8 January 26 - February 1, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | City and affiliated labels Blue Star and Lloyd became an incu- bator for the city’s R&B talent. Smith’s 1964 recording, The Pot Can’t Talk About the Kettle, was the label’s first release. Smith’s only album, Helene Smith Sings Sweet Soul, featured her biggest commercial hit, “A Woman Will Do Wrong,” a vin- tage soul vinyl collection gem that peaked at number 20 on Billboard’s R&B chart in August 1967. Other notable Miami soul albums: My First Time Around, Betty Wright (1969) I Love the Way You Love, Betty Wright (1972) Party Down, Little Beaver (1974) 1974: 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton Recorded at North Miami’s Criteria Recording Studios, the birthplace of many great recordings by artists who also sought a new direction in their music, Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard finds him in a very relaxed state of mind. The album was named after the address of the Golden Beach bungalow Clapton rented while trying to recover from heroin addiction. Miami proved to be the idyllic muse for the former lead guitarist of Cream and Derek and the Dominos, inspiring him to record several melodic bluesy and island-vibe tracks, in- cluding a cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” which charted as Clapton’s first number one Billboard single as a solo artist, making a compelling case that exposure to Miami’s op- pressive heat and moisture may ultimately lead to redemption. Other notable albums from the Criteria archive: Hotel California, Eagles (1976) Rumors, Fleetwood Mac (1977) Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees (1977) 1975: KC and the Sunshine Band, KC and the Sunshine Band In the 1970s, independent record producer Henry Stone up- graded his Miami-based music studio TK Productions and moved into an 18,000-square-foot warehouse in Hialeah. From this location, TK released a series of soul classics featur- ing Betty Wright, Little Beaver, and Clarence Reid. In those early years, Stone hired two young men, Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, to assist with myriad studio tasks, includ- ing packing records for distribution. After hours, Stone al- lowed Casey and Finch, enterprising musicians, to experiment with recording gear, kicking up the funk with re- petitive snares and upbeat high-hats. Soon the pair was com- posing and producing “Rock Your Baby” for George McCrae. Topping the charts in 1974, the song is celebrated by many as disco music’s first hit. Influenced by 1960s Motown funk and vibrant Caribbean music, Casey and Finch formed KC and the Sunshine Junkanoo Band, later shortened to KC and the Sunshine Band, and TK’s Miami sound — with its immediate appeal for the post-Vietnam tenor of the times — emerged. The group’s 1975 debut birthed three number-one hits, including “That’s The Way I Like It” and “Get Down Tonight.” For a brief period in music history, Miami’s KC and the Sunshine Band danced atop the mirrored-glass globe. Other notable albums from the TK family: The Beginning of the End, Funky Nassau (1971) Rock Your Baby, George McCrae (1974) Gwen McCrae, Gwen McCrae (1974) 1987: Let It Loose, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine Emilio Estefan’s band, the Miami Latin Boys, was a popular option for local wedding planners in the 1970s. One night, a young woman named Gloria Fajardo and her friend Merci Na- varro were nudged by their mothers to join the band onstage to sing a few standards. Gloria and the bandleader, who played piano and congas, eventually fell in love, renamed the group Miami Sound Machine, and scored a contract with CBS Re- cords, releasing a string of crossover dance hits infused with a big-band, tropical-pop sound. In 1987, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine un- veiled Let It Loose, the most successful Latin crossover album of its time. Tumbadoras, saxophones, trumpets, keyboards, and tribal kick drums punctuated pop-friendly Latin rhythms that were gonna get you and pop ballads into which Gloria poured her heart. The album yielded four Top 10 hits and cat- apulted Gloria to global stardom and permanent pop-diva sta- tus. The Grammy Award winner went on to perform at the White House, produce a critically acclaimed Broadway show about her relationship with Emilio, headline a Super Bowl halftime show, and (along with Emilio) receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize in 2019. Other notable albums featuring Miami pop divas: Exposure, Exposé (1987) Company B, Company B (1987) 1987: Is What We Are, The 2 Live Crew Led by Luther Campbell, a ghetto DJ from Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, and a trio of artists he recruited from California, including scratch master Mr. Mixx, the 2 Live Crew dropped its debut album in 1987 and set the world afire with a big booty sound later dubbed Miami bass, leaning heavily on the low- thumping and earth-shaking boom of the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer and the raunchiest lyrics you’d ever heard on a mixtape that was slipped to you by a friend after school. The 2 Live Crew is why the letter E, for “explicit,” appears next to certain songs on your favorite music streaming service. The hip-hop group united moralist politicians from the right and the left against them in both public and courtroom battles over censorship, public decency, and free speech. The 1990 public ar- rest of the group at a Fort Lauderdale club ordered by then Bro- ward County Sheriff Nick Navarro elevated the 2 Live Crew’s profile to further national prominence. Eventually, as then-music editor Greg Baker’s exhaustive reporting informed New Times readers in weekly installments, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the 2 Live Crew’s music, although obscene, had artistic value and was protected by the First Amendment. The group’s 1987 debut album included Miami Bass classics such as “Get It, Girl,” “Throw the ‘D,’” and “We Want Some Pussy,” and perma- nently marked Miami’s contribution to hip-hop’s early decade. Other notable albums from Miami’s nasty rap archives: The Weird World of Blowfly, Blowfly (1973) As Nasty as They Wanna Be, the 2 Live Crew (1989) Banned in the USA, the 2 Live Crew (1990) Aural History from p7
