Kid Creole and the Coconuts + Arto Lindsay 10.20Pm Justin Strauss – Clubstage + Justin Strauss
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Sat 7 Oct, 2017 7. 3 0 p m Kid Creole Arto Lindsay 8.45pm and the Coconuts Justin Strauss – clubstage 9.05pm Kid Creole and the Coconuts + Arto Lindsay 10.20pm Justin Strauss – clubstage + Justin Strauss Arto Lindsay guitar, vocals Jane Cornwell takes us on a trip back to They’re here tonight. In the flesh: Lindsay, Marivaldo Paim percussion Downtown NYC in the 1970s and ‘80s as she Strauss and the Kid. The rest are here in spirit, Cinque Kemp drums speaks to three musicians at the apex of a but particularly Basquiat – a preternaturally Paul Wilson keys cultural scene that gave birth to some of the talented renegade who threw his net wide, Melvin Gibbs bass 20th century’s most lauded creative minds. drawing inspiration from Bebop and Hip Hop, architecture and performance, screen Kid Creole and the Coconuts New York City. The late ‘70s, early ‘80s. Graffiti and street, and whose work is currently being and glitter; safety pins and shoulder pads; torn celebrated in the Barbican Art Gallery. August Darnell – The Kid jeans, Lycra, big bouffy hair. Musical genres band leader swirling and fizzing: Punk and Jazz, New Wave ‘Jean-Michel was a loyal friend, sure of himself Roos Van Rossum coconut and No Wave, Pop, Electronica and a myriad from the beginning, rightfully aggrieved, always Sarah Mcgrath coconut sounds from elsewhere. At the city’s dirty generous,’ says Lindsay, himself a man of many Charlotte De Graaf coconut Downtown heart beat clubs like the Mudd, the things. Singer, songwriter, composer. Producer, Toby Goodman drums Ritz and Area, which along with Midtown’s showy curator, artist. Purveyor of hip. Icon of cool. A Brazil- Oroh Angiama bass Studio 54 saw artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith born lover of Samba and song with a voice like Lorne Ashley guitar Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat mingling with streaming silk and a knack for floaty, hummable Tim Vine keys the musicians like Arto Lindsay and August ‘Kid tunes that tell of love and life. He’s also a New Barnaby Dickinson trombone Creole’ Darnell, their encounters soundtracked by York Punk experimentalist open to confrontation, Edgar Jones sax DJs including the then ubiquitous Justin Strauss. abstract noise and using chaos as a spice. Tom Walsh trumpet Produced by the Barbican in association with Como No A former member of Punk and No Wave outfits Justin Strauss still has the copy of Beat Bop that was He’ll play the hits: ‘Stool Pigeon’. DNA, The Lounge Lizards and the Golden given to him by Basquiat. ‘It’s one of my favourite ‘Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy’. Just don’t Palominos, a theatre graduate who collaborated records,’ says the DJ who was at the decks of ask him to remember the ‘80s. with cutting-edge thesps The Wooster Group, nearly every club you’d wanted to go to, beginning for a long time Lindsay fronted his own group, with the legendary Mudd Club. His distinctive ‘It’s all a bit of a blur,’ says Darnell, a theatre Ambitious Lovers. In the 1990s, assisted by friends sound, with its singular remixes, underscoring graduate like Lindsay. ‘I lived in Manhattan, in Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno, he released a the vibe that back then, anything was possible. a New York that doesn’t exist anymore. That clutch of solo albums including 2004’s revered Salt. New York was special. It was a cultural meeting His current, wildly acclaimed Cuidado Madame, Strauss often saw Lindsay and DNA playing at point for every artistic vision imaginable.’ his first release in 13 years and blends No Wave the Mudd and other dDowntown venues, later and Tropicalia with the rhythmic drum patterns of remixing a track for Ambitious Lovers. He caught ‘Or rather, I lived in mid-Manhattan and my voyage the syncretic Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion. Kid Creole & The Coconuts at the Ritz (‘Where to Lower Manhattan was the real eye opener. Lower Duality should really be his middle name. they played more times than probably any other Manhattan was where I’d run into Basquiat and band’), and remixed their single ‘The Sex of It’, Arto and grow to appreciate the alternate universe.’ ‘I like to play things off against each which was co-written and co-produced by Prince. other,’ he says. ‘Light and dark. Sound A smile. ’It was this juxtaposition of Midtown Studio and silence. Brazilian and American.’ Kid Creole & The Coconuts delivered spectacles. 54 glitz and Downtown Mudd Club dirt that also Zoot-suited and self-assured, sporting high-rise made me appreciate the power of eclecticism. Basquiat enjoyed hanging around the musos collars, two-tone shoes and a pencil moustache, And that has been my saving grace! Amen!’ on New York’s small and vibrant underground the Kid burst onto the scene in the early ‘80s, scene. He’d design T-shirts, draw sketches (several having graduated from Dr Buzzard’s Original Amen, indeed. likenesses of Lindsay were made on index cards); his Savannah Band, a Soul/Disco quartet he’d fronted experimental band Gray opened a handful of times with his brother. Kid Creole and his glamorous for Lindsay and DNA: ‘Gray had a sharp sense of trio of Coconuts were part Soul revue, part theatre which kept your attention from lingering sideshow, the oh-so-fabulous focus of a Latin- too long on any one of them or on the music itself,’ leaning big band with deep roots in the Bronx Lindsay recalls. ‘Jean-Michel was often a wild card, and an outward-looking, cross-cultural aesthetic. in an overcoat, an observer at his own spectacle.’ The Kid’s alter ego, August Darnell, called it Basquiat was also an exceptional writer, a poet. mongrel music: ‘I grew up in an inner-city ghetto ‘Remember, the Beat Poets were still in our ears where you had Italian Arias next to Caribbean when Rap came along. And Jean-Michel’ - who in Reggae and Calypso. You had the Salsa of Puerto 1983 produced and did the artwork for Beat Bop, Ricans next to the Funk of James Brown. At home, a classic Hip-Hop record featuring K-Rob and it was Carmen Miranda, Cab Calloway and Frank Rammelzee – ‘had his own Caribbean sources too.’ Sinatra. I wanted to try every combination.’ You might also like ... Stay in touch More Basquiat inspired shows Something different? @BarbicanCentre BarbicanCentre Until 28 Jan Mon 23 Oct Basquiat: Boom for Real The Matthew Herbert Brexit Big Band BarbicanCentre Fri 10 Nov, LSO St Luke’s Mon 30 Oct Sign up to our email list at Black Top + Guests: Basquiat and Jazz Camille barbican.org.uk/e-updates Featuring Orphy Robinson, Pat Thomas, Franceso Martinelli, Jean Paul Bourelly and more Tue 31 Oct Gilberto Gil & Cortejo Afro Sun 28 Jan Video Jam x Basquiat With Young Fathers, Ibibio Sound Machine, Sarathy The City of London Korwar and more Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre Discover Downtown NYC Barbican Recommends Long Read: Basquiat and Downtown From Arthur Russell to Afrika Tired of the same old tunes? Follow our To coincide with the first major retrospective Bambaataa – listen in to a few of our Barbican Recommends playlist on Spotify to hear of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work in the UK – favourites tracks that came out of New York a small selection of what we have been listening currently in our gallery – we explore the part he in this incredibly fruitful musical period. to – updated monthly for your aural pleasure. played in the famed music scene of the New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s on our blog. barbican.org.uk/basquiatdowntown.