Friday, November 2, 2007

Funky Buenos Aires

Wednesday night saw me covering my first concert for the Argentimes, the homecoming of a Buenos Aires–born, Miami–based guitarist-producer named Diego Jinkus. While a full review of the set and Jinkus's recently-released album will have to wait until the November 23rd edition of the Argentimes, I can tell you that Jinkus plays a rich blend of musical idioms that is equal parts funk, soul, and salsa. He played mostly originals off his album on Wednesday night, but he did throw in a few covers—a wonderfully explicit D'Angelo classic that I last heard performed by Yaw, a Chicago–based R&B singer, and a famous funk anthem whose name is perpetually on the tip of my tongue but never makes it any farther.

It's a song that I mistook for Stevie Wonder’s "Superstition” as it opened, and have at other times in my life mistaken for "Play That Funky Music White Boy." The song has no real chorus, which is at the root of my problem—the singer doesn't repeat the song's title seventy times at the music's catchiest moments so I can never remember it's name.

If anyone has an idea what the title of aforementioned song could be, I'd be very grateful to hear your thoughts. More important than that title, however, is the fact that the search for that song has lead me to some great performance videos on YouTube, none better than the incomparable Stevie Wonder playing "Superstition."

1 comment:

The Spicable Thinker said...

Eric: How are you?
The name of that "funk anthem" I played that night, is "Use Me" originaly sung by Bill Withers.
Thank you for covering my show. I never saw the ARgentimes. Do you have (or can you get me) a copy?
Take care and keep in touch.
Diego Jinkus