Kid Creole and the Coconuts

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Biography

Kid Creole and the Coconuts is an United States|American musical group created and led by August Darnell . Its music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular "American and Latin American Music|Latin American , South American, Caribbean Music|Caribbean , Trinidadian music|Trinidadian , Cab Calloway|Calloway " 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.

Career

Thomas August Darnell Browder was born in The Bronx|The Bronx, New York City, USA on August 12, 1950, his mother was from South Carolina and his father from Savannah, Georgia. As an adult, Thom Browder began going by his two middle names as August Darnell .

Growing up in the melting pot of the Bronx, Darnell was exposed early on to all kinds of music". Darnell began his musical career in a band named The In-Laws with his 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 his brother Stony Browder Jr under the name Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band . 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 defied convention to invent a new breed of music. 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.

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

Kid Creole was to be "the larger-than-life central figure in a multi-racial , multi-cultural musical carnival ." The co-founders of the band were, August and his Savannah Band associate vibraphone player Andy Hernandez, also known as his "trusty sidekick" Coati Mundi , who serves as his on-stage Comedic foil|comic foil , as well as his musical director and arranger and Darnell's former wife Adriana Kaegi|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", drummer and band member David Span, bass player Carol Colman and legendary Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan 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. By the second album they were accompanied by the Pond life horn section Charlie Lagond, Ken Fradley and Lee Robertson as well as lead Guitarist Mark Mazur. 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", 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.

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 written by guitarist Mark Mazur.

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 ", had a hit with the single "The Sex of It", a song written by Prince (musician)|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 (film)|Against All Odds (1984) and the Lambada themed The Forbidden Dance (1990); They also starred in a TV movie, "There's Something Wrong in Paradise" in 1984, based around their songs and produced for Granada Television in the UK. Andy Hernandez has also made appearances in a number of films separately, and Adriana Kaegi produced and directed a documentary film about the band called Kid Creole and my Coconuts.

Present

Darnell now lives in Sweden and London, and still tours with the current Coconuts, Eva Tudor-Jones (Mama Coconut of 14 years from London), Jessica Forsman (From Finland, the newest member), Aimee Bramall (From London) and Bongo Eddie (the last standing original member). He is currently collaborating with writer/producer Peter Schott on a contemporary musical, 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, for the last time, Kid Creole toured the UK starring in the stage show Oh& #33; What a Night , a disco musical produced by Random Concerts.

Kid Creole and the Coconuts new album entitled 'I Wake Up Screaming' is due for worldwide release on September 13, 2011 on !K7/Strut records.
The single ' I Do Believe' is out on July 19 available for download and at all surviving music stores throughout the U.K, Europe and the U.S.

Darnell has also been 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 .

Never released recordings are available http://reverbnation.com/augustdarnell

At the end of 2010 the Kid and his Coconuts toured Germany with Night of the Proms|The Night of the Proms , also starring Boy George and Sir Cliff Richard. They previously appeared in the Night of the Proms in Holland and Belgium in 2007 with Chic, Macy Gray and Donna Summer.

Best-known lineup

August Darnell - vocals, guitar, bass

Coati Mundi - vibraphone, vocals

Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band|Cory Daye - guest vocals

Cheryl Poirier - lead vocals

Adriana Kaegi - vocals, choreography

Taryn Hagey - vocals

Eva Tudor-Jones - current Mama Coconut/choreographer

Jimmy Ripp (Rippetoe) - guitar

Peter Schott - keyboards

Carol Colman - bass

Winston Grennan - drums

Andrew Lloyd - percussion

'Bongo' Eddie Folk- percussion

Simon 'Franco' Frost - Funk Bass

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 (Kid Creole and the Coconuts album)|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 BRIT Awards - Best International Artist

Copyright Citations

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