With 30 years under her belt as a singer and an actress, Paloma San Basilio is something of a Spanish icon. She’s starred in such theatrical revivals in Madrid as The Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, Victor/Victoria and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita and she’s released close to 30…
Let’s say tomorrow rolls around and you finally manage to tear yourself away from CNN’s round-the-clock coverage of all things Michael Jackson to celebrate the birth of our nation and the day Will Smith freed us from alien annihilation. You find yourself on South Beach for some Fourth of July…
Don’t spend this Fourth of July in a drunken (and perhaps drug-addled) haze. You’ve been doing that and sitting in the back of your friend’s hatchback going oooh and aaah to the fireworks for far too long. Why not try something different, with just as much wow factor. Like what?…
Gloria Estefan recently recorded a colabo with Hank Williams Jr. for the football classic, “Are You Ready For Some Football”, which will open all three nationally televised games this year (two on ESPN and a Monday Nighter against the Jets on October 12). It should be fun to hear her…
Que bola, mi gente? It’s about that time yet again to proudly don some Cubaneo. What? You know you love it. Even if you’re not Cuban, there’s no denying that we make some great grooves for shakin’ your ass to.Providing an immediate opportunity for you to partake in some of…
The lights go down. You smell a pungent but familiar scent swirling in the air. No, not hippie sweat, though there’s plenty of that too. It’s not weed — the free-love crowd prefers to call it “pot, man.” Then, from somewhere nearby, you hear the inevitable cry. Play some Skynyrd,…
It’s nearly impossible to write a concise description of Juan Luis Guerra that sums up his accomplishments and accurately conveys just what he has meant to not only the tropical genre. Especially within about 200 words — it’s a little like trying to dig a ditch with a spoon or…
Orishas is a Yoruban word referring to spirits or deities, which are essentially manifestations of the god Orun. It is also the name adopted by what is arguably one of the most significant and original offerings to the Latin genre in the past 10 years. Comprised of Roldan Gonzalez, Hiram…
Concha Buika is not your traditional flamenco singer. Originally born in Equatorial Guinea, she grew up near a gypsy community on the island of Mallorca in Spain –a perfect place for such an artist to lay her foundation. But hers is a non-traditional take on Spain’s most traditional sound. Influences…
Know what I want to do? Coin a phrase. You know, like I’ll use it here and soon people will be employing it elsewhere, like in everyday conversation. What better way to truly indulge, or perhaps abuse, my access to the masses? Ideally, it’d be some nearly nonsensical word that defies…
Have you ever wondered what Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” would sound like with a bossa nova makeover? No? Me neither. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. And that’s exactly the sort of thing that Liset Alea and the SeXy TRiO plan to do tonight at the Viceroy’s…
Vous etre un chien! That means, “you are a dog” in French. It’s not terribly impressive, but it’s all I managed to retain from a year of introductory French in freshman year of Christopher Columbus High School, before I got kicked out and began my extensive tour of SoFla’s high…
Hippies of South Florida, unite! Grab that favorite tie-dyed T-shirt from the pile of clothes in the corner of your room — you know, the one composed of stuff too dirty for the closet but not quite ready for a wash. Shine up your Birkenstocks, break out your hacky sacks,…
Imagine for a moment what it would be like to grow up on a 40-foot boat, sailing around the Caribbean, taking in the various island cultures, and soaking up their sounds. By day, you study — math and geography by charting courses on maps, history by talking to the natives,…
Mishka is not your average reggae singer. For one thing, he was the first artist signed to j.k. livin’, a record label founded by Hollywood’s own Matthew McConaughey. But he is the embodiment of all those quintessential underlying themes that have made the genre what it is–a deep-seeded love for…
It’s not easy to come up with something new to say about Locos Por Juana. Fact is, we’ve lavished them with praise time and again, and deservedly so. But how many times can one write about their stellar blend of cumbia, reggae, hip-hop, rock, and tropical flavors? How many times can…
Ah, to be 13 again! Do you remember what it was like? You’re still mostly innocent, but just corrupted enough by the raging hormones that puberty bring so you’re starting to have fun. If you were a boy, you just started sprouting peach fuzz around your nether regions not long…
One Jagger too many?What do you get when you cross a bass line that can’t decide between bubblegum bouncy and driving like a Mack truck, guitars that go from subtle to psycho in one second flat, keyboards that quiver like a speedball junkie, drums that alternately whisper and crash in…
Let me paint you a picture. It’s a little hazy, but that’s just pot smoke (in the story, I swear). The year is 1969 in L.A., and Frank Zappa has just handed vocalist-guitarist Lowell George his walking papers from the Mothers of Invention. Some legends contend Zappa thought he showed…
You may not be familiar with Little Feat, but you sure as hell should. They’ve been around for 40 years, during which time they’ve worked and shared the stage with some of music’s true legends, artists running the gamut from Jimmy Buffet to Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews to Vince Gill,…
Geez, I’m really torn here. Part of me wanted to start this post by singing, “Llevaba medias negras / Y me robó el corazón!” But then I’d be leaving out the equally worthy, “Oxigeno! Esa mujer me da oxigeno / Con su sonrisa simpatico / Con su presencia magnifica!” It’s…
Incomparable. Electrifying. Unforgettable. Those are just a few of the words that have typically been used to describe the legendary Celia Cruz throughout her long and illustrious career, and even posthumously since she lost her battle with cancer six years ago. The praise is more than justified, and the title…
