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25/08/2004 - MARKETING & PUBLICITY ASSOCIATE |
Joe's Pub...
A play on Shakespeare's existential question, ser or no ser (as in "to be," etc.), the title of his second U.S. release "Sur o No Sur" (Sony) is essentially what Johansen -- and a growing generation of globalization-weaned artists -- is all about.
An inexhaustible genre fusionist, in the vein of Franco-Spanish troubadour Manu Chao, Mexico's Café Tacuba or the Tropicalistas of 30 years ago, Johansen seamlessly blends styles (blues and country, reggae, salsa, tango and candombe, chanson, and on) as easily as he switches between languages. What comes out, then, are what he calls cumbia flamenco, Celtic sambarera, popklore and zydeco rush.
"I'm working on a chacarera with a funk beat for an homage to ('80s Argentine crooner) Atahualpa Yupanqui," says the 40-year-old, baritone-voiced singer. The title of the song: "Atahualpa You Funky."
When he returns to New York City with his band, The Nada, Wednesday to perform at Joe's Pub, it'll be like a second homecoming. He had performed last fall at CBGB, where he was an artist-in-residence for nearly a decade until 2000.
In the most unlikely of coincidences, he says, he returned to his mother's Buenos Aires that year, while most Argentineans were fleeing for economic reasons.
"I moved to B.A. at the worst times, the year of the golpe (military coup) in 1976 and in 2000 during the (economic) crash," Johansen says. "The last crisis was necessary to help people be aware of what was going on. In a sense that's a positive thing."
That sort of positive outlook is prevalent in his work. Both of his albums have an uplifting sensibility, providing language for a world experiencing a new cultural order.
His first album, "The Nada," reflects the New York City side of him, he says, while "Sur o No Sur" represents his Latin personality.
"I don't like to translate songs," he says. "Recording is really organic."
And no song says that better than "Guacamole" from "The Nada," a giddy, guitar-picked, clave-driven exercise in word associations and rhymes ("cuchufrito, habichuela, hot tamale, trucha al escabeche, con café con leche").
Johansen was stirring the kind of musical moles that seemed out of place anywhere else but New York. But CBGB owner Hilly Krystal rediscovered Johansen after he moved back from Buenos Aires in 1990. Rediscovered, because in the mid-'80s, Johansen had achieved some pop stardom in South America with a rock en español band, Instrucción Cívica.
"My mom was a woman of words. She spoke seven or eight languages, so there was a subliminal amount of Spanish in me, especially after she remarried to a Mexican painter," he says.
His mother moved to San Francisco from Fairbanks when he was 4, then to Buenos Aires after he turned 12. There, he drew inspiration from Les Luthiers -- Argentina's equivalent of Monty Python's Flying Circus, known to blend classical and folklore music with comedic pop jingles.
He also soaked in the Latin American protest music (Violeta Parra, Victor Jara) and homegrown rock (Charly García, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs) that boomed during and after the Malvinas/Falklands War. When he came to New York, he wanted to dig into his gringo roots to come full circle.
"What I've realized is that there's an audience that understands (blending) and likes to be surprised by lyrics that reflect that," he says. "It's great to feel there's a place for that."
John DeCicco
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Shows |
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10 DE SEPTIEMBRE
SANTA ROSA, ARGENTINA
TEATRO ESPAÑOL
HILARIO LAGOS 44 -21.30 HS
KEVIN JOHANSEN + THE NADA
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11 DE SEPTIEMBRE
BAHÍA BLANCA, ARGENTINA
TEATRO DON BOSCO
RONDEAU 119 - 21.30 HS
KEVIN JOHANSEN + THE NADA
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Miercoles 10 de Noviembre
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Teatro Gran Rex
Av. Corrientes 857
20.30 hs
Kevin Johansen + The Nada + Liniers presentan VIVO EN BUENOS AIRES
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