As anyone 25 years or older knows, a lot changes during that span of time. Such has been the case upstairs at 25 S. J St., in the 101-year-old Paradise Building in Lake Worth Beach, where Rudy’s at Bamboo opened Feb. 14. It marked the sixth grand opening at the club since it originally launched as the Bamboo Room in 1999. MaryBeth Sisoian, whose Rudy’s Pub has been a … [Read more...]
Outlaw persona mixes with middling set for Elle King at SunFest
Ten years into her major-label recording career, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Elle King is probably best-known for two things, one good and one not so good. And both came up, whether literally or figuratively, during her performance at SunFest on May 4. The good one was “Ex’s & Oh’s,” the Grammy-nominated Top 10 single and provocative video from her 2015 debut album … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Remembering Carle Vickers, horn man for T’s Express
Horn players are often to jazz and fusion what guitarists are to popular music — attention-grabbing players who wait for their chance to speak through soloing rather than listening to their ensemble’s overall sound. Yet there are significant differences. Guitarists play chordal instruments, so there are far fewer lulls in their playing because they also have rhythmic … [Read more...]
Jordan’s tribute to Hendrix needs to dig a little bit deeper
Tribute act mania seems to know no bounds, as even established international baby boomer artists take stylistic detours to salute heroes from their youth. Many make sense. Bassist Will Lee, of countless recording sessions and David Letterman’s covers-heavy TV band, started the Beatles tribute Fab Faux. Guitarist Mike Keneally, of Frank Zappa’s band, joined both Zappa … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Remembering West Palm’s indispensable Allman brother, Dickey Betts
It’s safe to say that no one from West Palm Beach ever achieved more musical sales, awards, touring miles and accolades than singer, songwriter and guitarist Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts. Especially someone from the city’s Westgate section, that small tract of diminutive homes and businesses just south of Okeechobee Boulevard between Congress Avenue and Military Trail. … [Read more...]
SunFest retools, regroups for a robust 40th anniversary
One of the most memorable hits and videos of the past half-century was the 1981 single “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads — in which vocalist David Byrne repeated the mantra of “same as it ever was.” That phrase doesn’t apply to SunFest, Florida’s largest waterfront music and art festival. For its 2024 installment, a floating SunFest Electronic Barge will … [Read more...]
The experimental journey of The Dixie Dregs
“Fusion” is a musical term commonly used to describe a mix of jazz influence with electric rock. It's a blend that started in the late 1960s and early 1970s, popularized separately by artists such as trumpeter Miles Davis and guitarist/vocalist Frank Zappa, who created disparate versions and catapulted band members toward future careers — from Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, … [Read more...]
From Russia with horns: Moscow-based band flawlessly re-creates music of Chicago, EWF, Steely Dan
Tribute acts have become all the rage in South Florida and beyond. But it’s safe to say that a tribute act will soon appear in South Florida that’s beyond anything most South Floridians have ever seen. Leonid & Friends is a 10-year-old group that started out as a tribute to the band Chicago, the Midwestern act that was initially called Chicago Transit Authority before … [Read more...]
Multi-genre guitar virtuoso Steve Vai living link to alt-rock history
If you asked fans of 63-year-old guitarist Steve Vai (www.vai.com) what he’s best-known for, you might get a variety of answers. One might be the Long Island, N.Y., native’s recording and touring run within the fusion of styles created by Frank Zappa (1940-1993). Those seeds were sown when Vai — still a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston — sent him exacting … [Read more...]
Jazz singer Aimée gets under the skin with new disc, Gold Coast Jazz show
If music is indeed the universal language, then jazz vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Cyrille Aimée (cyrillemusic.com) literally and figuratively proves the value of being bilingual within it. Born in 1984 in Samois-sur-Seine, Fontainebleau, France, she both speaks and sings in English, French and Spanish. Her father is French; her mother is from the Dominican … [Read more...]