Kid Creole and the Coconuts
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Kid Creole and the Coconuts | |
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Andy Hernandez Adriana Kaegi Fonda Rae Cory Daye Mark Mazur Cheryl Poirier Taryn Hagey Janique Svedberg Jimmy Ripp (Rippetoe) Peter Schott Carol Colman Charlie Lagond Lee Robertson Kenny Fradley Winston Grennan Andrew Lloyd 'Bongo' Eddie Folk Simon 'Franco' Frost | |
Website | www |
Kid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created by
era. The Coconuts are a trio of female backing vocalists/dancers, founded and originally choreographed and costumed by Kaegi.Career
Thomas August Darnell Browder[3][4] was born in The Bronx, New York City on August 12, 1950. His mother was from South Carolina with Caribbean and Italian parents and his father from Savannah, Georgia. As an adult, Browder began going by his two middle names as August Darnell.
Growing up in the Bronx, Darnell was exposed early on to all kinds of music.[5] Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his brother, Stony Browder, in 1965. The band disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. Darnell obtained a master's degree in English, but in 1974 again formed a band with his brother under the name Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band.[3] Their self-titled debut release was a Top 40-charting album which was certified gold and was nominated for a Grammy.
Darnell began producing for other artists, such as Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band and Gichy Dan's Beachwood No. 9,
The original Coconuts, a collection of glamorous and often skimpily attired female backing vocalists, were led by Darnell's then-wife Adriana "Addy" Kaegi, who also served as the choreographer and costume designer of the Coconuts. Early recordings featured a Coconuts lineup of Kaegi, Cheryl Lee Poirier, Fonda Rae, and Lourdes Cotton; Lori Eastside was also a Coconut on a handful of early singles. By 1982, the Coconuts were a trio of Kaegi, Cheryl Poirier, and Taryn Hagey. This lineup of the Coconuts recorded a spin-off album project in 1983, with Poirier taking the lead vocalist role on EMI.
Throughout the 1980s, the band also included Peter Schott on keyboards (Schott also occasionally co-composed material with Darnell), drummer David Span, bass player Carol Colman, and legendary Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan. With horn players, percussionists, and other adjunct members, the full band lineup often swelled to over a dozen players.[6]
Kid Creole and the Coconuts' debut album
Their breakthrough came with 1982's
Their live shows at this time were among the most propulsive and enchanting of the period, with outlandish dancing and cod theatricals garnishing the Latin beats."[7]
Darnell subsequently produced a 1983 spin-off album for the Coconuts with Cheryl Poirier on lead vocals. Coati Mundi also released his solo LP The Former 12 Year Old Genius before the fourth Kid Creole and the Coconuts album in 1983; Doppelganger was a relative commercial disappointment, despite the single "There's Something Wrong in Paradise" reaching the UK Top 40. In 1983, Kid Creole formed a new swing big band, Elbow Bones and the Racketeers, and he gained the hit "Night in New York".[8]
The group performed the song "My Male Curiosity" (with choreography by Kaegi) for the 1984 movie Against All Odds;[9] the song also appeared on the best-selling soundtrack album.
The Coconuts also sang background vocals in the songs "Red Light" and "Surrender" on U2's album War, which was released on 28 February 1983 on Island Records.
Darnell and Kaegi divorced in 1985, though she remained with the band. Taryn Hagey dropped out of The Coconuts around the same time, and the two remaining Coconuts (Adriana Kaegi and Cheryl Poirier) formed their own spin-off group Boomerang with Perri Lister. This group released a dance-oriented album, somewhat different in sound to their Coconuts recordings, on the Atlantic label in 1986. The producer was David Kershenbaum.
Kid Creole and the Coconuts continued, now with third Coconut Janique Svedberg replacing the departed Hagey. On record, though billed as guests and not as Coconuts, during this era some female co-lead vocals were performed by Haitia Fuller and
In 1987, Kid Creole and the Coconuts made their only appearance on the US Hot 100 charts with "Hey Mambo", a track from Barry Manilow's Swing Street album. The single, credited to "Barry Manilow with Kid Creole & The Coconuts", peaked at #90. The band also performed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Longtime associate Hernandez left the ensemble before 1990's
After the 1992 Kid Creole and the Coconuts album You Shoulda Told Me You Were... failed to achieve significant commercial success, the group splintered. The female backing trio all left and have been replaced with a rotating group of new Coconuts. With a revised and slimmed-down lineup, the band kept releasing albums throughout the '90s on independent labels, though none of the recordings received much attention or wide distribution. Despite still touring, the band went into a 10-year recording hiatus after their 2001 album Too Cool to Conga!, re-emerging in 2011 with I Wake Up Screaming.
Kid Creole and The Coconuts have appeared in a number of films, such as
Present
Darnell still tours with the current Coconuts: Roos van Rossum and Charlotte de Graaf (both from the Netherlands) and Kristina Hanford from Memphis Tennessee.[12] Darnell's now wife, Eva Tudor-Jones, who was Mama Coconut for more than 20 years, now manages all the operations.
Darnell now has his own indie record label called 2C2C Music. He runs it with his business partners Peter Schott and Eva Tudor-Jones. The partners founded the label in 2018 and have since released some new Kid Creole and the Coconuts music.[13] The label also recently released Off the Coast of Me (40th Anniversary Edition) to celebrate the album's 40 years since its first release.[14] And in 2021, the label released the album Nothin' Left but the Rest. [15]
In 2008, for the last time, Kid Creole toured the UK starring in the stage show Oh! What a Night, a disco musical produced by Random Concerts.[16]
Kid Creole and the Coconuts' most recent studio album, entitled I Wake Up Screaming, was released on September 12, 2011 on !K7/Strut Records.[17]
At the end of 2010, Kid Creole and the Coconuts toured Germany with The Night of the Proms, also starring Boy George and Sir Cliff Richard. They previously appeared in the Night of the Proms in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2007 with Chic, Macy Gray and Donna Summer.[18]
Discography
- Off the Coast of Me (1980)
- Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places (1981)
- Tropical Gangsters (1982) (released in the U.S. as Wise Guy)
- Doppelganger (1983)
- In Praise of Older Women... and Other Crimes (1985)
- I, Too, Have Seen the Woods (1987)
- Private Waters in the Great Divide (1990)
- You Shoulda Told Me You Were... (1991)
- KC2 Plays K2C (1993) (Japan only, backed by Kome Kome Club)
- To Travel Sideways (1995)
- Kiss Me Before the Light Changes (1995)
- The Conquest of You (1997)
- Too Cool to Conga! (2001)
- I Wake Up Screaming (2011)
Awards
- 1983): International Artist
Filmography
- Against All Odds (1984)
- The Forbidden Dance is Lambada (1990)[19]
- Only You (1992)
- Downtown 81 (2000)
References
- ^ a b "Kid Creole & the Coconuts - Biography". Billboard. 1950-08-12. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
- ^ a b Liner Notes from "Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1976–1983". Strut Records. 2008.
- ^ a b "Kid creole & the coconuts | New Music And Songs |". Mtv.com. 1950-08-12. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
- ^ "Kid Creole & the Coconuts - Music Biography, Credits and Discography: AllMusic". Rovi Corp. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
- ^ a b c Liner Notes from Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux Sire Records (1992). Sire Records. 1992.
- ^ "Primera Actuacion in Toronto de Banda de Salsa Rock y Rhythm". El popular, April 8, 1985, page 4. via Simon Fraser University Digitised Newspaper collection
- ^ a b "Kid-Creole". NME.com. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ Elbow Bones and the Racketeers retrieved 09 September 2021
- ^ "Against All Odds (1984)". IMDb.com. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
- ^ "There's Something Wrong In Paradise : Film". Citwf.com. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
- ^ "Kid Creole And My Coconuts Film". Kidcreoleandmycoconuts.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ "Kid Creole and The Coconuts". Ents24. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ "POLYGAMY". Kid Creole and the Coconuts. 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2021-01-27.
- ^ 40th Anniversary Edition - Kid Creole and the Coconuts
- ^ "New album by Kid Creole - Nothin' Left but the Rest". 2 C 2 C Music. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ "Oh What A Night Official Website". Ohwhatanight.com. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ "I Wake Up Screaming". Strut-records.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-16. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
- ^ "Night of the Proms on television". Night of the Proms International. 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
- ^ "The Forbidden Dance (1990)". IMDb.com. Retrieved October 8, 2019.