Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College is pleased to announce the addition of renowned DJ/producer Felix Hernandez to its 2015-16 season, who will host one of his legendary Rhythm Review events at Brooklyn Center on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at 8pm. Rhythm Revue: A Latin Soul Celebration is the latest event added to Brooklyn Center’s lineup, which also includes season opener Michael Feinstein, a holiday concert by Vienna Boys Choir, jazz violin virtuoso Regina Carter, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love, and a tribute to Nat King Cole featuring Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the Brooklyn Center box office at 718-951-4500.
Presented as a concert of live music and DJ’ing, not in Hernandez’s traditional dance party format, Rhythm Revue: A Latin Soul Celebration will feature the “King of Latin Soul,” Joe Bataan, in an evening that celebrates the musical genre known as Latin Soul and Boogaloo. Originating in Spanish Harlem in the 1960s, this fusion of mambo and Latin jazz with African American R&B, soul, and doo-wop resulted in a highly danceable and distinctly urban form of music that reflects the amazing multicultural fabric of New York City.
About Felix Hernandez
In 1986, Felix Hernandez introduced Rhythm Revue, New York’s first radio show devoted exclusively to classic soul and R&B. It premiered on 88.3FM WBGO radio, and also aired on New York stations WTJM (Jammin’ 105, 1999-2002) and WRKS (98.7 KISS-FM, 2002-2012). A few years later, he was awarded the first of many production grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts, to develop and produce a weekly radio presentation of live blues and R&B. “BluesStage,” hosted by the late Tony-winning actress and singer Ruth Brown, ran six years on 200+ NPR stations. The series featured 234 unique episodes of live performances, recorded and produced by Hernandez on location nationwide.
In 1991, Hernandez did his first Rhythm Revue Dance Party at Tramps in New York City. The party outgrew Tramps and moved to the Roseland Ballroom in 1992, where it was held for over two decades, up to ten times a year. His unique mix of classic soul, disco and funk consistently draws a crowd of 2,500 to 3,500 dancers per event, playing such venues as Best Buy Theater, Irving Plaza, Highline Ballroom, Hammerstein Ballroom, B.B. King’s, NJPAC, and the Terrace Ballroom, among others.
In addition to Rhythm Revue, Hernandez is also the founder of a company that partners on a variety of projects with major venues, arts organizations, promoters and record companies. He has dedicated much of his time to community and fundraising events, and started a scholarship fund in 2012.
Felix Hernandez’s Rhythm Revue radio show, now in its 29th year on New York radio, is heard every Saturday 10am-2pm on WBGO-FM. A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, Hernandez lives in New York City with his wife and children.
About Joe Bataan
The son of a Filipino mother and African American father, Latin soul pioneer Joe Bataan grew up in East Harlem, New York. Running with a Puerto Rican street gang called the Dragons, he was arrested for auto theft and did several years of prison time, but upon his release in 1965 he turned his energy to music and formed his first band, Joe Bataan and the Latin Swingers.
Bataan was influenced by two musical styles: the Latin boogaloo and African American doo-wop. His talent for combining doo-wop-style singing with Latin rhythms drew the attention of Fania Records, who signed him in 1966. His soulful voice and creative arrangements on songs like “Gypsy Woman” (1967) and “Subway Joe” (1968), recorded on the Fania record label, appealed to a diverse audience. He released a total of eight original titles for Fania, including the gold-selling “Riot!” These Fania albums often mixed energetic Latin dance songs, sung in Spanish, with slower, English-language soul ballads sung by Bataan himself. In the era of the bugalú and Latin soul, he became a leading innovator in the blending of African American and Latin Caribbean styles.
While still signed with Fania, Bataan secretly started the Latin music label Ghetto Records, under which he produced several albums for other artists, including Papo Felix, Paul Ortiz, and Eddie Lebron.
After leaving the Fania label, Bataan continued to promote music that blended diverse styles. In 1973, he helped coin the phrase “salsoul,” lending its name to both his first post-Fania album (released by Mericana) and his own Salsoul record label, co-founded with the Cayre brothers. He recorded three albums for Salsoul and several singles, including “Rap-O-Clap-O” (1979), which topped the charts in Europe, was an exuberant mixture of disco beat, Latin percussion, and rap that reflected the intersecting cultural currents of Bataan’s life.
After his 1981 album, Bataan II, he retired from the music industry, subsequently working as a youth counselor in one of the reformatories he himself had spent time in as a teenager. In 2005, Bataan broke his long hiatus with the release of Call My Name, recorded for Spain’s Vampisoul label, who also produced Bataan’s 2009 release, King of Latin Soul.
Visit BrooklynCenter.org for a complete season lineup.
Multibuy discounts (four or more shows) save 15% off individual ticket prices (not applicable for The Snow Maiden or Alexander, Who’s Not… Going to Move). Multibuyers enjoy flexible ticket exchanges and discounted parking for purchased performances. 50% discount for children ages 12 and under for select performances. Discounts also available for seniors, students, Brooklyn College faculty/staff/alumni, and groups. $10 student rush tickets available day-of-show.
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College
2 train to Brooklyn College/Flatbush Avenue
Online orders: BrooklynCenter.org
Box Office: 718-951-4500, Tuesday-Saturday, 1pm-6pm
Groups of 15 or more: 718-951-4600 x3326
About Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Founded in 1954, Brooklyn Center for the PerformingArts at Brooklyn College presents outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, at affordable prices. Each season, Brooklyn Center welcomes over 65,000 people to the 2,400 seat Whitman Theatre, including up to 45,000 schoolchildren from over 300 schools who attend their SchoolTime series, one of the largest arts-in-education programs in the borough.
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts’ programs are supported, in part, by public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Brooklyn Center’s 2015-16 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Major support for the 2015-16 season is provided by: Brooklyn College, Con Edison, TD Bank, National Grid, Shanachie Entertainment Corp, the Herman Goldman Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Jazz Touring Network, the Alice Lawrence Foundation, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc., and the TD Charitable Foundation. Additional support provided by CNG Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, and WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott New York Brooklyn is the official hotel of Brooklyn Center’s 2015-16 season. Backstage catering is graciously provided by Applebee’s.
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges generous support from New York State Assembly members Rhoda Jacobs, Alan Maisel, Félix Ortiz, Annette Robinson, and Helene Weinstein, New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Tom Finkelpearl.
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