When I first passed through the narrow iron entryway to Radical Café Bar one year ago, I was reminded of Lezama Lima’s novel Paraiso, that sensual paradise where rhythm runs through the body and is expressed by a word or a glance. At the far end of the patio where…
First things first: Yes, this is the album whose cover was to feature the group members blowing up the World Trade Center. The Coup, hip-hop’s most notorious Marxists, have been calling for an attack on capitalism for a long time, and their album design was simply the victim of bad…
Dude, did you know “god” spelled backward is “dog”? Yeah. Well, DMX might actually subscribe to this kind of bong-load theology, because his canine-laden references to himself have made a serious transition throughout his career. The exultant woof-woofs of “Where My Dogs At?” have evolved to the point where, on…
Once upon a time, the city of Mostar was considered a model for how fractious ethnic communities could learn to live together. The Bosnian war changed everything, although amid the general destruction, groups of musicians struggled to instill a small sense of normalcy. Meeting by candlelight, they quietly assembled to…
Damian Marley, 24-year-old son of Robert Nesta and Jamaica’s 1977 Miss World, Cindy Breakspeare, has his father’s dreads, his mother’s pretty face, and a raspy, just-out-of-bed vocal style all his own. On his sixteen-track sophomore outing, Halfway Tree, the youngest Marley’s sing-song delivery would grow tired fast were it not…
When Paquito Hechavarria and German Pifferrer were kids, mambo was new and Dámaso Perez Prado ruled. “I remember when I was little, I used to sit at the piano,” says the 62-year-old Hechavarria, spreading his plump fingers and pounding the air just above the glass table where he sits on…
In a small storefront chapel in a typical neighborhood of San Francisco, between a corner market and an African fabric store, sits the Church of John Coltrane, where members meet twice a week to praise the Lord through the music and spirit of the late jazz legend. If Coltrane is…
South Florida is starving for reggae music. Given our proximity to Jamaica, reggae bands should find rich fields of West Indian immigrants within which to flourish. Aside from stumbling upon stacks of old roots records played by Lauderhill patty-shop proprietors or late-night public-radio retro Rastafarians, however, we’re infected with the…
It all started with a dress. A white dress with black polka dots and red trim. Crinoline skirt. Red belt. Red shoes. Like Minnie Mouse wears. Only this is TMarie, at age six. She is competing for Tiny Miss Miami 1994. Her hair is pulled back in a poof. Her…
Whenever two or more people gather in the name of big, audacious, open-minded art, anything heavenly or earthly may result. Bring together the talents of Cuban-born violin contrarian Alfredo Triff and Brazilian composer and saxophonist Livio Tragtenberg, and all of pop culture — not to mention the traditional rhythms of…
When Miami superclub Space first took to representing its sound on CD, it delivered a trance-heavy salvo by DJ Edgar V. called Trancemissions. Since that release the club has undergone major renovations, and its latest release, The House Sessions (Bliss Records), still includes the progressive trance sound, this time courtesy…
There’s a gaggle of underage girls gawking at the band on the far side of Finnegan’s 2 on Saturday night: blond, late teens, ponytails. The doorman might keep them from setting foot inside, but they don’t mind catching what they can from Lincoln Road, leaning against one another for support…
When Cezar Santana arrives, acoustic guitar in hand, at Gil’s Café on 71st Street near Collins Avenue, he expects the unexpected. He’d received a call from his friend Gil Santos, inviting him to take a turn at the new café Santos was about to open in NoBe, the increasingly South…
I don’t want to be known as Cancer Boy for the rest of my life,” sighs Eric Alexandrakis. “You know, “That musical cancer guy.’ But it is a marketable thing.” Alexandrakis, a Miami-based multi-instrumentalist who produces homemade pop songs in relative isolation, doesn’t make his bouts with Hodgkin’s disease the…
On October 15, 2001, Derrick Morgan was awarded the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican government for his enormous contribution to the distinct culture of the island. “I’m so humbled that my country really recognized me and give me this honor before I’m dead, because many people get this honor…
In the freezing pressroom, a husky man in his early forties shivers in shorts and a T-shirt and eyes the sandwiches set out on the table for whoever has a hankering. He rubs his arms, shakes his legs, and takes a deep breath before talking about his latest release, En…
In his tiny bedroom at the top of the steep, white-tiled stairs of his family’s modest South Miami-Dade townhouse, Richard Rippe strikes a blow against everything that is wrong with the music industry. The 24-year-old’s Afro-topped, six-foot-three frame is folded over his Apple PowerBook, his long fingers gently brushing the…
Matthew Sabatella is back to music-making after his self-imposed three-years-plus immersion in cyberspace. Putting his own music career in mothballs, Sabatella set up the online music company SlipstreamPresents.com in early 1998. This week he’s finally found the time to release a followup to his 1997 album, Where the Hell Am…
In the recording industry, a picture can be worth more than a thousand words. For Puerto Rican model-turned-singer Shalim, a picture in the hands of Emilio Estefan, Jr., was worth a recording contract. The son of singer and comedian Charytin and television producer Elin Ortiz has been in front of…
Punk/ska/reggae band The Monjees is currently at work at the University of Miami studio recording what will be its first album, due out early next year. Singer Paul Orehovec and his fellow Monjees — Andrew Stoch (trombone, keyboards), Aaron Seiden (bass), Jason May (drums), and Harry Gamez (guitar) — together…
Omar Gonzalez speeds down the highway in a burgundy minivan to a gig at the Marlin Hotel. “I hope this promoter doesn’t make a big deal about being late,” says the Oski Foundation frontman as he switches lanes. Heavyset and five foot eleven, the man known as Oski is calm…
A few hours before the annual Power 96 (WPOW-FM 96.5) blowout at the American Airlines Arena, DJ Eddie Mix eases down among the empty seats and adjusts his backward baseball cap. As music director for “the most listened-to station in South Florida,” Eddie lives up to his name by mixing…
