Latin
CD: J-Sonics – Different OrbitsMonday, 11 January 2016![]() As a whole, J-Sonics are fairly new to the London jazz scene, but the members of this slinky sextet, assisted by vocalist Grace Rodson, have many years’ experience between them in other projects, which means they can sound both fresh and highly... Read more... |
In the Heights, King's Cross TheatreWednesday, 14 October 2015![]() Rents are going up, local businesses priced out, and the rich folk and hipsters are invading. That’s in Washington Heights, New York’s largely Dominican-American quarter, but it could as easily describe King’s Cross, one of multiple London areas... Read more... |
Ballroom DancerMonday, 14 January 2013![]() Slavik Kryklyvyy was Jennifer Lopez's tush-shaking partner in Shall We Dance?, getting one over on Richard Gere. But that was 2004, and what happened then? Ballroom Dancer is a documentary feature about his year on the edge, 2010, when the former... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show 6Tuesday, 31 July 2012![]() Welcome to another show, in which Joe guides us around some of the weirder, smokier corners of the broad church of hip hop, and discussion returns to how far genre can stretch and where originality can reside in a multi-channel, everything-available... Read more... |
Calexico plot September release, London tripThursday, 07 June 2012Country-fusion legends Calexico are to release their sixth album, Algiers, on 10th September. Named for the neighbourhood in New Orleans in which it was recorded, the band claim that the influences of their surroundings have seeped into the album's... Read more... |
Interview: Melody Gardot, Mysterious TravellerThursday, 31 May 2012![]() It was already apparent from Melody Gardot's last album, My One and Only Thrill, that she harboured a more than passing infatuation with the music of Brazil and Latin America. "I love Brazilian music, it's one of my favourite genres," she said at... Read more... |
Quantic & Alice Russell with Combo Barbaro, KokoFriday, 04 May 2012![]() Ah, Koko, the old Camden Palace, another of London’s lovely venues, over 100 years old, all done up in red with gold gilt, and two layers of balcony boxes intact. It’s easy, as a regular gig-goer, to become oblivious to these heritage British venues... Read more... |
CD: Rodrigo y Gabriela and C.U.B.A. - Area 52Saturday, 21 January 2012![]() It must have been difficult for Mexican acoustic instrumental guitar duo Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero to know where to go next. Initially discovered in Dublin as high-end buskers, they’ve built a career on energised acoustic pyrotechnics,... Read more... |
Sónar 2011: Day 3 and Round-upTuesday, 21 June 2011![]() This is where the delirium kicks in. Tired but happy, the attendees started the third day of Sónar festival slightly boggled by how to pick and choose from the strange delights on offer. Saturday was when the true musical variety of the festival was... Read more... |
CD: Status Quo - Quid Pro QuoWednesday, 25 May 2011![]() After 29 studio albums, eight compilations, four live albums, amounting to a total of 41 at pretty much one for every year of their existence, the denimosaurus we know as Status Quo has issued a release the title of which is entirely, and for the... Read more... |
Chico and RitaWednesday, 17 November 2010![]() On-screen kissing rarely works; even the sexiest, most practised Hollywood couples usually can’t manage it. But when the eponymous Chico and Rita turn to each other against smoochy strains of “Besame Mucho” and their lips touch for the first time,... Read more... |
Manu Chao, Coronet TheatreSunday, 24 October 2010![]() “It’s not often you get a global superstar down at the Elephant and Castle,” marvelled a local who spent the evening dancing like a dervish to the infectious music of Manu Chao, who had breezed into London for a rare show last night off the back of... Read more... |
