Best Solo Musician 2009 | Dino Felipe | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Miami | Miami New Times
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Best Solo Musician

Dino Felipe

Straight up, Dino Felipe is weird. This should come as no surprise given the local label through which he releases his music. Schematic is home of fellow freaks such as the scatologically obsessed Otto von Schirach. Dino doesn't tour much, blithely explaining it away with his lack of a job, driving skills, and a booking agent. No matter; he has gained a cult national reputation on the strength of his music alone, which can veer from experimental noise to post-punky cold wave, from ambient textures to strangely danceable rhythms. And if approval by geographic outsiders matters, well, last year the notoriously cranky critics at Pitchfork Media gave Felipe's No Fun demo a 7.2 (out of 10). Of course, his legend has been helped along by the Internet as well. Out-of-towners can use YouTube to witness parts of his legendary, somewhat rare live performances around town, which usually find him naked and sweating, Iggy Pop-style. Felipe might be as elusive as Sasquatch but, we promise, is 90 percent less hairy and 300 percent more entertaining.

Best Jazz Musician

Silvano Monasterios

Local jazz fans are lucky to have a star such as Silvano Monasterios playing in our mist. A bona fide piano prodigy, he was born in Venezuela and schooled at the University of Miami's prestigious music program. The always-cool Monasterios then stuck around the city and became the most admired and requested piano jazz man in town. He has performed with legends such as Paquito D' Rivera and Nestor Torres. In 2004, he won Downbeat magazine's Best Jazz Instrumental Soloist award. And in 2008, the Sammy Figueroa album The Magician — for which Monasterios wrote and produced two tracks — received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album. Monasterios's active schedule takes him all around the nation, but he still works his magic in Miami, where he routinely plays gigs at hot spots such as the Van Dyke, the Globe, and the Adrienne Arsht Center. If you love jazz, chances are you've seen Monasterios perform somewhere in Miami, where his flawless and cool piano work inspired your passion.

Best Acoustic Performer

The Big Bounce & Brendan O'Hara & Komakozie

South Beach loves music that inspires snorting lines or sweeping the ground with one's hind parts. But it's not so hot for the kind of melody that makes people swing-dance, two-step, and do the running man. Yet each Tuesday night at the Florida Room, the Big Bounce — Brendan O'Hara & Komakozie (comprising singer/piano man O'Hara, beatboxer Michael "Komakozie" Rodney, and a rotating band of artists consisting of an upright bassist, a trumpeter, a saxophonist, and a tap dancer) crank out tunes that can be described as the love child of KRS-One and Bob Dylan. And guess what? Ten fingers, ten toes, this baby is a gem. They play songs such as "Champagne and Apple Juice," a cheeky ditty about a steamy night out turned morning after that leaves the lovers thirsty for an unorthodox type of mimosa. The sound showcases O'Hara's pop-perfect potential to rock the airwaves, but when Komakozie adds his oral bass to a track such as "Mistress," you kinda want the pair to remain your little secret. Perhaps B & Koz should patent their time machine. Or better yet, maybe they should give some whacked-out perfumer an inch of their skin so the essence of blue-eyed soul and classic hip-hop vibes could be extracted, bottled, and placed gingerly into our icebox for the rest of eternity. Till then, we'll just take what they give us — a weekly residency on SoBe and countless other performances around the Magic City and the nation.

Best Percussionist

Joe Collado

Back in the '70s, when Joe Collado was a boy living in New York City, he was lucky enough to witness many of the greatest percussionists in the history of Latin music. It was during that time when Collado — taken in by the rhythms of Fania legends such as Ray Barretto and Mongo Santamaria — decided to become a real life conguero. So he began practicing and soon developed an exceptional style that mixes salsa with other popular styles such as reggae, Latin jazz, and even some good ol' rock 'n' roll. The past decade has seen Collado honing his skills around town with his superb group, the Latin Groove Project. He also moonlights with the exquisite Galo Rivera Band and a Santana tribute group. A truly creative percussionist, Collado has even played with some international salsa superstars, including the legendary Angel Canales. Never one to forget his salsa roots, and clearly passionate about his craft, Collado and his captivating congas will definitely lift you into a paradise of exotic rhythms.

Best Collaborator

Kentsoundz

Join us live, all stream-of-consciousness style, as we browse the MySpace page of local electro maven Kentsoundz, AKA Kent Hernandez. Oh, look up there in the music player. There's his well-loved tune "Not Goodbye" with folkster Raffa Jo Harris. It reminds us of those simpler times when we first heard the warm vocals of a more twee-inclined singer against the gentle electronic swells in the Postal Service. Except, unlike "Such Great Heights," we will never tire of this song. Ah, and here's a new one: a banger called "Jungle Fever" with singer/rapper Jason Scott. Let's take a look at the top friends: Junc Ops, his postapocalyptic rap project with PG-13; Tree Sounds, his soulful group with singer Treesa; as well as Cuci/Soundz, Sleepsoundz, and Inner City Bonfire, all projects Hernandez has been a part of. Unlike other hyper-collaborators, he's not hiding his musical shortcomings behind a constant stream of guest stars and side projects. Kentsoundz is the real deal and brings the best to whatever project he's working on.

Best Songwriter

Honor Roll Music

Around the turn of the 20th Century, the New York City songwriting collective that came to be known as Tin Pan Alley turned out some of the most memorable hits from that era. Sixty years later, the Brill Building housed legendary songsmiths such as Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Sedaka, whose output is something of legend. Fast-forward to present-day Miami and you'll find a similar songwriting force taking shape at Honor Roll Music — part label, part creative force for hire, all located in an unassuming white building in Little Haiti. Honor Roll and its founders — Nick Scapa and J. Reade Fasse — have amassed a roster of local notables including Awesome New Republic, Nick Kruge, Bob LaDue, and Dead Hookers Bridge Club (many of whom are graduates of UM's Frost School of Music). They've scored commercials for big campaigns such as Geico, State Farm, and Visa. They also created the score for Cocaine Cowboys II and placed songs in prime-time TV shows. Perhaps their catchiest collective effort to date is ANR's latest single, "Birthday." Originally shopped around as a single for a pop chanteuse (Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester infamously recorded a demo version), the infectious tune features writing contributions from all over the Honor Roll family. Some detractors might dismiss it as a songwriting factory, but if this is what they're capable of, we can only hope they make the assembly line work faster.

Best Tribute Act

Rockit to Russia

Die-hard Ramones fans will readily admit it doesn't take a lot of technical skill to faithfully reproduce the New York punk rockers' power-chord assault. What it takes, though, is a kind of scrappy joy that revels in that simplicity and harnesses it into a slap-happy party. South Florida's Rockit to Russia has plenty of that, as well as a near-obsessive devotion to the Ramones oeuvre. Not only have the members individually renamed themselves as Ramones (i.e., Nicky Ramone), those Ramones then, uh, play the real Ramones (i.e., Nicky Ramone as Joey Ramone). Heck, the guys of Rockit to Russia have even commented on New Times' music blogs in "character" (think, typing a lot of "Gabba gabba hey!"). You have to admire that kind of dedication and also the musicians' equal-opportunity spirit. They're quick to point out on their MySpace page that, among them, they speak Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French, Italian, and Japanese — perfect for all of your multiculti Ramones booking needs. Hey, ho, vamonos?

Best Band Name

The Electric Bunnies

This quartet's appellation is as plugged-in, fuzzed-out, and likeable as its lo-fi garage punk.

Best Band to Break up in the Past 12 Months

The Remnants

Since the Remnants' inception around 2004, the foursome had been a live favorite across the South Florida rock-dive circuit. The group was a grimy, swinging, rock 'n' roll outfit, led by firecracker frontwoman Cynthia DuVall, that described itself — quite appropriately — as "the Who fronted by Tina Turner." In fact, in 2005, New Times awarded DuVall Best Female Rock Vocalist, describing her as "the ass-kicking, sass-spewing, rock-star love child Janis and Iggy never had." Alas, day jobs and other real-life concerns led the Remnants to finally call it quits last year, giving South Florida a little less maximum rock and soul to go around.

Best Solo Album

Rachel Goodrich, Tinker Toys

It's been a good year for South Florida's quirky local indie darling, Rachel Goodrich, what with a glowing shout-out from the New York Times this past November and her official debut appearance at South by Southwest in the spring. It was all well deserved and timed with the October 2008 release of her debut full-length, Tinker Toys. Like the actual Tinkertoys, the album is sophisticated in its simplicity and a whole lot of fun. A real lover of whimsy, Goodrich eschews the typical singer/songwriter guitar in favor of a wider swath of instruments, applying liberal doses of harmonica, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, xylophone, and even kazoo. She toys with her voice as well, shifting from a breathy whisper to an almost bluesy sigh, sort of like Billie Holiday gone twee-pop (just try to imagine it). Rather than insufferably charming, though, the result is mentally indelible. For all her faux-naif trappings, Goodrich is an astonishingly mature crafter of melody, able to cinch clever wordplay and slightly hippied-out narrative into a recognizable pop structure. Occupying a rare creative space between the experimental stylings of acts such as CocoRosie and the polish of VH1 faves such as Sara Bareilles, Goodrich should soon rightfully take her place as South Florida's Next Big Thing.

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®

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