Kid Creole and the Coconuts

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"Kid Creole" redirects here. For the rapper, see Kid Creole (rapper).
Kid Creole in concert in 1987

Kid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates a variety of styles, in particular "American and Latin American, South American, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Calloway"[1] and conceptually inspired by the big band era. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years.


Contents

[edit] Career

Thomas August Darnell Browder was born 1950. "Growing up in the melting pot of the Bronx...Darnell was exposed early on to all kinds of music".[2] Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder Jr, in 1965, which disbanded so Darnell could pursue a career as an English teacher. Darnell obtained a masters degree in English, but in 1974 again formed a band with Stony Browder Jr 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.

"Together, the Browder boys defy convention and pillage their passions to invent a new breed. Of convoluted and deliberately obfuscated racial heritage, the brothers decided to promote their pan-genetic Creole Creed: a better, brighter reality that ignores gender and colour restrictions. Unfortunately, claiming their mixed heritage with pride was largely perceived by "radical" American youth as almost heinously passing for white; both Savannah Band and later, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, always fared better in Europe than at home"[4]

Darnell began producing for other artists, such as Don Armando’s Second Avenue Rhumba Band and Gichy Dan’s Beachwood No.9,[5] before adopting the name Kid Creole (adapted from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980. The persona of Kid Creole is described as:

"Inspired by Cab Calloway and the Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s, the Kid fills out his colorful zoot suits with style and grace, dancing onstage with his inimitable, relentless and self-proclaimed cool."[6]

Kid Creole was to be "the larger-than-life central figure in a multi-racial, multi-cultural musical carnival."[7] The co-founders of this legendary band are, August and his Savannah Band associate vibraphone player Andy Hernandez, also known as his "trusty sidekick" Coati Mundi, who serves as his on-stage comic foil, as well as his musical director and arranger, Darnell's former wife Adriana "Addy" Kaegi who was the leader, choreographer and costume designer of the Coconuts, Co-writer Peter Shott on Piano who co-wrote their first hit "I'm a Wonderful Thing Baby",[8] drummer and band member David Span, bass player Carol Colman and legendary Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan, 'Bongo Eddie' Folk on percussion as well as the Pond life horn section Charlie Lagond, Ken Fradley and Lee Robertson. The original Coconuts- backing vocalist/dancers Adriana Kaegi, Cheryl Poirier, Taryn Haegy who was replaced by Janique Svedberg). This line-up remained in place throughout the band's heyday.

Their debut album Off the Coast of Me was critically well-received but not successful commercially. The second release Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places was a concept album matched with a New York Public Theatre stage production; it received rave reviews, and Darnell was recognized as a clever lyricist and astute composer, arranger and producer. They performed "Mister Softee" on Saturday Night Live during their promotional tour for the album. The album charted briefly, and subsequently Coati Mundi's early latin RAP "Me No Pop I", though not originally on the album, became a Top 40 UK hit single. Their breakthrough came with 1982's Tropical Gangsters, which hit #3 in the UK and spun off three Top 10 hits with "Stool Pigeon", "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby",[9] written by musical director Peter Schott. "Dear Addy" also made the Top 40. In the US the album was retitled Wise Guy and reached #145, and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby" flirted with the R&B charts.

"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."[10]

Darnell subsequently produced spin-off albums for the Coconuts. Coati Mundi also released his solo L P before the fourth Kid Creole and the Coconut's album in 1983; Doppelganger was a relative commercial disappointment, despite the single "There's Something Wrong in Paradise" reaching the Top 40.

Darnell and Kaegi divorced in 1985, though she remained with the band. She and Cheryl Poirier also formed their own group, Boomerang, with Perri Lister, which released an album on the Atlantic label in 1986. Darnell continued Kid Creole and the Coconuts and in the mid to late 1980s contributed to various film soundtracks and other such projects. He appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986 and in this period released the albums In Praise of Older Women and Other Crimes and I, Too, Have Seen the Woods, neither of which charted despite the hit "Endicott". 1990s Private Waters in the Great Divide, described by the NME as "a return to form with inspired lyrics and buckets of the type of sexual innuendo that Creole has made his own",[11] had a hit with the single "The Sex of It", a song written by Prince and recorded at Paisley Park Studios with Sheila E. It reached Top 40 in the US and UK and is to date one of his best-known songs.

Kid Creole and The Coconuts have appeared in a number of films, such as Against All Odds (1984) and the Lambada themed The Forbidden Dance (1990);[12] Andy Hernandez has also made appearances in a number of films separately.[13]and Adriana Kaegi produced and directed a documentary film about the band called Kid Creole and my Coconuts http://kidcreoleandmycoconuts.com

[edit] Present

Darnell now lives in London (and occasionally Sweden and Denmark), and still tours with the Coconuts occasionally. He is currently collaborating with writer/producer Peter Schott on a contemporary opera, to be produced by Son Of Kong Productions.The project features vocals/guitar by former Creole band member and rising star Mark Anthony Jones.

In 2008 Kid Creole toured the UK whilst starring in the stage show Oh! What a Night, a disco musical produced by Random Concerts [14].

Darnell is currently back in the studio, totally re-mixing and re-mastering his favourite Kid Creole songs spanning his whole back catalogue with Master ToKo and Lord highOwl from audio-visual electronica band Picture Book.

He is also writing a new Kid Creole album with Master ToKo and Lord highOwl, due late 2009.

[edit] Best-known lineup

  • August Darnell - vocals, guitar, bass
  • Coati Mundi - vibraphone, vocals
  • Cory Daye - guest vocals
  • Cheryl Poirier - lead vocals
  • Adriana Kaegi - vocals, choreography
  • Taryn Hagey - vocals
  • Jimmy Rip (Rippetoe) - guitar
  • Peter Schott - keyboards
  • Carol Colman - bass
  • Winston Grennan - drums
  • Andrew Lloyd - percussion
  • 'Bongo' Eddie Folk- percussion

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • Off The Coast Of Me (1980)
  • Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places (1981) #180 US
  • Tropical Gangsters (released in the US as Wise Guy) (1982) #3 UK, #145 US, #43 US Black
  • Doppelganger (1983)
  • Cre-Olè: The Best of Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1984)
  • 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)
  • Kid Creole Redux (1992)
  • KC2 Plays K2C (1993)(Japan only, Covered by Kome Kome Club)
  • To Travel Sideways (1995)
  • Kiss Me Before the Light Changes (1995)
  • The Conquest of You (1997)
  • Oh! What a Night (2000) (Live album; also released as Best of Kid Creole and the Coconuts)
  • Too Cool To Conga! (2001)
  • Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1976-1983 (2008)

[edit] Singles

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • "Maladie D'Amour" (1980)
  • "He's Not Such a Bad Guy (After All)" (1980)
  • "Going Places" (1981) #51 US Club Play Singles
  • "Table Manners" (1981)
  • "Latin Music" (1981)
  • "I am" (1981)
  • "Kid Creole and the Coconuts presents Coati Mundi: Que pasa/Me No Pop I" (1981) #32 UK
  • "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby" (1982) #4 UK, #44 Black Singles, #18 Club Play Singles
  • "Stool Pigeon" (1982) #7 UK, #25 Club Play Singles
  • "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" (1982) #2 UK, #45 Germany
  • "Dear Addy" (aka Christmas in B'Dilly Bay with Kid Creole and the Coconuts) (1982) #29 UK
  • "There's Something Wrong in Paradise" (1983) #35 UK
  • "The Lifeboat Party" (1983) #49 UK
  • "My Male Curiosity" (1984) #83 UK
  • "Don't Take My Coconuts" (1984) #86 UK
  • "Endicott" (1985) #80 UK
  • "Caroline Was a Drop-Out" (1986)
  • "Hey Mambo" (with Barry Manilow) (1987) #90 US
  • "Pepito" (1988)
  • "The Sex of It" (1990) #29 UK
  • "I Love Girls" (1990)
  • "(She's A) Party Girl" (1991)
  • "UFO" (1997)

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  2. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  3. ^ MTV biography
  4. ^ Linear Notes from "Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1976-1983" Strut Records (2008)
  5. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  6. ^ Kid Creole & The Coconuts Official Website
  7. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  8. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  9. ^ Linear Notes from "Kid Creole and the Coconuts Redux" Sire Records (1992)
  10. ^ NME Band biography
  11. ^ NME Band biography
  12. ^ The Internet Movie Database
  13. ^ The Internet Movie Database
  14. ^ Official Website for Oh! What a Night

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Creole_and_the_Coconuts"
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