When Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela were both sixteen years old, they applied to the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and both were rejected. This may have been the best thing that ever happened to the pair, setting them off on a fiercely independent and largely unprecedented path.

Early fans of the extraordinary duo may have heard about Tierra Ácida (Acid Land), the thrash metal band they left behind to set out as a duo on an adventure that is still unfolding. When Rodrigo y Gabriela were in town recently for their show at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, I had a chance to sit down with Gabriela whose brilliance on guitar is only matched by her incandescent smile.

We spoke about her role as the group’s rhythmic engine and how it grew along with the enthusiasm of their audiences. She also offered insights into their new album, In Between Thoughts…A New World, and discussed how they recorded it spontaneously during the pandemic in the same spirit as the musicians on the fated Titanic. She also explained how Rodrigo’s playing on his Fender Jaguar was a natural evolution following 2019’s Grammy-winning Mettavolution, and how the orchestral and electronic parts came to be.

Finally, she touched on how their own spirituality, specifically their connection with the ancient Hindu tradition of Advaita Vedanta, helped to create a blueprint for the album as well as a headspace for their performances.

Later, they also recorded three songs live for WFUV, all taken from In Between Thoughts … A New World: “True Nature,” “Egoland,” and “Descending to Nowhere.”  Hear them along with the chat HERE.

The music of Hermanos Gutiérrez brings you to another place. It’s a place of saguaro cacti and miles of sun-baked sand. If you’re a fan of spaghetti Westerns, it may suggest a love of Ennio Morricone and perhaps even evoke images of characters named Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco in Sergio Leone’s 1966 epic, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

The title of the band’s new album, El Bueno Y El Malo, is a wink at that film that gives the Ugly the day off. Brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez are an instrumental duo from Switzerland. Listen to an interview and see 3 live musical performances at WFUV Live here.

Hermanos Gutiérrez photo credit: Gus Philippas

In their first visit to New York this month as part of Globalfest, Jupiter & Okwess, who hail from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stole the show with a frenetic, joyful performance that represented the catholic spirit of the annual event put on by its not for profit namesake organization.   

As festival organizers endured its first year operating under the Trump Regime, fans survived a wickedly cold New York night to support artists from around the world who managed to gain visas and share their musical gifts stateside.  After years at Webster Hall which is currently closed for renovations, BB Kings in Times Square served as the venue for the 15th annual showcase as artists played the main room and a second stage at Lucille’s as well as across the street at the Liberty Theater.  Frontman Jupiter Bokonjdi (in red hat) is long on charisma and his band Okwess plays a fresh and refreshing blend of Congolese, Pan-African, and international styles.   

With a locked in rhythm section, Jupiter & Okwess comes off an original amalgam that hits like a very dangerous and uplifting afrofunk band.  I couldn’t understand a word their multiple vocalists were singing but I was sure I could get behind it. This band has been around the block a few times and won some fans.  A documentary film entitled Jupiter’s Dance was released in 2006 and their most recent album Troposphere 13 included appearances by Warren Ellis and Damon Albarn.

Did I mention their drummer wears a mask reminiscent of Mexican wrestlers!

Other standouts among the dozen artists of Globalfest 2018 were a pair of Paris based acts.  The trio Delgres, remarkable for their unusual instrumentation of guitar, drums, and sousaphone, provided unexpected counterpoint to tough bluesy riffs played by guitarist Pascal Danae whose vocal range included a falsetto lilt that recalled Aaron Neville.  The Cuban fireball La Dame Blanche nee Yaite Ramos Rodriguez, owned the stage while infecting the crowd with happy feet through Cumbia rooted rhythms that nodded to hip hop and dancehall.  She played percussion and flute too!

Here’s a flashback to Globalfest 2016:

And the last shot goes to Jupiter & Okwess members on the street with WFUV evening DJ, my pal Alisa Ali!  

Ladysmith Black Mambazo elevated the spirits of those in attendance at BB Kings on March 8th with a show that featured generations of singers.  The passing of the torch from the elders of the group to younger members is evidenced by the title of their most recent album, last year’s Walking In The Footsteps Of Our Fathers.  Albert Mazibuko, who has been a member since 1969, explained in an interview before the show that for the first time the ‘junior choir’  led the charge as far as the song selection and the arrangements on the album.   The junior choir includes founder Joseph Shabalala’s sons Sibongiseni Shabalala, Thamsanqa Shabalala, and Thulani Shabalala.

The group whose first incarnation appeared in 1960 resulted from a recurring dream that Joseph Shabalala had which taught him how to blend voices as well as how to breathe properly while mixing dancing with singing.  His vision was unique and Ladysmith Black Mambazo quickly differentiated themselves from other vocal groups rooted in Zulu traditions.  Of course a huge moment in the history of the band, and one that catapulted them to international fame, was teaming up with Paul Simon on the Graceland album released in 1986.  The sessions in London produced Homeless and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes and led to vastly expanded opportunities for touring and working with musicians from around the world.  

It was not a big part of the conversation but I did ask Albert Mazibuko to offer a kind of last word to those who condemn or condemned both Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the man from Flushing for breaking the cultural boycott of South Africa under Apartheid.  He stated simply that those people were/are confused as the point of the boycott was to prevent artists from visiting the country and making money while the status quo continued.  The collaboration with Paul Simon gave them a platform to talk about the oppression that was going on at that time.  The history of South Africa as well as the group’s friendship with Nelson Mandela until his death in 1999 and their continued role as cultural ambassadors suggest any criticism they received was misplaced.  The Apartheid system was officially abolished in 1991 and, as Mazibuko remarked, the message of Ladysmith Black Mambazo evolved from struggle to development.  

A tremendous lineup headed by Patti Smith and Iggy Pop has been unveiled for this year’s Tibet House benefit concert happening Thursday, March 16th at Carnegie Hall.  Laurie Anderson, Alabama Shakes, and Sufjan Stevens as well as Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham, and Tom Chapman of New Order will all perform along with Philip Glass who – besides being a brilliant composer – has been a pillar of Tibet House since its inception.  If you click on that last link you can see how many cool movies like The Hours, Kundun, Dracula and Hamburger Hill that Glass has written scores for as well as what’s brewing for his 80th birthday concert season. Among the offerings of the octogenary celebration is an appealing opportunity to see and hear members of the Philip Glass Ensemble offering a live interpretation of the music he composed for Jean Cocteau’s film La Belle et la Bête at Town Hall.

The beneficiary of the benefit concert, Tibet House US, is located at 22 West 15th Street and include… a gallery, exhibition space, and the spiffy room where Glass generously sat down with me last year to speak about the event and its reason for being.  As the interview with Glass took place not many weeks after the death of David Bowie, I’ve included a bonus video here as his remarks about him are worth sharing.  His relationship with Bowie was such that he based symphonies on two of the albums –Heroes and Low –that Bowie made with Brian Eno in the Berlin trilogy.  In addition, to which he alludes, he crossed paths with him quite a bit in the first few years of the century when Bowie recorded at Looking Glass Studios in Soho.  Glass reveals he may yet complete a symphony for Lodger to complete the trilogy with Heroes and Low…

Pedrito Martinez Group Hitting Subrosa Next Two Tuesdays: 10-18 & 10-25-16

Pedrito Martinez is undeniably a demon on percussion and his interest in the music and culture of countries around the world, along with his spiritual approach to his own, helps elevate his hot quartet. He’s an intuitive bandleader and compelling artist on album as well as on stage.

Pianist, trumpeter, arranger and composer Edgar Pantoja-Aleman grew up about as far away from Martinez as possible while still being in the same country as Martinez is from Havana and Pantoja-Aleman is from Santiago de Cuba. Since settling in New York in 2008, about a decade after Martinez, there has been no distance between the countrymen as their interplay is a defining characteristic of the band.

Atop his years studying his native Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Martinez has embraced South American traditions introduced by band members. Alvaro Benavides, who won a scholarship to the Berklee School of music as a young man in Venezuela, uplifts the quartet with virtuosic bass playing. Martinez pointed out the wonderful folklore of Peru also has a bearing on the music. He met Jhair Sala when the latter was only eight years old when they were introduced by a family member. Martinez took the young Peruvian born New Yorker under his wing and now they share a chemistry and kinship brought by thousands of hours of playing together.

Guantanamera is restaurant a couple of blocks south of Columbus Circe where Martinez earned his reputation in the city. That’s where artists like Roger Waters, Steve Winwood, and Eric Clapton joined him on stage. As word spread, he was recruited by Sting and his Rainforest Foundation which led to playing with other heavy hitters like Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, James Taylor, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.

Subrosa in the Meatpacking District, that specializes in Latin and World music, is his new home. Habana Dreams is his new album. Recorded largely in Havana last year, it includes guest spots from Ruben Blades, Wynton Marsalis and Angelique Kidjo.

Femi Kuti Brings Positive Force To Prospect Park – July 23, 2016

Swirling, intoxicating polyrhythms emanated from Prospect Park on Saturday night. Undeterred by the wicked New York City heatwave that’s been torching the five boroughs of late, fans of Femi Kuti packed the band shell for a free show from the Nigerian bandleader and multi-instrumentalist. (He plays keyboards and trumpet as well as the sax he is most famous for.) Kuti made it worth every drop of sweat that it cost. His concerts combine overtly political songs with celebratory fervor. The message is transmitted by the words and music equally: work towards social justice and against corruption but do it with a loving heart, smiling face, and dancing feet!

I had the opportunity to speak to Femi once before, about three years ago at Webster Hall, when his album No Place For My Dream was new. In both interviews, inevitably I suppose, the subject of his father Fela Kuti came up. The takeaway from the first conversation was that a defining difference between Femi and Fela is song length with the former favoring five minute compositions over the latter’s thirty minute ones. What struck me this time was Femi’s willingness to break the strict rules of his father and incorporate non-traditional sounds to the Afrobeat including elements of electronics and hip hop. Kuti’s Fight to Win in 2001 featured collaborations with artists like Mos Def and Common and he pointed to the Shoki Shoki album of 1998 as an example of bringing the form to a new place.

He introduced some new material in the set this time around and is optimistic about a new record being released next year. Don’t miss Femi Kuti tonight (Wednesday, July 27th) at Brooklyn Bowl.

This show was part of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn concert series that includes a free show from the super fab Angelique Kidjo this Friday.

Youssou N’Dour & his longtime band Le Super Etoile de Dakar at BAM; May 20 (and 21) 2016

Youssou N’Dour is one of the most famous singers in the world and is without doubt the African artist with the greatest name recognition both on his home continent and off it. His work with Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon in the eighties on the So and Graceland albums introduced him to the fans of those artists. His participation in the Human Rights Now Tour, along with Springsteen, Sting, Gabriel, and Tracy Chapman in 1988 further raised his profile. I was among an intimate group of 100,000, seated approximately one mile from the stage, at the old – and then on its last legs – JFK Stadium in Philly. I did not take this horrendously staged publicity photo. Only Tracy Chapman refused the photographer’s feeble request to raise their hands!

Youssou N’Dour’s notoriety is certainly not without merit. He’s a euphonious singer with tremendous range and an electric performer. He’s known primarily for mbalax which, as he explained at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Friday night, is not the only style he works in nor is it the only style of Senegal, his home country. However people tend to include all his music under that banner. Mbalax mixes traditional West African music, including the use of the talking drum, with pop and other western forms. It’s rooted in the Wolof language and N’Dour explained that it’s difficult for musicians to get the hang of especially if they don’t know the language. However, the thrilling rhythms it produces certainly need no translation.

Dancers took the stage as well…
In fact, Senegalese dancers – some of whom appeared during this show – will take the stage again at this venue later this week as part of the DanceAfrica Festival running May 25th through 30th. Look for N’dour’s new album Senegaal Rek – some of which can already be heard online – in September.

Antibalas Talks Afrobeat & Brooklyn Bowl Residency

Antibalas has been an essential NYC band since they came together around the turn of the century.  This year, in a monthly series of concerts, they are unveiling new material, cross-pollinating with some guests like Angelique Kidjo. and basically opening up the well-oiled, high-powered machine that is their twelve piece band.

In the main (on NY1 today) video (above), Martin Perna and frontman Amayo discuss the residency and the polyrhythmic ecstasy that is Afrobeat but also compare it, somewhat surprisingly, to being in a military unit.  That analogy speaks to the discipline that the form demands of its players.

Martin and Amayo were generous with their time at a practice space in Williamsburg the afternoon before their Brooklyn Bowl show on Thursday so I’m happy to offer a bonus vid.  Enjoy the fellas speaking about James Brown influencing Fela Kuti or the other way around as well as the origins of Antibalas, the connections with Mark Ronson, Gabriel Roth, The Dap-Kings, and the first Daptone Records’ studios on 340 Grand Street (also in Williamsburg).

Globalfest 2016 At Webster Hall

The curators should be congratulated.  Globalfest kicks ass every year and Sunday night – January 17th, 2016 – was no exception.  Webster Hall was sold out.  I shot four bands out of the dozen that performed.

Globalfest 2016 At Webster Hall offered a handful of truly memorable performances.  I hope to see the wildly fabulous Nicolle Rochelle again.  She is a wicked minx.  Her group Ginkgoa oozes mischief and debauchery.  The enormous drums of the Dhol Foundation led by Johnny Kalsi (whose also worked with Afro Celt Soundsystem, Peter Gabriel, and Angelique Kidjo among many others) and are about the maddest thing you could see and it’s not just the drums but the slinky quartet that shares the stage with them.  Simon Shaheen’s Zafir is intoxicating.  The Palestinian bandleader Shaheen led a crew that combined Flamenco and Arab Andulucian music…what, that again!  Finally a sextet out of Bogota that works like a positivity soaked pep ball.  They call themselves Tribu Baharu.