So, who’s the DJ?” asks the tourist, her hands juggling two lit cigarettes, a green drink, and a disposable camera. She hands one cigarette to her friend and puts her thumb on the camera’s trigger, poised to capture the next big thing, or the current thing — or anything. Below…
The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, when New Yorkers took everybody by surprise and turned South Beach into a Cristal-poppin’ thong-droppin’ playground, four rappers from Washington Heights found themselves stranded on the sidewalk in front of Level alongside hundreds of other frustrated revelers. Funny thing is, hip-hop outfit Fulanito was…
Imagine singing in front of a packed house, lights shining brightly from above, jazz legend Stan Getz behind you, blowing breathy tones on his tenor sax, and your mother harmonizing by your side. Now imagine the stage is Carnegie Hall, and you, the singer, are all of nine years old…
Everything is overlabeled now,” Against All Authority guitarist Joe Koontz asserts during some rare downtime at a chiropractor’s office where he works as a masseur. “In the Eighties bands like the Circle Jerks and Bad Brains would play together — bands with totally different sounds — and no one would…
It’s a surprise right up there with hearing rap at a nursing home. Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando Cachaito Lopez busts out of the senior activity center for señors with a genre-bursting release worthy of a youngster. But few urchins could wield the know-how to carry off Cachaito by…
Why do Euro-electronica acts tease us with sexy albums we can get down to, only to follow them up with moody, dark albums we can’t? Massive Attack did it with Mezzanine, the followup to Protection. Portishead did it with its self-titled followup to Dummy. Tricky, well, who knows where his…
Three records spin simultaneously. Promoters, friends, and unfamiliar faces clamor for attention. Below the DJ booth, a hungry crowd of hundreds impatiently awaits the next track. If you don’t have Attention Deficit Disorder, you’ll get it quickly. Luckily DJ Tracy Young has learned to use ADD to her advantage. “You…
Cabarets are where you can hear people’s hearts beat,” offers Raquel Bitton, talking on the phone from her San Francisco home. She, of all people, should know. Her current touring tribute to Edith Piaf and her 30 years’ experience on small-club stages make Bitton one of the foremost experts on…
When the lineup of the first-ever JVC Jazz Festival-Miami Beach was announced, excitement and a certain wariness gripped South Florida jazz fans: anticipation for the possibility of luring topnotch talent promised by the prestigious JVC name; caution about the chances of enduring yet another mediocre musical mixed bag. Just a…
Back in 1978 the Paul Winter Consort made a kind of musical history on the disc Common Ground by incorporating the calls of wolves, birds, and humpback whales into the group’s material. Ancient Future upped the ante in 1981 with the interspecies recording Natural Rhythms, which found Matthew Montfort interacting…
Club Nation America, the latest compilation from Ultra Records, combines the talents of superstar DJs Johnny Vicious of NYC and the United Kingdom’s own Tall Paul to form a transatlantic sound so global it effortlessly stirs together tribal, house, and trance. With an unmistakable European vibe, the double-CD set blends…
Panama-born Danilo Perez never intended to be a diplomat. Maybe an electrical engineer. Definitely a jazz pianist. But a job in government? No way. Nevertheless Perez can now add the title cultural ambassador to his résumé. Last year Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso appointed Perez an official keeper of his country’s…
Autechre, the British posteverything electronic duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown, can count on a warm reception in Miami. Much has been said of the unlikely nexus of Jeep and laptop culture in South Florida that stirred an affinity for Autechre’s cerebral aesthetic at the local Schematic Music Company…
Have amplifier, will travel. Cuban singer-songwriter Poveda never misses an opportunity to perform, whether at scheduled shows in the funky dives of Little Havana or on a street corner near you. Not averse to playing with a band (as the rambling roster of his sometime ensemble Los Bloomers de Havana…
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…
