"Anybody with hot blood in their veins who has ever found Cuban music
irresistible, and who believes that jungle-crazy mambo is the real
thing, will feel indebted to John Radanovich's fascinating chronicle
of Benny Moré's life.. – read
more...
Although Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros’ sound was
formed by a childhood of the Afro-Cuban
rhythms and rich musical history of his birthright, Armenteros has
little interest in music in Cuba
these days: “I don’t know anything about it there now.
I never cared for politics. Politics doesn’t
make for good music,” he said.
After telling a story about the famous 1950s Mexican cathouse Bandidas,
Armenteros shook his
finger to correct a misunderstanding. “We didn’t go to
mess around, you know, it was to play
music. I played there, everyone did,” he said.
– whole article
Bebo Gallops
One of the greatest living Cuban pianists is about to play for the
very first time at a club in New
York. The 87-year-old Bebo Valdés will spend an historic week
at the Village Vanguard, and his
visit is one that no serious fan of Cuban music or latin jazz would
dream of missing.
Of the expatriots who moved away from their native Cuba, it is hard
to imagine any who went
farther than Bebo Valdés. Pianist and former music director
for the infamous Tropicana
nightclub in the 1940s and 1950s, Valdés met a Swedish woman
on a tour in the early 1960s
and moved permanently to Sweden. There the great innovator played hotel
and restaurant bars...
– whole article
Halleluiah, He's a Dreamer
Pianist and songwriter David Egan doesn't want to be known as Louisiana's
best kept secret. “That's seems so 90s now,” he
jokes about his aspirations for his quartet, and how some blues
musicians like to suffer in obscurity for its own sake.
To a larger audience Egan has been an unknown, yet for musicians Marcia
Ball, Irma Thomas,
Solomon Burke, Percy Sledge, Etta James, John Mayall, and Joe Cocker,
Egan has long been
a go-to guy for an intelligent story song. Egan's most recent brush
with the Grammys is a
shared writing credit on “Peace, Love and BBQ” for Marcia
Ball and several for Irma Thomas' “After the Rain.” His
striking talents are so obvious that you wonder when he will emerge
from behind the songwriter's curtain, like Willie Nelson or... – whole
article
