Somewhere Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz to name a couple are smiling, and probably jamming as well. And Oscar Hernandez should no doubt feel a sense of accomplishment. Hernandez, the founder and pianist for salsa ensemble Spanish Harlem Orchestra, recently set out to maintain the charged fusions of Afro-Caribbean rhythms…
This is not a disc by Harry Connick Jr. the suave, Frank Sinatra-like crooner or even the jazz pianist (who studied with Ellis Marsalis, father of Wynton and Branford). Instead, audiences are reintroduced to Connick the arranger/bandleader conferring a tribute to his native New Orleans on his latest disc, Chanson…
Q&A after the jump!…
Wondering what you’re missing in Ibiza this summer? Following, a couple interviews with some of this summer’s residents at megaclub Pacha. First, hometown hero, Space resident Cedric Gervais. Interview after the jump…
Jyrki69, frontman of the 69 Eyes Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Last night’s concert at Revolution marked the 69 Eyes’ first ever appearance in South Florida as headliners. Despite playing, and with the same lineup, for over fifteen years, the Helsinki, Finland-based quintet has remained something of a cult band in…
Astute observers have noted that his summer marks the fortieth anniversary of the Monterrey International Pop Festival, the event that established the blueprint for the rock festival concept and spawned the possibility of booking a variety of bands and artists to perform over the course of consecutive days in a…
Alejandro Fernandez Viento A Favor (Wind In My Favor) SONY BMG It’s a relatively different Alejandro Fernandez than what the masses have grown accustomed to after 15 solo albums and a career that has spanned the same number of years. But it also showcases a musically evolving and fresh sounding…
So Mr. Rogers is just creepy. I think most of us can agree on that. But every now and again, his shows were decent. Check this video out of Mr. Rogers getting a b-boy lesson… and try not to get creeped out. –Jonathan Cunningham…
Looks like another city is about to cancel Live Earth–the climate control awareness concert scheduled for this Saturday. The concerts are supposed to take place in various cities around the world and are stacked with all-star artists like Madonna, Jorge Ben Jor, Lenny Kravitz and lots more. But some cities…
You wouldn´t think ¨Invest in our children´s future¨ would mean buying a dusty set of turntables and a Gemini mixer, but in the case of WEDR-FM (99.1 Jamz) personality DJ Entice, his mother´s $100 was a worthy investment. ¨I was in high school and I always wanted to DJ,¨ Entice…
Judging by the brightly colored artwork on the cover of Paper Sky, singer/songwriter Ben Weaver´s fifth album, you can tell it´s a considerably less dour ride than Weaver´s previous offering, Stories Under Nails. The new album opens with a misty, atmospheric intro that almost bursts with optimism. Still, we´re talking…
In a roller-coaster career that´s nearing the 40-year mark, Paul McCartney has tallied his share of both successes (McCartney, Band on the Run, Flowers in the Dirt, and, most recently, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard) and embarrassments (McCartney II, anyone?). Consequently, the trumpeting of a new Macca opus brings…
When drawn from an oeuvre as iconic as Motown, the remodels included on this new disc, Motown Remixed 2, are to be unavoidably compared/contrasted with the original source material. To older folk who danced and fell in love to these songs in their heyday, remixes of classics might seem like…
Those of you hoping that the Smashing Pumpkins´ comeback record is an unmitigated disaster will be disappointed: It´s not. Those of you afraid that lead Pumpkin Billy Corgan made another The Future Embrace (his über-synthpop, somewhat-cheesy solo album) will be happy: He didn´t. With drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, the lone member…
Dr. Aljazz It´s always a plus when people have multiple talents. Some athletes paint; some hip-hop stars make movies. Nowadays, you almost need a second trade to make it in this world, and local gastroenterologist Dr. Albert Fernandez-Bravo understands this perfectly well. The local doctor, who goes by the name…
Tonight’s stop of Jesse Malin’s “Death and Taxes” tour, at Studio A, promises a bonus: openers Acute are hometown boys. Well, at least singer Isaac Lekach, 26, is. (Remember the basically one-man act, Poulain? That was him). Lekach went on a sort of vacation to Los Angeles a few years…
Somewhere Hector Lavoe and Celia Celia – to name a few – are smiling and probably jamming as well. And Oscar Hernandez should no doubt feel a sense of accomplishment. Hernandez, the founder and pianist for salsa ensemble Spanish Harlem Orchestra, set out to maintain the charged fusions of Afro-Caribbean…
It´s Saturday night at Tobacco Road in Miami, and the Heavy Pets are holding court upstairs. Funky environs and even funkier music have always converged at the Road, and tonight´s no exception, especially since it involves a group like the Heavy Pets, whose instrumental prowess and ability to fuse genres…
As pioneers of ¨trance fusion,¨ as they like to call it, electro-jam rockers the Disco Biscuits have made a name for themselves as innovators of the perpetual groove. By focusing on electronic effects, the Philadelphia-based group is known for finding creative ways to extend chords and sidestep the jam-band label…
KRS-One likes to pick a fight. Anyone who remembers anything about ¨The Bridge Wars,¨ the feud between KRS-One´s Boogie Down Productions and DJ Marley Marl´s Juice Crew featuring MC Shan that spawned a number of classic hip-hop songs in the early ´80s, knows that KRS started it. The Juice Crew´s…
J-Perk ¨Lauderdale¨ (Organized Confuzion) Sometimes, rappers borrow a beat from another producer, and it all turns out wrong. Either the hook isn´t right or the lyrical flow doesn´t match the bpm´s, and the result is almost never better than the original. But local rapper J-Perk and his Organized Confuzion affiliates…
Even with the flood of tribute albums besieging the marketplace in recent years — some worthy, most redundant — an homage to an album like the Clash´s Sandinista! seems an especially arduous undertaking. After all, the original LP was mind-numbingly schizophrenic, sprawling across three records, six sides, and a full…
