In 1983, he released a solo album titled Little Coati Mundi The Former 12 Year Old Genius. Mundi composed, produced and provided the lead vocals. It contained a version of Captain Beefheart's "Tropical Hot Dog Night" featuring salsa singer Rubén Blades. The album also featured former Kid Creole & The Coconuts singer Lori Eastside.
Sometimes, I feel that there’s no truer saying than this one: “you can never be a prophet in your own land”. It still boggles my mind that a) Coati Mundi’s The Former 12 Year Old Genius has never been reissued in any digital format and b) his work was never remotely as popular in his homeland as it was elsewhere. Released in 1983, at the height of his other band’s (Kid Creole and The Coconuts) popularity, The Former 12 Year Old Genius functioned as both a brilliant window into a very brief/peculiar musical scene and into a talented musician who earned it not for lack of talent but through sheer hustle.
Signed under the condition of being their arranger and composer, Andy kept bluffing his way through it and self-taught himself musical composition. With wondrous amazement, in short time, he’d come up with songs like “Me No Pop I” that’d capture that “mutant” sound iconic NYC label ZE Records was trafficking in. On every cut that he’d write for the Kid Creole crew his distinctly outre Latin Pop ideas were laid bare. Further work outside the group with others like space disco maven Cristina and the Aural Exciters, proved he had enough ideas to spread around. However, much like other groups that have known leader on the marquee, there was only so much spotlight that he could (or would have been allowed) to steal from Kid Creole.
As Coati Mundi, he would inhabit the true id to the ego that was “Sugar Coated” Andy. Signing with Virgin Records, on The Former 12 Year Old Genius he rounded up a few Kid Creole band members, friends from NYC latin funk scene, and one Fania icon, Ruben Blades, making quite an intriguing cameo. Trading in the overtly tropical influences for more urbane, gritty grooves, Coati Mundi was sung and performed by Andy with the swagger of someone who was more aware of music made since the ‘70s.
“Sey Hey!” opens the album with a quick-fire Afro Cuban mutation that finds Andy singing in Spanglish in a way that’s far less suave and more fiery than any of his previous work. “Oh! That Love Decision” at first seems like a trip back to his Savannah days, with equally sophisticated big band swing…but it’s a false motif. The music keeps moving away from a steady groove working itself through various jazz mutations. As “Beat the Bullies” shifts the mood to a far less constrained tempo, we finally start to get a truer sense of the macro style.
“¿Como Esta Usted?” takes its cue from the great Afro-Latin grooves and repurposes them with newer school post-disco ideas. Much like the album cover and music video, it’s cartoony but surprisingly rich and complex. It’s a kind of groove that one Coati Mundi has no bizness creating but did so in such a way that should put a smile on any face and a jiggle in any shake — it’s like biting into a big chocolate chip cookie and dolloping a cookie spread on it for the next bite. Early proto-consciousness “rap”, “Everybody’s On An Ego Trip” uses a tongue in cheek rap diss to create his own slithery funk workout, that truth be told, someone else could rap over but lose all the magic of this sprawling shapeshifting groove.
“Prisoner Of My Principles” with its equally mesmerizing music video, finds inspiration from the more minimal, dark side of greater Manhattan. Equally arresting body politic, hypnotic vibraphone workout, and quite avantgarde, on this cut Coati comes close to matching the embers of Latin Jazz with the modernity of global techno bubbling elsewhere. Speaking of future dance music — “Pharaoh (Can’t Take It To The Grave)” uses Afro Pop and gospel motifs to create something I’d agree with others as pointing to house music yet to be born. Pairing down chordal vamps and adding some priceless horn parts, Coati treats us to another hypnotic track perfect for future dance floors. Ditto for “I’m Corrupt”.
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Virgin Records Ltd.
- Copyright © – Virgin Records Ltd.
- Produced For – Coati Mundi Productions
- Published By – Copyright Control
- Published By – Island Music
- Published By – Chappell Music
- Published By – Singing Ink Music
- Recorded At – Planet Sound Studios
- Mixed At – Planet Sound Studios
- Printed By – Mohndruck Graphische Betriebe GmbH
- Distributed By – Ariola Group Of Companies
- Design Concept [Cover] – Andy Hernandez, Henri Benvenuti, Lori Eastside
- Engineer – Julian McBrowne
- Horns – The Lagond Horns
- Lead Vocals, Vibraphone, Marimba, Flute, Percussion, Keyboards – Coati Mundi
- Leader [Chairladies Strings] – Jill Jaffe, Marin Alsop
- Leader [Chairman Horns] – Charles Lagond
- Mixed By – The Hit Squad
- Other [Make-up Artist] – Victor Stone
- Photography – Ishimoro
- Producer, Arranged By – "Sugar-Coated" Andy Hernandez
- Strings – String Fever
- Technician [Consultant] – Mike Shea
- Written-By – "Sugar-Coated" Andy Hernandez (tracks: A1 to B4)
0 comments:
Een reactie posten