune to any notion that social commentary should refrain from satire and stereotypes. Eight years after Three Dog Night earned him his first chart success by covering his song “Mama Told Me…
Hailing from the Netherlands, 32-year-old Ferry Corsten has been an international circuit DJ since he was fifteen. Touring in support of his recently released second studio album, L.E.F. (which stands for Loud, Electronic, Ferocious), Corsten imprints many of his mixes with his mantra “Create your own path, be yourself, and…
Indulgence in all things retro has almost always been a modern staple of cool, and Raw B Jae and the Liquid Funk are no exception. For more than a decade the ever-changing eight-member group has embraced Seventies soul sensibilities while eschewing disco cheese. Psychedelic guitar man and local band-hopper Buffalo…
Thanks to the ever-present Aquabooty crew, Osunlade is a familiar face in these parts, traveling down from New York every so often to spin records. The man behind dance classics like Eric “Erro” Roberson’s “Don’t Change” and his own Paradigm album is a prime force in Afro-house, from his fierce…
Since giving his first solo recital at age eight and making his orchestral debut at twelve, Ben Kim has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed young pianists in the world. Kim is a master of demanding works by Brahms and Schumann and is especially noted for his…
Octogenarian Cuban musician Candido Camero, who celebrates a birthday with a return engagement in downtown Miami, works today at the same job he has had for the past 65 years: A-list conga player and innovator. He needs no resumé. But if he did, it would read something like this: Previous…
