Latin, Salsa, Soca, Tropicalia etc.
170 articles
Trini Lopez: Pop-Folk Is Here To Stay — Like It Or Not
Profile by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 5 October 1963
SOME SAY IT'S TOO COMMERCIAL, IMPURE, PHONEY, ETC., BUT WHATEVER THEY SAY ABOUT IT... ...
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 19 October 1965
Some Bright New Music ...
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 19 February 1966
Slick, Simple Tijuana Brass ...
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 15 October 1966
SEVENTY minutes of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass captivated a capacity 7,000 audience at London's Royal Albert Hall on Friday. Herb and his superb ...
Herb Alpert, Sérgio Mendes: A&M Records Tooting Its Own Horn
Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 29 September 1967
ON A 2.3-ACRE lot near the corner of La Brea and Sunset in Hollywood sits one of the most successful record companies in the country, ...
Santana: Matrix, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 14 November 1968
Santana Band Up Close ...
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 20 December 1968
OCCASIONALLY IN the frenetic world of electronic pop music with its turned-on super stars, gold-disc heroes and ultra in-crowd fans it's quite refreshing to stroll ...
Jose Feliciano Sings the Star-Spangled Banner
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1969
JOSE FELICIANO sat stiffly on a wooden stool in the middle of sun-bathed Detroit Stadium, his burgundy suit almost gaudy below the glint of his ...
Sergio Mendes: What Exactly Is Brazil 66? Sergio knows...
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 11 January 1969
IN IPANEMA, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, a pianist-singer-arranger-composer named Sergio Mendes conceived what is known today as Brasil '66. A hotter-than-hot recording sound ...
Sergio Mendes: Brasil '66 Bring A Taste Of Latin Rock
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 18 January 1969
WE'VE HAD just about every kind of rock you can imagine — rock and roll, rocksteady, hard-rock... but now there's a new one and it's ...
Jose Feliciano, Willie Bobo: Downing Stadium, Randall's Island, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 28 July 1969
Jose Feliciano Gives A Bilingual Concert On Randall's Island ...
Santana: Santana (Columbia CS 9781)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, 28 November 1969
THERE ARE guitar bands. There are vocal bands. There are organ bands, horn bands, sometimes stray combinations of all of the above. ...
Terry Reid, Santana: Santana, Terry Reid: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 15 May 1971
Slick, smooth Santana ...
Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 13 November 1972
Militancy Replaces Old Frills At First Latin Music Festival ...
Comment by Vernon Gibbs, Crawdaddy!, February 1973
CARLOS SANTANA laid his gleamingly new Gibson double electric white lead carefully on the stage of The Academy of Music and the M.C. reverently requested ...
La Lupe, Tito Puente: When La Lupe Sings, She Gets Involved
Profile and Interview by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 4 February 1973
THE HOUSEWIFE in Engelwood, N.J., who shops the local supermarket with her mother is also the official "Queen of Latin Song," with partisan audiences that ...
Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 26 August 1973
'OUR LATIN THING' PLAYS AT STADIUM 30,000 See Fania All Stars and Others at Second Base ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 19 January 1974
SANTANA WERE always a good group, even though debs and deadheads liked them and played 'Soul Sacrifice' endlessly at boring Friday night Strand-ups. ...
Live Review by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1974
Carlos in a Cavern: Jazz, Sort of ...
Héctor Lavoe Orchestra: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 22 November 1975
And you thought Latin music meant Edmundo Ros... ...
Overview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 January 1976
Richard Williams introduces the Latin sound that comes into London this week ...
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 31 January 1976
A TERRIBLE HANGOVER and a record comes under the front door. I pluck up the courage to put it on (the cover has such loud ...
The Fania All Stars: Fania All Stars: Salsa Live (Island Help 21)
Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 7 February 1976
THIS IS the third pioneering Salsa release from Island distributed, presumably, to coincide with the band's recent London Lyceum show. ...
Overview by Miles, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976
With a rose clenched between his teeth, the man they call EL MILES infiltrates the heady, exotic world of the Strand Lyceum, where trousers are ...
Ray Barretto, The Fania All Stars: The Fania All-Stars: Salsa
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 14 February 1976
You don't have to come from Puerto Rico to dig Salsa. Vivien Goldman hails from Golders Green and she's sold on it. Anyway, wherever you ...
The Salsoul Orchestra: Salsoul Orchestra: Salsoul Hustlers (Salsoul SZS 5501. $6.98)
Review by Mike Jahn, High Fidelity, April 1976
MORE THAN forty performers participated in the creation of this album, which nominally contributes to the current salsa trend but which in this case is ...
Profile and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Street Life, 3 April 1976
EVERYTHING you ever heard about Minnie Riperton is true about Flora Purim. Truer, in fact, for not only does the 34 year-old Brazilian singer have ...
Jorge Ben: Samba Nova (Island HELP 23) ****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 17 April 1976
A HIGHLY palatable and agreeable waxing we have here. Now Jorge Ben means about as much to me as I mean to Jorge Ben (i.e. ...
Santana: Flying High With Santana
Interview by Kris Nicholson, Circus, 6 July 1976
— After the Earthy Amigos ...
Overview by Vernon Gibbs, Penthouse, January 1978
"YOU KNOW why salsa is so popular in New York?" asks Izzy Sanabria, publisher of Latin New York. "Because the rhythms of salsa are the ...
Santana: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 31 October 1978
Soaring sound of Santana ...
Willie Bobo Band: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 2 January 1979
ALTHOUGH LARGELY unrecognized outside the jazz community until recently, Willie Bobo has been one of the prime forces in introducing Latin rhythms and percussion to ...
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 16 February 1980
Recherchez le chic ...
Airto Moreira: the Venue, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 September 1980
THAT SOUTH American music should have been the source of vitality and inspiration in jazz that it has over the past decade is due in ...
Kid Creole & the Coconuts: That Darnell Cat
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1981
THIS MAN swaps heads like Tommy Cooper! Kid Creole — the desert island disco merchant of two bliss-full albums, the live spectacular and soon Broadway. ...
Blue Rondo a la Turk: Bluenote, Derby
Live Review by Betty Page, Sounds, 28 November 1981
The back flip is not dead ...
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 February 1982
IF THE utterly spurious salsa boom has achieved nothing else, at least it brought Machito to London for a performance on Monday night which presented ...
Blue Rondo a la Turk: Camden Palace, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 8 September 1982
THE CAREER of Blue Rondo a la Turk illustrates vividly the perils of too close an association with style. Maligned by critics for the cut ...
Coati Mundi: The Former 12 Year Old Genius (Virgin)
Review by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 7 May 1983
MUNDI BLOODY MUNDI ...
The Brat, Carlos Guitarlos, Los Illegals, Los Lobos, The Plugz, Ruben and the Jets: East LA Rocks!
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 July 1983
But bands find it's a long way from the Barrio to Hollywood... ...
The Brat, El Chicano, Los Illegals, Los Lobos, Tierra: Latino Bands
Overview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 8 January 1984
EVER SINCE Ritchie Valens rocketed into the national spotlight a quarter century ago with 'La Bamba', Los Angeles' Latino musicians have made repeated attempts to ...
Interview by Carol Cooper, DownBeat, September 1984
For over a decade one of the most popular post-bossa Brazilian singer/composers, Nascimento finally arrives in the U.S. to demonstrate his particular brand of politically ...
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Creem, January 1985
NEW YORK — Ruben Blades grew up watching Rebel Without A Cause and Rock Around the Clock as many times as he could — and ...
Daniel Ponce: Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 11 July 1985
SALSA, THE modern form of what was once know as Afro-Cuban music, has been threatening to catch on with a wider audience since the middle ...
Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto: Stan Getz: The guy from Ipanema
Retrospective by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 27 July 1985
Brian Case (grass skirt, hula-hoop) examines the resurgence in popularity of latinate saxman Stan Getz ...
Rubén Blades: Casino de Montreux, Montreux, Switzerland
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 3 August 1985
FLASHING BLADES! ...
Sheila E.: Romance 1600 (I.R.S.)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1985
ARTISTS USUALLY sound more distinctive and less derivative over time. Sheila E. seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The Glamorous Life, her solo ...
Sheila E.: Sheila E: Romance 1600 (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1985
IT'S A PITY that Sheila E., Prince's only independently creative female artist, needs a twelve-minute collaboration with the Small One to make her second LP ...
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 1 February 1986
Irish quirkiness and venom ...
Willie Colon, Gilberto Gil, Dizzy Gillespie, Milton Nascimento: ¿Te Gusta La Musica Latina?
Overview by David Toop, The Face, August 1986
FROM PANAMA DOWN THROUGH VENEZUELA TO BRAZIL, THIS MUSIC IS THE PULSE OF A CONTINENT. IN SOUTH AMERICA, SAMBAS CARRY SOCIAL STATEMENTS. THE DANCING IS ...
Sheila E.: Sheila E: Sheila E (Paisley Park Records)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 28 February 1987
WHAT A strange place Paisley Park must be! It's as if the accoutrements of Sixties head culture synthesized with Seventies body culture to produce an ...
Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar: Agua de Luna (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 26 March 1987
EVEN THOUGH Rubén Blades's English-language debut isn't due for a while yet, the Panamanian salsa star, lawyer, essayist, activist and actor has already been bear-hugged ...
David Rudder: When the Hammer Falls
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 17 October 1987
Calypso is the music and voice of Trinidad and DAVID RUDDER looks set to give it international appeal. PAOLO HEWITT meets him. ...
Ruben Blades: Panamanian Pandemonium: Ruben Blades: Musician, Actor, Activist
Report and Interview by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Style, July 1988
RUBEN BLADES, Panamanian musician and aspiring politician lately turned Hollywood actor, pulls from a pack the latest in a series of Merit Ultra Lights and ...
David Byrne: Byrne Compiles Brazil LP
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
Album spotlights 'tropicalismo' ...
Overview by Carol Cooper, Elle, August 1989
MARCO AURELIO DA SILVA, known as Mazola, sits hunched over the console in one of Rio’s top recording studios, waiting for a live horn section ...
Gloria Estefan: Estefan in Exile
Profile and Interview by Bruce Dessau, The Guardian, 15 September 1989
Bruce Dessau on the singer hailed by President Reagan as the capitalist face of communist Cuba. ...
Gloria Estefan: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 26 September 1989
Salsa rhythms propel the Havana beat ...
Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Lloyd Bradley, The Independent, 30 September 1989
Hits that missed ...
Gloria Estefan: Treasure Island Ahoy!
Profile and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Q, October 1989
BASKING IN FLORIDA'S almost blood temperature waters, with the ice cream-coloured Miami Beach architecture in the background, the 50-acre, man-made haven of Star Island is ...
Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 14 October 1989
GLORIA ESTEFAN is a goddess. While popular music searches for something to pep up its ailing corpse and, typically, picks on rock music — I ...
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, November 1989
DESPITE DAVID Byrne's beaver-like activities over the last few years, his persona and his work have gradually been losing much of their old allure. Perhaps ...
Gipsy Kings: Let's Do The Shoe Right Here!
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, January 1990
IN THE PLAIN of the Camargue, where the Rhone feeds into the Mediterranean, lies the small but distinguished town of Arles Settled by the Ancient ...
David Byrne: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 6 January 1990
I'M NOT saying the first sign of rain should have you reaching for the Leonard Cohen Sings Joy Division album, but in the dazzling depression ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, February 1990
Although embarrassed at being hailed a "cultural ambassador", David Byrne has temporarily put Talking Heads on hold to step out with his 14-piece Latin big ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Hits, 19 March 1990
NO DOUBT about it, the musical flavor of the week is Latin/Brazilian — even Paul Simon's recording an album of Brazilian music. It figures that ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 9 January 1991
She was the toast of the pop world with her spicy Latin tunes! But then, last year, she narrowly escaped death in a coach accident ...
Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 8 February 1991
Breezy blend with a Cuban flavour ...
Gloria Estefan: Into The Light (Epic/All formats)
Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 16 February 1991
THE TRUE Empress of Pop is among us once more. The other pop stars are fine, but in comparison resemble cartoon characters. Neither Prince (boggly ...
Gloria Estefan: Into The Light
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, March 1991
GLORIA ESTEFAN'S FIRST new album since a coach crash last March left her with, among other things, a broken back. ...
Gloria Estefan: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 April 1991
THE SMALL but dynamic Gloria Estefan does not look like someone only recently recovered from a major back injury sustained in a road accident. ...
Cath Carroll: Home is where the heart is
Profile and Interview by Bruce Dessau, The Guardian, 31 July 1991
With the release of her rhythmic debut album, England Made Me, Cath Carroll crosses from punk past to Latin future, as Bruce Dessau reports ...
Caetano Veloso: Town Hall, New York City
Live Review by Richard Gehr, Newsday, 8 August 1991
Brazil's most respected singer-songwriter is a velvet-voiced visionary with a surreal sense of humor. Richard Gehr at Town Hall, Saturday night. ...
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, DownBeat, October 1991
WHEN A 20-year-old Freddie Hubbard moved from Indianapolis to New York in 1958, every young trumpeter was being compared to Miles Davis, who was then ...
David Rudder: the Music Machine, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 1992
David Rudder's Potent Soca ...
Gloria Estefan: Spanish is the loving tongue
Interview by David Toop, The Times, 9 July 1993
For her latest album, Gloria Estefan went home — metaphorically — to Cuba. David Toop talked to her ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1995
MARTYRED MEXICAN-American superstar Selena, shot to death by her ex-fan club president outside a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel this past March, loved dressing skimpily onstage ...
Astrud Gilberto: The Jazz Cafe, Camden, London
Live Review by David Hemingway, Melody Maker, 23 December 1995
MAYBE THE crux of the matter is that we should constantly review and re-interpret our own definitions of cool. ...
Jeff Buckley, Esquivel: Jeff Buckley interviews Esquivel (1996)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 15 April 1996
Jeff Buckley asks the questions, and Esquivel gives us a glimpse of his happy half-century of music making.
File format: mp3; file size: 42.6meg, interview length: 44' 20" sound quality: **
Profile and Interview by Richard Gehr, Spin, June 1996
Years down the road, Los Lobos defy all odds, making the most radically experimental music of their career. Richard Gehr hones in on their secret ...
Gloria Estefan: Destiny (Epic/All formats)
Review by Ian Fortnam, New Musical Express, 1 June 1996
SO WHAT'S so glorious about Gloria? How come every time the woman delivers a casually conceived catalogue of choice cuts to her record company, she ...
Jennifer Lopez, Selena: Jennifer Lopez on Selena
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Interview, April 1997
In the new movie Selena, Jennifer Lopez had the coveted - yet unenviable - task of playing the most adored Latina singer ever, the late ...
Caetano Veloso: Tropicalia CDs: Samba takes a trip
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, 1998
ON THE DAY that man first trod upon the moon, Brazilian stars Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were bidding a reluctant farewell to their homeland. ...
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, Spin, February 1998
Brazil's pop bomb squad do the samba on Strawberry Fields ...
Tom Zé: Fabrication Defect (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.)
Review by Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, May 1998
TOM ZÉ'S peculiar contribution to the Tropicalistas' highly influential 1968 collaborative album Tropicalia: Ou Panis Et Circencis was the satiric antidevelopment anthem ‘Parque Industrial’, which ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1998
TOO MANY recent "rock en español" hypes (Negu Gorriak, Niños con Bombas, Todos Tus Muertos) prove only that gratuitously pissed-off slam-dance funk can sound repulsive ...
Gloria Estefan: Gloria! (Epic 48950 4/2)
Review by Lucy O'Brien, Q, July 1998
Miami pop queen goes back to Latin disco roots in unashamedly good time fashion. ...
Marc Ribot: Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) (Atlantic)
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, October 1998
THE LAST time I saw Marc Ribot he was screaming into a microphone as his amplifier bled feedback, veins popping from his neck like battleship ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1998
LONG BEFORE the advent of samplers, Brazilian avant-Tropicalist Tom Zé was uniting seemingly opposed styles and constructing instruments from found objects – blenders, typewriters, floor ...
Vinicius Cantuária, Arto Lindsay: Arto Lindsay and Vinicius Cantuária: Songs for modern lovers
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, April 1999
Arto Lindsay transformed himself from extreme noise guitarist into the age's most intimate lover through his archaeology of Brazilian modernism. Now working in tandem with ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 1999
IN THE 1960s Brazil declared war on rock 'n' roll. Any popular music betraying American or English influences — and that included the use of ...
Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze: David Byrne Has Got His Ears Wide Open
Interview by James Hunter, New York Observer, 28 June 1999
FOR THE last 10 years, David Byrne has run Luaka Bop, the Manhattan-based record label that specializes in international pop, with Yale Evelev, formerly of ...
Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin: Ifs and Butts: discs from Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 2 July 1999
As Latino pop looks set to take over the charts, Caroline Sullivan is only mildly impressed by the two artists leading the charge ...
Menudo, Ricky Martin: Ricky Martin
Interview by Bill Brewster, The Big Issue, 5 July 1999
What were your influences growing up in Puerto Rico? ...
Os Mutantes: Everything Is Possible! (Luaka Bop)
Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 September 1999
OS MUTANTES are the sort of dreamers you might have found on a wayward acid trip in 1969, sitting around a campfire in a Brazilian ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 18 September 1999
RY COODER'S tireless musical explorations hit unexpected paydirt when he visited Cuba in 1996 and recorded the sessions for the brilliant Buena Vista Social Club ...
Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder: Buena Vista Brings Back Old Cuban Sound
Report and Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 September 1999
WHEN CUBAN music finally returned to the United States, it picked up where it left off. ...
Santana: Jack of All Trades: Carlos Santana
Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 14 January 2000
AROUND THIS TIME every year, the American music industry holds its collective breath as the Grammy awards nominations are announced, eager to see which of ...
Kirsty MacColl: Tropical Brainstorm
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 March 2000
Kirsty MacColl's first album since 1994 sees her flirting with Latin rhythms and cliched tourist-brochure lyrics. But, says Caroline Sullivan, it's better than you'd think ...
¡Cubanismo!, Jesús Alemañy: ¡Cubanismo!: Jesús Alemañy goes beyond Buena Vista
Report and Interview by j. poet, The Boston Phoenix, 17 April 2000
IT'S BEEN EASY to get the impression over the past couple of years that Cuban music starts and ends with the Buena Vista Social Club. ...
Buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo: Omara Portuondo: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 29 April 2000
Cuba's Edith Piaf ...
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Kid Creole and the Coconuts
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Vibe, May 2000
THINKING BACK to uptown Saturday nights past. I remember staring at my slicky-boy expression (circa 1982) in the bathroom mirror while the infectious 'I'm a ...
João Gilberto: the Barbican, London
Live Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 18 July 2000
TRY THIS FOR an example of musical minimalism: a man sits on a stool before a single microphone at the centre of a stage which ...
João Gilberto: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Bill DeMain, MOJO, August 2000
Set List: 'Doralice'/'Vivo Sohondo'/'Ecliose'/'Samba De Una Nota So'/'Samba Da Minha Terra'/'Voce Vai Ver'/'Bonita'/'Morena Boca De Ouro'/'A Felicidade'/'O Pato'/'Estate'/'Chega De Saudade'/'Um Abraco No Bonfa'/'Sem Compromisso'/'S'Wonderful'/'Wave'/'Triste'/'Eu Vim ...
Book Review by David Toop, The Wire, September 2000
THE REVOLUTIONARY tango music of Argentinian composer and bandoneon virtuoso Astor Piazzolla is one of the great treasures of 20th century art. ...
Jazzanova: Remixes 1997–2000 (Jazzanova Compost)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 2000
IF YOU LISTEN forward from mid-90s Adam F to late 90s Shy FX to early noughties Hospital Recordings, it immediately becomes apparent that 'jazziness' in ...
Los Lobos: Just Another Band From East L.A./El Cancionero – Mas y Mas
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Rolling Stone, 9 November 2000
The rare first album and a new four-disc set from the Mexican-American greats ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Santos Saurez, 21 October 1920, Havana, Cuba ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Gloria Maria Fajardo, 1 September 1957, Havana, Cuba ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Ramos Santamaria, 7 April 1922, Havana, Cuba ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Comapnion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 20 April 1923, Harlem, New York City, USA, d. 31 May 2000 ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Trinidad Lopez III, 15 May 1937, Dallas, Texas, USA ...
Jack Costanzo: And The Beat Goes On… Mr Bongo: Jack Costanzo
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, 2 February 2001
The Man Who Started The '50's Bongo Craze ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Loco (Chrysalis)
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 February 2001
Felonious funk: Caroline Sullivan enjoys the wiseguy Lotharios of New York ...
Los Lobos: The Entertainers: Learning from Los Lobos
Review by Nick Hornby, The New Yorker, 23 April 2001
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK is a boxed set! How infinite(ish) in faculty! In action, how like an angel! ...
Report and Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, June 2001
A TOUGH-LOOKING character in a back-to-front baseball cap slaps hard around a semi-circle of conga drums. An older man, small and self-contained, who could easily ...
Paco de Lucia: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 June 2001
DESPITE ALL the detours in Paco de Lucia's career, his current seven-piece ensemble maintains links with his past. Still present from the group's original 1981 ...
Shakira: Soft rock and the hard sell
Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 8 March 2002
Shakira sells millions of records in her native Colombia, has just conquered America and now has her sights on Britain. Lisa Verrico met her ...
Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 29 June 2002
WHAT A TREAT — to sip a cup of Assam in the Festival Hall ballroom while Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto play Kraftwerk cover versions ...
Interview by Ted Kessler, The Observer, 14 July 2002
As a schoolgirl she drove the nuns crazy with her belly dancing, now she's got the world gyrating. Ted Kessler meets Shakira, the Colombian superstar ...
Senor Coconut y su Conjunto: El Baile Aleman (New State Recordings)
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 August 2002
DESPITE HIS name, his album title and the fact that his introduction is in Spanish, Senor Coconut is a German called Uwe Schmidt who fronts ...
Caetano Veloso: Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil (Knopf)
Book Review by Will Hermes, The Village Voice, 24 September 2002
IT'S TOUGH TO imagine an American pop star penning a memoir like Tropical Truth. That's not just because our musical celebs are rarely imprisoned for ...
Profile by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 14 December 2002
Shakira should forget the political posturing, says Lisa Verrico, and stick to what she does best — making music and looking good. ...
Shakira: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 17 December 2002
NO MATTER where you sat in Wembley Arena on Monday night, you were never far from open-mouthed men trying not to drool at this year's ...
Kinky, Manuel Galbán, Ry Cooder: Ry Cooder & Manuel Gálban: Mambo Sinuendo; Kinky: Kinky
Review by Andy Gill, The Word, March 2003
Perfuming Each Moment ...
Brujeria: This Is Jarcor: Brujeria
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, July 2003
Mexican Death metal band Brujeria are the white man's nightmare. Striking mortal fear into the populace both north and south of the border for over ...
Bebel Gilberto: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 25 July 2003
BEBEL GILBERTO'S Tanto Tempo was the great summer album of 2000. And 2001. And 2002. ...
Nelly Furtado: Looking back to go forward
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 6 December 2003
Pressured by the expectations for her new album, Nelly Furtado dug into her Latin roots for inspiration, she tells Lisa Verrico. ...
The Fania All Stars: Fania All Stars: Our Latin Thing
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004
ON 19TH JULY, 1972, the first few images flickering on the screen at the premiere of Our Latin Thing in New York’s Line 2 cinema ...
Joe Bataan: Young, Gifted And Brown
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004
A ROMANTIC STREET punk, a jailbird with spirit, a champion of the blue-collar underdog – Joe Bataan is a rebel with soul. ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 20 January 2004
DAPPER, CHARISMATIC, and 68 years young, Johnny Pacheco is one of New York's cultural lions, a Juilliard alumnus who revolutionized the way Afro-Latin swing, a/k/a ...
Eddie Palmieri: The Man Who Stirred Up Salsa
Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2004
Eddie Palmieri, maverick genius and opening act in next month's Latin music festival at the South Bank, tells Mark Hudson why salsa is more than ...
Bebel Gilberto: Joao And Bebel Gilberto
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Times, June 2004
IT WAS IN THE summer of ‘64, 40 years ago this month, that Joao Gilberto’s ‘A Girl From Ipanema’ was released. A huge global ...
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Harp, September 2004
WHEN IT COMES to defining American music over the past quarter century, no band comes close to Los Lobos. ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, 2005
The Latino Lioness on her Oral Fixation album, writing in English, politics and poverty, and the benefits of belly dancing.
file format: mp3; file size: 22mb; Interview length: 24' 13"; sound quality: ****
Transcript of audio interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005
This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Shakira. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
The Fania All Stars: Rumba In The Jungle: Fania All Stars Live In Africa
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul DVD, 21 February 2005
1974 WAS A fine year for Jerry Masucci's golden boys. Following the triumphs of Our Latin Thing, the Fania All Stars broke out across the ...
Retrospective by John L. Walters, TuneTribe, 15 May 2005
SINCE THE LATE 1990s, the Crammed Discs spin-off label Ziriguiboom has produced a small, well considered series of Brazilian albums, the most famous of which ...
Ry Cooder: Chavez Ravine (Nonesuch)
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, July 2005
AFTER A DECADE of travels that's taken him from Timbuktu to Cuba, Ry Cooder has come home to shine a light on a shameful episode ...
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, July 2005
Ry Cooder's new album tunes into L.A.'s Chavez Ravine and the dawn of Chicano consciousness. ...
Shakira: Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (Epic)
Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 23 August 2005
Beyond the Belly: Colombian songstress trumps lazy stereotypes with raw talent ...
Sérgio Mendes: Legends of Songwriting: Sergio Mendes
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, October 2005
ON TIMELESS, the latest album by Sergio Mendes, there's a line in the title track that goes, "Kindness is timeless/Love is so easy." ...
Santana: Carlos Santana: Many hippie returns
Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2005
He played at Woodstock while out of his brain on LSD. But at 58, Carlos Santana isn't just a 1960s relic: stars like Beyoncé and ...
Ry Cooder: Chávez Ravine (Nonesuch)
Review by John L. Walters, TuneTribe, Summer 2005
CHÁVEZ RAVINE is Ry Cooder's What A Carve Up, a multilayered song-cycle about the way a Hispanic neighbourhood of Los Angeles was cleared to make ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2006
Eclectic miniopera from Brazilian master of the weird ...
Pitbull: English. Spanish. Reggaeton. Crunk.
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, August 2006
He's got a lot more to talk about than culo. And major issues other than money. Straight outta Miami's Little Havana, Cubano rapper Pitbull wants ...
Thee Midniters: In Thee Midnite Hour
Review by John Morthland, No Depression, 31 October 2006
THEE MIDNITERS were best-known as kings of East Los Angeles rock in the '60s, but this collection of uptempo material will hopefully change that: They ...
Alison Hinds: Notting Hill Carnival: Alison Hinds ready to reign at Carnival
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2007
'Roll It Gal' by Alison Hinds will be the song that rules this weekend's Notting Hill Carnival. Angus Batey meets the Barbadian star. ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, September 2007
"I QUITE LIKE the fact that, as I get older, my audience seems to get younger," laughs Caetano Veloso. The Brazilian megastar has played London ...
Eddie Palmieri & La Perfecta: Sugar Daddy
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Fania CD, September 2007
THE HIP DANCEFLOOR RHYTHMS OF PALMIERI'S LA PERFECTA: 1962-1967 ...
Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, September 2007
THE SUBTLE DANCE between melody and meaning, both music and lyrics, is what makes a song. This should, and often does, lessen the appeal of ...
Review by John Morthland, No Depression, 29 December 2008
ERSI ARVIZU is best-known for her stint with El Chicano, a jazz-inflected East Los Angeles rock band of the early 1970s, but she sang in ...
Shontelle is the feisty feminist Rihanna
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 25 January 2009
R&B artist and Barbados-born singer Layne is female Sean Paul with fame within her grasp, after single, 'T-Shirt', proved a hit ...
Santana's Michael Shrieve (2009)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, June 2009
The Santana drummer remembers the glory days — Abraxas, Woodstock etc. — and the coke, Coke Escovedo and the crumbling of the band.
File format: mp3; file size: 42.1mb, interview length: 45' 56" sound quality: * (phoner)
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, October 2009
THERE'S MUCH to like about diminutive Columbian singer Shakira (Isabel Mebarak Ripoll), best known to this day for 2001's breakthrough Whenever, Wherever and her global ...
Shakira Wants to Fight Poverty and Offer Escapism
Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 4 December 2009
SHAKIRA'S THE 50 million-selling pocket-sized Colombian superstar whose high-profile charity work, runaway international success and eye-boggling performances comprise a perfect combination of brain power and ...
Rodrigo y Gabriela: Natural Acoustics: Rodrigo y Gabriela
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2010
YOU'D THINK a pair of former thrash-metal heads from Mexico City would have the kind of backstage rider that was a hedonistic Eden. Not a ...
Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 6 August 2010
Another quality offering from the L.A. outfit who once styled themselves "just another band" – but are definitely not. ...
DJ Turmix, Spanglish Fly: Boogaloo! with Spanglish Fly, DJ Turmix: Nublu, New York
Live Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 8 July 2011
IT COULD HAVE been a disaster – subway service to Loisaida was screwed up (again), it was raining, one of the club's turntables was on ...
August Darnell, Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Kid Creole: "I'm not a party man anymore"
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 7 September 2011
He was a zoot-suited wise guy who crooned out hit after hit. Now Kid Creole is back. Paul Lester meets the man who blew a ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Shout! Factory Records, 2012
IN 1975, at the age of 32, Mick Jagger famously uttered one of the more regrettable, bite-yourself-in-the-behind remarks in modern pop history. "I'd rather be ...
Review by Johnny Sharp, bbc.co.uk, January 2012
Nine numbers from the pair's back catalogue are reworked, with mixed results. ...
Marcos Valle: Marcos Valle/Garra/Vento Sul/Previsão Do Tempo (Light In The Attic)
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, December 2012
Four long-unavailable Brazilian classics by surfing bossa nova star seeking to ride newer waves. ...
Lovey's Original Trinidad String Band: Calypso Dawn (Bear Family)
Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, 2013
THIS IS A REMARKABLE album. It captures the music of a Trinidadian dance band which, while undertaking a tour of the USA, recorded sessions for ...
Ed Motta: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by John L. Walters, London Jazz News, 14 October 2013
THE BRAZILIAN SINGER, songwriter and instrumentalist Ed Motta is a pop artist with the soul of a jazz musician. He makes light, seemingly effortless music ...
Gloria Estefan: how her rhythm got America … and the world
Retrospective and Interview by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 25 November 2015
Pop hits with Latino influences are de rigueur now — and no one has had a greater impact on this state of affairs than Cuban-Americans ...
Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Huffington Post, 21 May 2016
THE BREAKOUT HIT from the first Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band album in 1976 was 'Cherchez la Femme', a sublime dance hit that even appealed ...
Review by John L. Walters, London Jazz News, 2 July 2016
ED MOTTA's music can be an acquired taste. This is not because his music is especially challenging or 'difficult' — though his use of harmony ...
Review by Graeme Thomson, Mail On Sunday, 13 January 2018
A 20-YEAR-OLD Cuban-American with Mexican roots, Camila Cabello's lineage may not be to the taste of Donald Trump, but she at least grabbed the ear ...
Camila Cabello: O2 Academy, Glasgow
Live Review by Graeme Thomson, Mail On Sunday, 9 June 2018
Cabello launches the opening night of her tour like a woman hell-bent on cramming every idea she's ever had into 80 frantic minutes. ...
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