Pianist and composer Manuel Valera is not interested in the usual Latin licks over post-bop beats, but in the shape of cubano jazz to come. On his new CD, Forma Nueva, he’s joined by the adventuresome John Patitucci on bass and rim shot master Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez on drums,…
Genre-defying. You’ve heard it too many times. Perhaps it’s our own laziness that makes us draw comparisons between similar bands, or maybe we are just truly impressed by our own ability to style-hop. Either way, we often like to come up with new tags that generally roll off the tongue…
With a more polished sound than fellow youngblood Don Omar’s, and a fresher, more chiseled face than the genre’s godfather, Tego Calderon, Daddy Yankee is reggaeton’s newly crowned prince. While his tight, tropical opus, Barrio Fino, sits comfortably atop the Billboard Latin album charts, another hit collaboration with N.O.R.E., “Oye…
With George W. Bush in office for another four years and Castro recovering from his fall, it seems most gringos may never know the apolitical pleasure of riding with a lover, two to a bike, along Havana’s Malecón as the waves lap against the seawall and a seductive son resounds…
Back in 1995 an unknown singer named Richie Spice hit the Jamaican charts with the funky reggae tune “Living Ain’t Easy.” Over the next few years his lover’s rock ditty “Grooving My Girl” and the spirited keyboard-and-bass-driven “Earth A Run Red,” which emphasized the plight of suffering ghetto youths, also…
It was about one year ago when Lance O’Brien explained his mission to me. He had rescued me from the Shell station on the corner of Douglas and Bird, where a mechanic was working out the kinks on my car’s cracked cooling fan. Driving through the South Grove looking for…
With the release of Survivor in 2001, Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Knowles proved once and for all that despite the roster changes, the bad press, and the drama, they are the world’s best packaged R&B supergroup, a perfect triumvirate of strength, talent, and beauty. Three years later, and…
On her fourth solo album Real, reggaeton diva Ivy Queen adapts her confident, raspy vocals to a wide range of styles, including the lilting Haitian compas rhythms of “Dile” (“Tell Her”), the bhangra-flavored “Baila Asi” (“Dance Like This”), the acoustic guitar ballad “Angel Caido” (“Fallen Angel”), and “Tocame” (“Caress Me”),…
The winter season often makes everything better for Floridians who’ve had it with the nine months of summer. Welcome the cool weather with a little class and a little jazz at the Bass Museum with the Billy Sun Ray Trio. Pianist Billy Ray, drummer Howard Moss, and bassist Jim Kessler…
Ari K Sundays, Raleigh Hotel Ari Kuschnir is an advocate and fan of broken beat, that British dance phenomenon that blends elliptical beats, a house sensibility, and all sorts of world beat goodness. From his early sets at Tommy Pooch’s Soiree Sundays party to the Nu Groove, his 11:00 p.m…
Seven years ago, if you were lucky, you might have caught an awkward scene unfolding in South Beach: five longhaired guys walking down the city’s streets, clad in Che Guevara T-shirts and looking distinctly out of place. “We played a small club in Miami as part of a tour that…
Russell Simmons and William “Upski” Wimsatt couldn’t be more different. As the cofounder and principal force behind Def Jam, one of the most recognizable brands in the music industry, the 45-year-old Simmons is part businessman, part celebrity; the Village Voice recently called him “president-for-life of hip-hop America.” The 31-year-old Wimsatt…
“I’m not sure how much time I have to do an interview,” writes David “Avey Tare” Porter, guitarist for the four-man Brooklyn crew critics are calling the coolest experimental musicians on the scene, in an e-mail. The unofficial guru of the group Animal Collective is sending his message from Iceland,…
Every culture needs a mentor to thrive. For the much-maligned world of independent hip-hop, MF Doom is a beloved father figure, an eccentric who briefly thrived in the early Nineties rap world as a member of KMD, before the duo was banished for featuring a Sambo cartoon in a noose…
Sonic alchemist Ricardo Villalobos releases his follow up to last year’s heralded Alcachofa, merging his affinity for danceable jams with the psychedelic tribal dint of Krautrock collectives such as Amon Düül and Neu! This fresh approach blurs the line between improvisation and prerecorded beats. On the opening track, “Hireklon,” flamenco…
After scolding Chali 2NA to get a “real job” on Quality Control, her son’s full-length bow as a member of Jurassic 5, Mama 2NA opens this new mix CD by calling him from the fish market, launching this seventeen-cut lead-in to Chali’s solo debut next year. A compilation of previously…
On U Gotta Believe, the English-language half of the two-disc set Inevitable, it’s clear why ex-Proyecto Uno member Magic Juan hasn’t quite seduced the Anglo masses. On ambitious tracks like “Fresh ta Death” he spits bars hyperactively, but there’s no flow to them. He sounds best when he’s mellow and…
On So…How’s Your Girl?, the faux-stylish studs in Handsome Boy Modeling School (a.k.a. super producers Prince Paul and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura) emptied their imaginations and Rolodexes, creating an alternate musical universe with room for everyone from Mike D to Father Guido Sarducci. Yet while the follow-up, White People, is…
Along with singer Ian McCulloch’s morose croon, guitarist Wil Sergeant’s sizzling fretwork helped mold the moody, atmospheric ambiance that nudged Echo and the Bunnymen to Eighties prominence. Sergeant’s latest solo outing under the guise of Glide finds him singlehandedly playing guitars and keyboards while integrating treatments and effects in a…
Unlike other country & western stars, Pacific Northwest chanteuse Neko Case doesn’t traffic in heartache, but comeuppance. “You get what you deserve,” she sings atop twangy noir like a bruised yet not battered Nancy Sinatra-meets-Patsy Cline. Case, for her part, has no regrets as to what she gives, which, on…
Philadelphia musician Matt Pond sings about the topics sensitive souls usually write about in their poetry chapbooks: walking through forests and river streams, suffering through emotional talks, and straining for physical contact. This is a good thing, though, as he and his band, as evinced on the recently released Emblems,…
After opening up for John Digweed at crobar back in August, Bedrock stalwart Desyn Masiello is returning to Miami for a solo showcase of his own. The Londoner will be appearing in support of his new mix CD, OS.O_1, a solid mix that segues from ambient techno-trance to psychedelic progressive…
