Lester Bowie Brass Fantasy The Odyssey of Funk & Popular Music (Atlantic) William Hooker The Distance Between Us (Knitting Factory) Delightfully audacious in both concept and execution, the new albums by revered jazz avant-gardists Lester Bowie and William Hooker are just the kind of screwball longplayers that are anathema for…
The Beta Band The Three E.P.s (Astralwerks) It struck me as odd to discover that Britain’s hottest new “techno” act, the Beta Band (in the States they’re on Astralwerks, a label shared by the Chemical Brothers, Air, and many other hip Euro-techno acts), actually sounds more like an older British…
Cuban bands have been touring the United States with such frequency these days that their appearances in American concert halls, at festivals, and in clubs almost seem commonplace, even in the politically charged environs of Miami. After all it was only a year ago that singer Issac Delgado and his…
They’ve been in self-parody mode for so long it’s safe to write them off these days, but give credit to the Cramps for this: They’ve steered numerous punk kids and hipsters toward some of the greatest lost classics in the pantheon of trashy rock, bizarro rockabilly, and fuzzy garage stomps…
“I thought I could find him before the police did,” Gary Indiana says with a laugh from his upstate New York home, referring to his initial attraction to the media spectacle that was the Andrew Cunanan manhunt. With the killing of Gianni Versace, however, a murder spree that already had…
Until recently the designation “big in Japan” was, for all intents and purposes, a slap in the face to most pop and rock musicians. Now with heavyweight trendsetting labels such as Matador and Grand Royal capitalizing on Japan’s newfound, growing, and supercool reputation for quixotic and innovative musical hodgepodges, other…
The word “cool” connotes many things, but when singer Cassandra Wilson uses it to describe her musical approach, she has a specific reference in mind. “I speak about coolness in terms of the Yoruba definition,” Wilson elucidates. “It’s a word that describes art and implies grace under pressure and a…
Blur 13 (Virgin) Around 1991 America was bracing itself for the dark antipop of grunge; Blur was not. “Taking the fun out of everything/Making me run when I don’t wanna think/Taking the fun out of everything/I don’t wanna think at all,” Damon Albarn sang on the band’s 1991 demi-hit “There’s…
Country music isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the name Wyclef Jean, whose work with the Fugees as well as numerous remixes for others has left an ubiquitous stamp on pop music. Still there he was, performing alongside the Mavericks, Brooks and Dunn, and Trisha…
Various Artists Roosevelt in Trinidad: Calypsos of Events, Places, and Personalities 1933-1939 (Rounder) The 1930s were a tumultuous decade. The Great Depression took hold. Hitler rose to power. King Edward VII abdicated. And Atilla the Hun invaded New York City. Along with Atilla came Roaring Lion, Growling Tiger, King Radio,…
Next to Coolio, Prince Paul may be rap’s best sport. Consider the Handsome Boy Modeling School, a duo featuring producer and ex-Gravedigga Paul (a.k.a. Paul Huston) and Dr. Octagon’s the Automator (Dan Nakamura), and its inauspicious showing at the 1998 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. Crammed into…
Given the subgenre’s infatuation with honky-tonk fatalism and singer/songwriter angst, it’s no wonder the roots rockers who populate the landscape of altcountry are such a sad, mopey, inward-thinking bunch. Few of the ironically dubbed “No Depression” crew, however, have expanded the vocabulary of depressive expoundings with the lyrical flair and…
At first glance it looked like the everyday scene in the lobby of Havana’s stately Hotel Nacional. Foreigners in khaki shorts and sundresses were standing around the buzzing high-ceilinged hall or loading up at the vast breakfast buffet in the cafeteria. But during the third week in March, the crowd…
While the making of music and the making of sculpture are unquestionably considered art, the making of new musical instruments falls into a grayer area. It’s a no man’s land German artist Trimpin understands. “Twenty years ago people didn’t know how to classify me,” Trimpin says from his Seattle home…
Although the legendary Blind Willie McTell spent time here in the ’30s, Miami has never been a major blues center. In fact Miami is unusual in that a thriving soul and R&B scene actually preceded a blues scene of any importance. In the mid-’60s R&B flourished in Overtown clubs such…
Churchill’s, the Little Haiti nightspot famed for underground rock, has always relished its reputation as a club situated on the wrong side of the tracks. The locale adds a bohemian tinge that gibes well with owner Dave Daniels’s insistence on maintaining an oasis of unpretentiousness in a town whose nightlife…
“It’s an adventure you can still have in America, just like Neal Cassady on the road. You can’t hop the freights anymore, but you can chase the Grateful Dead around,” Jerry Garcia explained in a 1989 interview. “You can have all your tires blow out in some weird town in…
Jimi Hendrix Live at the Fillmore East (MCA) The Jimi Hendrix catalogue has been revamped and remixed so many times you may be forgiven if you lost interest somewhere along the way. Currently the Hendrix family itself is involved in reissuing Jimi’s music and the focus has been on restoring…
Weekday evenings, Al B. Sylk hosts the most effective ten minutes of urban community radio in Miami. During Sylk’s nightly “roll call,” teenagers from Kendall to Opa-Locka phone in to rap about their names, their neighborhoods, their friends, and whatever else they think identifies them — a kind of on-air…
“If you want to get energized about dance music, go to London for a few days,” declared DJ Times editor Jim Tremayne at the opening panel for this year’s Winter Music Conference. “It’s the mainstream there!” Of course Tremayne could have just stepped out onto the streets of Miami. The…
Van Morrison Back on Top (Pointblank/Virgin) Van Morrison can only blame himself for the daunting expectations that greet his every move. How else to approach a man who penned the all-time garage classic “Gloria,” wrote one of the most distinctively soulful singles of the ’60s, “Brown Eyed Girl,” then created…
Dusty Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month. Queen Elizabeth II made her an officer of the British Empire this past December. But the woman with the husky voice that conveyed unendurable sadness and left an indelible mark on pop music won’t get a…
