Evoking an aura of tiki huts, toothpick umbrellas in amaretto sours, and red velvet wallpaper, Bossacucanova takes the mondo-cool sounds of 1960s-era bossa nova and re-creates its vibrancy with funk, hip-hop breakbeats, rotating turntables, digital technology, and skillful mixing. The result is a concoction of classic and new bossa nova…
A Cuban star who found his way to Miami via Colombia in 1961, Carlos Oliva jammed with Julio Gutiérrez and Willy Chirino. Oliva’s stealthy fusion of rock, jazz, samba, son, guaracha, and other Cuban rhythms makes each song sound like an original. His newest CD, Yayabo, includes conga songs such…
Raul Ramirez’s one-man electronica show deploys computers, synthesizers, laser beams, keyboards, bass, guitar, and electro-acoustic drums. “Ecomusica tries to bring harmony to the environment and its listeners. So I try to contribute my own little grain of sand in trying to make this world a little better by making music…
Citing musical influences such as Eminem, OutKast, Nirvana, and Bob Marley, JD Natasha is an alt-girl rocker with an international flair. The Kendall native’s album Imperfect/Imperfecta, a mostly Spanish-language album penned by this young star, takes risks and explores a variety of genres. Following in Shakira’s footsteps, JD Natasha plans…
Brazilian-based singer-guitarist Badi Assad lived in Sarasota for a while in the Nineties, but this concert marks her first official one in Florida since she decided to radically change her musical style, switching from a classical/experimental format to a more jazz-inflected pop style. “I started out playing chorinho and then…
Raul Midón spent years building a reputation in the Magic City, performing at spots like the Van Dyke Café and singing backup for Latin pop stars like Jennifer Lopez and Alejandro Sanz. He even landed a contract with BMG US Latin, which issued his Gracias a la Vida. His journey…
What could be more fun than a Saturday-evening show with Humbert, Hialeah’s very best rock band? How about a show with newcomer Pyrojet, debuting its first effort, Living Funeral; and the ever-present the Stop Motion? Humbert blends a certain kind of quirky pop with stick-in-your-craw songwriting skills. Following a successful…
Gregg Foreman, the mastermind behind the shifting musical lineup that performs as the Rare Birds, is indeed an exotic specimen in Miami. Under the moniker “Mr. Pharmacist” (cribbed from a song by the Fall), Foreman is one of the most prolific rock DJs around town. But even in his native…
The Miami jazz fusion circuit has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Although the genre has existed since the Sixties, a noticeable surge in horns and keyboards has taken over local bands and nightclubs. Suddenly every band is a jazz-funk-rock-R&B crossover. From Brazilian to Afro-Cuban, avant-garde to acid, jazz is quickly…
Grunge as it could only be interpreted on the Sunset Strip, Red Rover is perhaps the ultimate set piece. On Agent Sparks’ debut album, these Angelinos recast mid-Nineties Northwest sludge as artful noise, full of thick, rolling bass lines and sculpted squalls of feedback. The band’s parallel universe imagines Cobain…
Slide Hampton, longtime friend and associate of jazz legend John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, will be leading the moving tribute to this fallen hero at the Frost School of Music. Nine years after his death, Gillespie’s memory lives on in the minds of all jazz fiends. A major player in the…
Brazilian percussion musicians Ney Rosauro, Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, and Heitor Villa-Lobos will be honored during this concert at the Frost School of Music. The University of Miami Percussion Ensemble will jam along with guests Esther Jane Hardenbergh, Wan Chun Liao, Shannon Wood, and Ney Rosauro himself during a special evening…
Sporting her trademark diamond-encrusted sunglasses and boasting a vocal range that rivals Mariah Carey’s, Diane Schuur knows how to work a stage. This is the first stop on a year-long international tour. Grab a tissue and prepare to be blown away when she croons songs like “Send Me Someone to…
What constitutes punk rock? Is it a squad of Beach Boys fans donning leather jackets and crooning about drugs and fascists? A bunch of shabbily dressed sods cribbing their poorly executed licks from the New York Dolls catalogue? Sound? Attitude? Timing? What is that indefinable property of punk rock that…
J’Ouvert, a traditional sunrise party that takes place in Caribbean islands during Carnival season, has made its way to Miami Carnival. This celebration, which will go strong until the early morning, will feature the Exodus Steel Orchestra (Trinidad and Tobago), Pepper Pot Steel Orchestra (Daytona Beach), Tamboo Bamboo Steel Orchestra…
The sultry sounds of bossa nova are eternally soothing. One whiff of this music and you will instantly find yourself transported to a beachside café on Copacabana, enjoying warm sea breezes and strong coffee under a glowing moon. Derived from samba, but a bit slower and less complex, bossa nova…
In this hyperaccelerated digital age, when old methods of musical delivery quickly become outmoded relics, Q-Burns Abstract Message (born Michael Donaldson) is bringing the eight-track back! First he remixed Lawrence Welk, a strange bedfellow to other mixes he has done for the likes of the Chemical Brothers and Meat Beat…
Electric Six probably shouldn’t be taken seriously, because it’s obvious the bandmates themselves don’t: They go by pseudonyms like Dick Valentine and Rock N Roll Indian, and rhyme the words “Taco Bell” with “gates of Hell.” The sextet from Detroit keeps a little of that city’s signature garage fuzz-guitar sound,…
Raven-haired beauty Ivete Sangalo is the queen of Brazilian Carnaval. She made her break with the group Banda EVA before exploding as a solo act in 1999. A native of Bahia, Brazil’s seductive and sweltering northern state, she is known to draw crowds in the thousands to see her shows…
Born in Tacoma and bred in Seattle, Donald Glaude is a Washington man through and through. He has stayed in his home state throughout a blossoming career and even though more frequent trips to California might have easily led him to go Hollywood. Glaude has long held the Pacific Northwest…
Indie-rock quartet Aberdeen City’s sound is not particularly unique but perfectly appropriate for a rainy day. The group gained notoriety in Boston with the album The Freezing Atlantic before it was re-released nationwide in 2006. Atlantic is an accurately titled work, featuring instrumentations as big as an iceberg and droning…
The Square Egg is taking urban music from Cristal-sipping, club-banging hits that make you grind, to smooth, soulful poems that make you think. The antithesis of mass-produced pop ditties, the ten-piece band’s socially aware lyrics and musical inclination are a far cry from the crass lyrics and machine-produced beats ubiquitous…
