In The Bronx, there’s a man who builds instruments for the world’s great Latin percussionists: Tito Puente, Eddie Montalvo, Giovanni Hidalgo, Bobby Sanabria. He has no signs, no storefront, no advertising of any kind, but people from around the world call him for work. After all, nothing sounds quite like one of his handmade cowbells.
Calixto “Cali” Rivera’s father was a guitar maker, and his son picked up the tradition of craftsmanship. But Cali gravitated to the drums — he’s a timbale player — and made congas, bongos and other percussion instruments. These days, he specializes in high-quality cowbells of all sorts. He’s in his late 70s, with only his wife for administrative support, yet he cranks out dozens a week.
Jazz Night In America recently visited Rivera at his JCR Percussion workshop to find out how, for nearly 40 years, he’s transformed strong metal into strong bells.
“Being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an overacute capacity for sadness as well as elation. I know what the cat who wrote the song is trying to say. I’ve been there—and back. I guess the audience feels it along with me. They can’t help it.” – Frank Sinatra
A subscription service that sends you one vinyl record every month pressed just for its members. The record also comes with a 12″x 12″ print related to the album and a cocktail recipe so you can start your own party. Gift subscriptions are also available for the music fan in your life. Check out its past releases here.
Since 1977, Bay Area punk institution Maximum Rocknroll has been producing a radio show, publishing a monthly magazine, releasing records, organizing shows, and supporting worldwide punk projects. As MRR enters its 40th year, they are undertaking theirmost ambitious project ever: creating a comprehensive online database of our record collection and music reviews. The project will also see out-of-print issues of the magazine fully digitized. They’re asking for your help to make it possible through an Indiegogo campaign.
Maximum Rocknroll’s collection is the largest assemblage of punk material history on earth. In addition to records, the archive is home to countless rare and unheard demo tapes, zines, photographs, one-of-a-kind record covers designed by the magazine’s founder Tim Yohannan, and flyers dating back to the genre’s inception, many of which will be digitized for the first time. MRR has been instrumental in punk history and historiography, and the archive and database will be an essential resource for record collectors, historians, and anyone interested in punk, hardcore, and garage rock. Imagine Kill from the Heart on steroids or Discogs for the what-we-do-is-secret crowd.
They have a massive amount of work ahead of them. They write, “We have dedicated volunteers on board to ensure that it gets done right. A professional archivist with years of experience inventorying, cataloging, and preserving media collections is living at the MRR compound in San Francisco to work on the project full-time. We have a programmer on board who has been building the database and a UX designer who will make it easy to use. Over 70 volunteers have already helped out with scanning and transcribing reviews. Our volunteers can make this project happen, but we need your help to cover the costs and guarantee a sustainable future for this essential punk resource.”
Maximum Rocknroll is and will always be a volunteer-run operation. They welcome Bay Area punks who want to help out in any capacity, especially needing volunteers for inventorying the collection and helping with preservation work. To volunteer, email archive@maximumrocknroll.com.
Kronenbourg 1664, a French beer brand from Alsace, is launching a pop-up bar in London called Bar D’Alsace-tian. Of course, it will, happily, be staffed by Alsatian dogs. UPI reports:
“We’re absolutely delighted to be opening the doors on the world’s first bar staffed by dogs,” Kronenbourg 1664 brand director Ifeoma Dozie said. “It provides customers with a truly unique experience and is the ideal way for us to bring the ‘Alsace-tians’ to Kronenbourg fans.”
https://youtu.be/nTiVnj7g0rA
Instead of tips, customers are encouraged to ask, “Who’s a good boy? YOU are!”
Heritage Builders Publishing is proud to announce that the Rick Hall autobiography, “The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame,” is being developed into a limited music drama series by Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil, alongside Richard Branson’s Virgin Produced, Joshua D. Maurer and Alixandre Witlin’s City Entertainment, and IM Global TV.
Hall made music history when he founded FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Hall went on to earn international fame and a GRAMMY for lifetime achievement. In the days when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching for freedom, Hall proved to be a civil rights pioneer through his music. His open collaboration among black and white artists was a revolutionary cultural standard not only to “deep south” Alabama, but to the nation at large. FAME’s colorblind atmosphere, and the raw music it produced, would help shape American culture during its most troubled and tumultuous time.
I love it when Twitter explodes with a fun hashtag like “TodaysKidsWillNeverKnow. It’s a chance for us old people to feel secure in the notion we can explain a pay telephone booth.
Today in 1965, During a UK tour Bob Dylan played the first of two sold out nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All four members of The Beatles were in the audience. What better time to post this cool video?
It’s been around for awhile, usually in shorter form, but here is full 20 minutes of the stoned Dylan and Lennon taxi ride during Bob’s 1966 tour of England, shot by P.A. Pennebaker in Dont Look Back, ending with Bob getting sick. Dylan stoned out of his mind, Lennon functioning much better.
Like everyone else on the planet, Toronto’s Choir! Choir! Choir! were devastated to hear that Prince had died. To pay their respects, they invited 1999 singers to Massey Hall in Toronto on Monday, May 2, and, over the course of a couple hours, they learned thearrangement to When Doves Cry. It was a beautiful and emotional evening that included a performance of Purple Rain by Sabrina Wan + Brad McGoey from the Regent Park School of Music, and a sighting of Le Petit Prince. After all the parts came together, they shot this video, which is the next best thing to having been in the room. Then they went to Yonge-Dundas Square to sing it one more time.
I was at Massey Hall, and it was an emotional, killer evening. This is what is sounds like when his fans sing and cry.
