Heineken TransAtlantic Fest
Springtime in Miami since 2003 means anticipating the return of suffocating tropical heat — and one of the most liberating musical events on the eastern seaboard:
the Heineken TransAtlantic Festival.
It’s a gathering of live talents connected by an ocean and an inclusive — but particular — philosophy of sound that’s jet-setting but also deeply rooted. Within those definitional boundaries, and with greater Miami serving as host and inspiration, the performers who assemble here each year are as distinct as the city’s neighborhoods.
The festival’s 13th edition, April 10 and 11 at the North Beach Bandshell, continues the ear-pleasing exploratory work of the Miami Beach-based Rhythm Foundation, which seems incapable of selecting bad acts for this culturally apt, impeccably curated affair.
Start with Ana Tijoux, the France native who resettled in her parents’ original home of Chile. Though every bit the citizen of the world, Tijoux lays more claim through her music to the Americas than to Europe, with a punchy amalgam of hip-hop, soul and Latin roots, and lyrics delivered mostly — but not exclusively — in Spanish.
“Somos Sur” is a throwdown alongside the hard-hitting British-Palestinian rapper Shadia Mansour, and the confluence of Spanish and Arabic is striking for how natural it sounds. Tijoux’s 2014 album, “Vengo,” also dares to deploy the dreaded Andean flute, reintroducing a symbol of ‘90s New Age comfort music as a serious instrument.
Next is Wild Belle. This Brooklyn-based crew’s core duo, siblings Elliot and Natalie Bergman, look as if you’d find them selling artisanal wares out of a rescued Airstream trailer in Bushwick. Likewise, the Bergmans’ music is handmade — an indie-pop quilt patterned from classic soul, reggae, Afrobeat and jazz.
Elliot’s instrumental arrangements are populous but on point. Tandem horns tease a big-band feel from the Caribbean pulse of “Keep You,” whose rhythm and melancholy also recall club queen Grace Jones. On the soulful “Shine,” singer Natalie’s arch phrasing summons both Billie Holiday and Erykah Badu. Their 2013 debut, “Isles,” is the crafty sum of influences first gleaned from a migratory childhood spent with a family of avid listeners.
Another New York outfit, The Budos Band, hails from the quieter isle of Staten Island. Over four albums that owe their soul to the late Nigerian demigod Fela Kuti, Budos Band have also imprinted psychedelia, old-school metal and other vinyl LP-era markers into their compact, all-instrumental jams.
On “The Sticks,” from their latest, “Burnt Offering,” that could be Chicago circa “25 or 6 to 4” trading funky brass licks with power chords by The Who’s Pete Townshend. Budos pay more straight-up tribute to Afro-soul godfather Fela with “Shattered Winds.” The record-crate references — from song to song, and within tracks — hang together thanks to a close ensemble chemistry and proficiency.
Maybe the most idiosyncratic and offbeat live set at TransAtlantic will be turned in by Puerto Candelaria, a six-piece from Medellin, Colombia. Working off the clipped beats of cumbia — the country’s best known genre export — Puerto Candelaria stages a danceable theater of the odd, with songs that go bounding improbably but effortlessly from Afro-Cuban to cabaret.
Representing Miami proper at the festival are two acts: Bluejay and My Deer. Indie spirits both, they also embody the region’s tropical-yet-itinerant character as well as the newly art-conscious, Design District vision of life in the Magic City.
There are glimmers of Miami’s pan-American style in each band’s highly melodic compositions — more so My Deer, with its higher dance-pop quotient. Bluejay is rhythmic in a way that’s less linked to club culture — not to mention the prominence of cello in some of their moody pieces. Both are also dreamy and introspective enough that they could be from anywhere.
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~ Sean Piccoli
