The packaging for recordings is a rich but peculiar art form. It’s a very visible piece of art, but the creators are mostly anonymous. It’s creative but also utilitarian, a piece of advertising. Ideally, it represents the artist and the music inside, but it’s also a corporate branding tool for a label. Even a few …
Stephen Byram: Music for Your Eyes (Jazz With an Accent) Read More »
Brooklyn-based Innov Gnawa Deceptively simple, at once direct and mysterious, earthy and spiritual, Gnawa music is the expression of the black community of Morocco, which, initially, according to scholars, was comprised of black slaves. Associating and translating cultural experiences are exercises fraught with peril. But if this all sounds oddly familiar, it might explain why …
Gnawa Music: Talking to the Spirits With “The Blues of Morocco” (Artburst) Read More »
El cantante, compositor y autor español Santiago Auserón no es la típica estrella de rock. Auserón, de hecho, conoce el lenguaje y los rituales del estrellato de rock: primero como líder y vocalista de Radio Futura – grupo de pop rock que no sólo fue enormemente popular sino influyente en La Movida de la España …
Miami Book Fair: Una Semilla Africana Florece en la Música Española (Artburst) Read More »
The role of guitar in flamenco evolved from modest accompaniment of singers in the latter part of the 19th century to solo concerts by the latter part of the 20th century. It took players such as Ramon Montoya (1880-1949), Niño Ricardo (1904-1972), Sabicas (1912-1990), and Paco de Lucía (1947-2014), who burst the dam for good by …
Vicente Amigo and Flamenco’s Lineage of Change (Artburst) Read More »
DJ Le Spam, AKA Andrew Yeomanson, at work. Ask about the Miami Sound to 10 people in South Florida and you’ll get 11 different answers. And yet, for more than 20 years, the Spam Allstars, a group founded and anchored by DJ Le Spam (aka Andrew Yeomanson), has been an unquestionable reference in the Miami …
10 Years In the Making, Spam Allstars Returns With a New CD — and a Party (Artburst) Read More »
Born in Mexico City and raised in New York City, pianist, composer and educator Arturo O’Farrill grew up close to Cuba and its culture. Geography and physical distances can be just an illusion. After all, O’Farrill is the son of the great, late Cuban composer and arranger Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill and is himself a …
Arturo O’Farrill – Family, Jazz and the Music of Cuba, Revisited Read More »
Nico Berardi Nico Berardi, managing director of Accelerated Growth Partners, a Miami-based angel investment group supported by Knight Foundation, is stepping down from the post to complete his MBA at Harvard Business School. Raul Moas, who served as executive director of Roots of Hope, Raíces de Esperanza, an international network focused on youth empowerment in Cuba, has been tapped as …
Investors’ Group Remains Bullish On Miami’s Prospects (Knight Foundation) Read More »
Left to right: Courtney Fink, Stephanie Sherman and Annie Shaw of Common Field. The impact of Art Basel in the ecology and business of art in Miami is undeniable. The catch for artists and arts organizations now is not to be made invisible by such success stories. Survival and growth were very much subjects …
The Agony And The Arts in Miami: The Pitfalls Of Growth (Knight Foundation) Read More »
When art and technology meet, the collision is bound to create sparks of inspiration. That’s what happened during the Art Hackathon, which took place Sept. 20-21 in Miami. The hackathon was a collaboration of The LAB Miami and The YoungArts Foundation with the support of the Knight Arts Challenge, which The LAB won in 2012. About eight teams worked over …
The city of Salta — the capital of Salta province in northwest Argentina — is about a thousand miles and a world apart from Buenos Aires, Argentina’s urbane, Europhile capital. Campo Santo is a small town about 37 miles north of Salta. In the 1930s, the town had no electricity. There was no radio, no …