Miami Music Matters

Weekend music

Lotsa good local stuff this weekend.

MiaRemezcla and MySpace Latino, which is providing some good shows in their voracious self-promotional quest, host three cool Latin fusion acts, Suenalo, Minimal, and Radio Boxer, on Saturday May 30 at Transit Lounge for the En Tu Ciudad tour.  Admission is free if you rsvp to Remezcla here. More info at Myspace. Music fun kicks off at 10pm.

Singer-songwriter Jacob Jeffries, the cutest and most musical nerd this side of the Broward line, plays   Wallflower Gallery , 10 NE 3rd St., at 10pm Friday and The Electric Pickle (get a website!), at 2826 N. Miami Avenue at 11pm on Saturday.

The wonderful Rachel Goodrich plays P.S. 14 , 28 NE 14th St., at 10:30pm on Saturday, a farewell show before heading off on tour and to produce her next album with a hotshot producer in L.A. Catch her one last time before she goes national, and say you saw her back before she was famous. Read up on Rachel and listen to her singing and talking about her music at home at my Herald profile of her.

15 bands play Tobacco Road's Cultura Festival tonight (Friday). Rock reggae pop folk hiphop etc. 10pm at Miami's oldest bar, $10, 21 and over. What, you don't know where the Road is yet?

Have a totally chevere weekend!

Hold off on Maxwell

Miami soul and R&B fans thrilled over news that neo-soul star Maxwell, absent for years from the music scene, is coming back with a new album and tour that supposedly winds up at Miami's James L. Knight Center on July 31st should sit tight - and not give any of their money to the many websites offering to sell tickets to Maxwell's concert in Miami.

A Knight Center rep says although they've been holding a date for Maxwell for months, they're still waiting for confirmation from tour promotors Live Nation, and they have no signed contract yet. Until they do, the rep says, there's no show.

Stay tuned - but don't spend your money yet.

Ma'duro plays a freedom flight

Fernando Zulueta, vocalist and guitarist for Miami group Ma'duro (for Spanish-illiterate, that's a cute linguistic/cultural pun on maduro, mature, and mas duro, harder, pronounced Cuban style - ma' na'!) has a very personal connection to the music he wrote for My Suitcase full of Hope: The Story of the Cuban Freedom Flights, a documentary airing at 8pm tonight on WPBT Channel 2.

Zulueta came to Miami from Cuba at age two, and drew from his own experience of exile in composing the music for the film, from Linda y Soberana, the main theme, a nostalgic son-fusion style tribute to Cuba, and Freedom Flight, a restless instrumental. 

Directed by Cuba-mense homeboy Joe Cardona (responsible for 9 documentaries on the Cuban condition, including Café con Leche, The Flight of Pedro Pan, and Celia the Queen), the film tells the story of 265,000 Cubans who came to the States via U.S. chartered planes between 1965 and 1973. Read more about the film and check a database of Pedro Pan and Freedom Flight escapees here.

Hipster-hoppers, sneakerheads to take over Design District

The touring Sneaker Pimpsconvention makes its Miami stop on Saturday, May 30 at the trippy Moore building in Design District.

The event will feature performances by two hip-hop duos well known in the sneaker community: Virginia Beach-based Clipse and the eccentric Cool Kids.

Clipse will likely be teasing material from their upcoming third album, Till The Casket Drops, including the grimy Kanye West-assisted first single, "Kinda Like A Big Deal." (CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE)

The event starts at 8 p.m., and will set you back $15 if purchased online or 20 bucks at the door.

Pitbull performs, punches, performs

Cuban-American Miami rapper Pitbull, who usually makes party music and stays away from drama, had an interesting incident in Aspen, Colo. on April 30.

While performing his hit "Bojangles," Mr. 305 helped a fan onstage, who proceeded to toss a wad of money into his face.

Bad idea.

Pitbull punched the guy in the face, which leveled him. To add insult to injury, Pit then kicked him while he was down.

All while never missing a beat. Pitbull jumped right back into the song as if nothing happened.

What also caught my attention was how surprisingly good Pitbull's performance was. I caught him at the Florida Marlins Super Saturday concert on April 11 (read my review), but his band was mixed too low and Pitbull was battling his own prerecorded voice while performing.

This Aspen performance looked great though.

** As spotted on the305.com **

Matisyahu outtakes

You can never get everything from an interview into a story. Sometimes you don't want to, but when the interview is good, like mine with orthodox Jewish rapper Matisyahu was last Friday, I find myself pulling my hair out that I can't get the full flavor and story of the conversation into print (in this Friday's Weekend section in advance of his U.S. tour kickoff show at Pompano Beach Amphitheater on Sat May 30).

Luckily, I have a blog. But from all the riches of that conversation (while the 29 year old father of two was walking through Manhattan from a voice lesson - he's singing more now - to a mikvah, a ritual pre-Shabbat bath - and I wonder what all the people passing him on the street thought of his end of that fairly heavy interview) I'd like to tell this story in full. If hurt and dying children, or strong emotions, or long stories make you queasy, stop now. If not, read on.

¡Mayday! loses bassist, keeps trucking

If you've stumbled upon a recent show by Miami's wildest electro-funktacular hip-hop group ¡Mayday!, you may have noticed something missing: Primo.

The afro'd, head-bobbing bassist has left the group (The group's spokesperson would only say "Primo is no longer in the band"), but that hasn't stopped or slowed the group one bit.

Matthew Sabatella and the other side of Memorial Day

Memorial Day Weekend, all about barbecues, family vacations, drinking beer, and in Miami, hiphop partying. All good, but Miami folk singer Matthew Sabatella prompts us to remember the holiday's origin of honoring American soldiers who have died. And in these global times, perhaps we could extend that to remembering the toll war takes not just on us and ours, but on the children of the rest of the world as well.

That idea also fits Sabatella's Memorial Day offering, The Vacant Chair, a Civil War era song written for Thanksgiving, 1961, as families on both sides of the war found themselves looking at empty chairs and remembering the lost sons who should have been sitting in them. The song is apropos to, though not on, Sabatella's Songs in the Life of Abraham Lincoln, the third in his Ballad of America project. 

This weekend only, courtesy of Miami Music Matters and Sabatella, you can download The Vacant Chair for free at Sabatella's blog, Celebrate With Song, as well as read the lyrics and Sabatella's thoughts. Check out upcoming shows etc at MatthewSabatella.com

Mo Memorial Music

Latin shows this American holiday weekend.

Miami Latin rockers (who had quite a bit of buzz a few years with their debut Kumbustion, playing SXSW, MTV sponsored shows and videos etc) Soniko play Transit Lounge tonight to celebrate the release of their new CD Antidoto Parcial (Partial Antidote, for the Spanish-impaired).  No cover, various free alcoholic libations and other special concoctions - doors at 9pm, show at 10:15pm sharp (or so they claim).

Don't forget Cuban songstress Gema Corredera's concert and benefit at 8:30pm Friday night at the Manuel Artime in Little Havana, with guests Luis Enrique, Amaury Gutierrez and more. Presented by Fundarte - tix $20 at 1 800 595 4849 or www.fundarte.tix.com

Hip-hop, reggae artists plot Memorial Day weekend takeover

For the last few years, Memorial Day weekend has brought tons of tourism to Miami and Miami Beach, and along with that, many performances and appearances by hip-hop and reggae artists. This year is no different. Check out this weekend's events, and feel free to drop a comment if you know of any other events popping off.

Friday, May 22:

• Young Jeezy: The motivational Atlanta rapper is hosting a Memorial Day weekend kickoff party at Karu & Y.

• Flo Rida: Miami's hottest rapper takes the stage with other local artists (like Trick Daddy and Brisco) at "The Official Memorial Weekend Kickoff Event" at Dolce Ultra Lounge in South Beach.

Saturday, May 23:

• Busta Rhymes: The rapper will celebrate the release of his new album Back On My B.S. (check for my review in Monday's Miami Herald) at Dolce Ultra Lounge. The event advertises appearanced by Jamie Foxx, Akon, Jadakiss, Swizz Beats, and N.O.R.E.

Sunday, May 24:

• Best of the Best: The yearly reggae festival has grown in scope to include hip-hop artists. Usually held in Bayfront Park Amphitheatre (which is currently undergoing rennovations), the show will now be held next door at Bicentennial Park, and promises performances from locals Rick Ross and DJ Khaled, along with T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Wayne Wonder, and many more. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster. 

• Diddy: The hip-hop mogul is hosting an "exclusive evening"at Karu & Y in Downtown Miami.