The Baboons Celebrate 10 Years of “Global Gumbo” at WDNA Jazz Gallery June 6

Miami Latin funk band mark 10th anniversary of world music DJs Majica & Mano P. at WDNA on Sat., June 6th, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.

Miami’s 88.9FM WDNA will celebrate the 10^th on-air anniversary of the station’s musically adventurous on-air personalities, Majica & Mano P., well-known to South Florida audiences as hosts of the station’s weekly world music radio program Global Gumbo with Majica & Mano P. and as founding members of veteran Latin funk band The Baboons. The station will commemorate the tag-team twosomes’ ten-year musical milestone with a concert by The Baboons on June 6^th, 2015 at the WDNA Jazz Gallery, 2921 Coral Way, Miami. The DJ duo debuted as hosts of The Latin Jazz Quarter in 2005 and launched their world music show Global Gumbo in January 2012.

“We are thrilled that WDNA is providing us with the opportunity to perform our own music and offer some insight into the many international styles that inspire us as DJs, songwriters and musicians,” said lead vocalist Majica, who co-hosts Global Gumbo with Majica & Mano P with her husband and bandmate onSundays, 4-6pm. “The music that we play on the radio show and that we compose and perform with the band definitely feed each other.”

The Baboons will be showcasing songs from their upcoming recording, Spanglish, a musical portrait of modern Miami currently in production at Miami’s Red Door Studio. The opus-in-progress includes 15 all-original songs that blend an array of international influences into a danceable fusion that can only come from Miami. The recording features Majica on vocals and Mano P. on drums, with conguero Miguel Rega, guitarist Isaac Rodriguez, saxophonist Dominick Cama and bassist Michael Mut.

Colombian-born Miami artist Eva Ruiz, who will be exhibiting her artwork in the WDNA Jazz Gallery, will unveil an exuberant original painting commissioned by The Baboons as the CD cover for Spanglish.

The Baboons have been mashing up musical genres in South Florida’s live music scene for 22 years. Known for their danceable blend of Latin funk, world music, jazz and rock & roll, The Baboons have been featured on the Fusion network’s Fusion Live and on PBS’ Music Voyager. The collective has received many honors, including a Florida Jammy Award for Best Worldbeat Band in 1994. In 2000, the band’s debut release Evolution was honored as New Times Miami’s “Best Album of the Past Twelve Months” and in 2001, the band released the follow-up recording Global Gumbo.

Admission is $10 for WDNA members, $15 General Admission. For more info, please call 305.510.3003 or email thebaboons@bellsouth.net. Check out http://thebaboons.com and join our community of friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Link to web-sized band image: https://www.facebook.com/thebaboons.  
What the press has to say about The Baboons:

“The Baboons like to call their music ‘urban tribal Afro-Cuban funk-n-roll,’ but it should really be classified as ‘everything but the kitchen sink.’ From airy rockers worthy of Carlos Santana to percussive jams, their tunes incorporate a number of incongruous sounds that, under their direction and care, are collected into a harmonious whole. The Baboons make unabashedly happy music that is easy to enjoy and difficult to criticize. The quintet, led by singer Majica, has been around for a minute (its last album, Global Gumbo, was released in 2000), so it knows how to move a crowd.” – New Times Miami

“A gem of a band.” – The Miami Herald

“The Baboons are definitively Miami: rife with multiculturality, shirtless and shoeless sand-kicking fun, consistent unpredictability, cramped clutches of hyperactivity…What the tropically topical outfit has been doing for years is generating soul-stirring, ass-shaking music that only a birdbrain would try to pigeonhole.” – The Miami Herald

“Ultra-rhythmic, multicultural, eclectic… One of the city’s most promising acts.” – New Times Miami 

“Defies all categories…notorious…infectiously percussive” – City Link

“Diverse, stirring, and tropical as an August day on Virginia Key, Evolution is pure Miami and pure pleasure.” – New Times Miami, Best of Miami 1999, “Best Album of the Past Twelve Months”

“The ‘boons have released…two CDs, but despite the merits of the recordings, particularly the masterful new release Global Gumbo, it remains their live shows that cream collective musical jeans. All this gifting locals with mad party, half spectacle, half joyful orgy live performances has grown the ‘boons in size and exuberance…” – The Miami Herald

“Reviewers have struggled to classify the music of The Baboons ever since the band premiered a decade ago. ‘Spicy rhythmic gumbo!’ said one. ‘Afro-Cuban funk and roll!’ declared another. ‘Urban-tribal funk,’ one more dribbled. And so on. Would it help if we added, ‘The Baboons are what the Miami Sound Machine would sound like if the Miami Sound Machine didn’t suck?’ Whatever. Look, we all know that there are two forces at work today in American music — the Homogenizers, whose aim is to commodify and Britney-fy everything you listen to, and the Resistance, who, in the pursuit of something new and original, defy the convenience of labels. The Baboons are the percussive commando unit of the Resistance.” – New Times Broward Palm Beach

“They were originally into performance art and experimenting with percussive styles and spoken word poetry, but the Baboons have evolved into masters of reggae, blues, and Cuban funk; added a sexyvocalista; released two CDs; and forged a new genre-busting style of Floridian music.” – New Times Broward Palm Beach

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