Kelly Rowland
Ms. Kelly
www.KellyRowland.com
You gotta give a girl a break! Kelly Rowland is the modern-day Jennifer Holiday (eclipsed by Diana Ross during and after super girl-group trio the Supremes). But she’s no stranger to wild success: as part of Destiny’s Child she’s travelled the world and they remain the all-time top-selling female group with relted mega-star appearances et al. But even being obscenely gorgeous and talented she’s still put off-kilter by the incredibly gifted Beyonce’ who’s not only a great actor/artist/singer blah blah blah but also nice about it all. If only Beyonce’ was half as mean as other divas have been we could all rally behind Kelly. For those keeping score the other third of the Destiny’s Child trio was Michelle Williams whose solo career has focused on gospel music and now starring roles in Broadway musicals. But back to Kelly’s second solo release, Ms. Kelly, with the same class and sass we expect from Beyonce’, Kelly serves up steamy RnB dance grooves and club floor booty-poppers plus some delicious drama and soulful ballads. Really everything you’d want or need from any diva, there is plenty of gold to make baubles and bling with and hopefully she’ll have the business sense to pimp each one so they get props and play. My picks: “Like This” featuring Eve, “Comeback,” “Ghetto” featuring Snoop Dogg, “Work,” “Every Thought Is You,” “Still In Love With My Ex,” “Love,” “Better Without You” and “This Is Love.”

Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective
Wátina
www.Cumbancha.com
Instantly transporting to another time and place is the enchanting and fluid modern-ancient Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective preserving and performing the near extinct Garifuna rhythms and language. The Garifuna people, in Central America were formed when two slave ships filled with West Africans sunk off the coast of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1635. The culture had all but disappeared when Andy Palacio ran into an old Garifunan man and was inspired to revive the original musical heritage rather than turn to technological music methods. Like a Mariachi caller beckoning all to dance the soulful poetry is part celebration part remembrance and all deeply enriched. My picks: “Weyu Lárigi Weyu (Day by Day),” “Baba (Father),” “Gagánbadibá (Take Advice),” “Ayó Da (Goodbye My Dear)” and “Ámeuyengü (In Times to Come).” Gig alert! Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective enchant and groove Aug 6 @ San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival.

The Hipwaders
Educated Kid
www.Hipwaders.net
It’s no surprise to me that children’s and kid’s music is being lifted from the banal to the beautific. Kids are supremely networked and informed to the hip, the lame, the cool and even before the computers changed modern living children knew when they were being talked down to. In same spirit of completely wonderful, whimsical and musically gifted treats for the young set is the Bay Area-based Hipwaders pulling off some brilliantly fun and surprisingly hip songs extolling touchstones of childlike glee including art cars and dinosaurs. With Devo influences the post-mod-rock trio lays some serious grooves and invokes the best spirits of They Might be Giants, Schoolhouse Rocks and The Beatles’ veiled odes to decadence that were so brilliant no one cared what they were about. The Hipwaders are on a great path to immortality if they throw down some trippy videos of kids taking over the world and start building post-modern parables that speak to children of all ages and can be reinterpreted on multiple cultural and spiritual levels. Indeed we all might be hip-deep soon. My picks: “Educated Kid,” “The History of Declan Rae,” “Song of The Paleo Pirates,” “Art Car,” “Cat In A Bathysphere,” “Geometry” and “Aidan’s Train.” Gig alert! The Hipwaders act their age and yet don’t July 22 @ Sausalito’s Bay Area Discovery Museum and Aug 25 @ San Jose’s Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Enrique Iglesias
Insomniac
www.EnriqueIglesias.com
Bedhead Latin heartthrob Enrique Iglesias is amongst the top-selling Spanish artists in the world with well over forty million in album sales and is the best-selling Spanish-language artist of the last decade. The Spanish-born, Miami-based singer brings more steamy hotness for global good vibes with his latest album, Insomniac, delivering a buffet of hotty Mchotness to overheat the chilliest of summer nights. Expect slithery goodness to creep across every chart as his global savvy and universal sex-appeal leaps out from the screen and stage. He follows in his father’s (Julio Iglesias) big footsteps but does so for a new generation dancing world that wants to drop it like it’s hot, crunk and bootyshake. There is plenty to love here from club bumpers to heartfelt ballads and I fully expect surprising remixes to deliver it all throughout along hotty summer. With bumpy delicious remixes from DJ Dan and Ralphi Rosario & Craig CJS expect to hear the lead single “Do You Know” pumping on a dancefloor near you. My picks: “Ring My Bells,” “Push” featuring Lil’ Wayne, “Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song).”  Gig alerts! See Enrique Iglesias woo and shake July 18th on Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show, July 19th on FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance” and late-July on Miami Univision’s “Sabado Gigante” and “Despierta America.”

Stymie & The Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra
The Secret Hits of the Black & Blue Parade
www.StymieLuv.com
“From my brain to your ass” Stymie leads his eclectic and full -frontal groove pirates to pillage and plunder the dancefloor offering clever lyrics, undercurrents of classic funk tinged with jazzed gospel, and soulful hip-hop’d rock. Think Sly and the Family Stone meets Jesus Christ Superstar vs. the bravado of Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Secret Hits of the Black & Blue Parade marks ten years of the reign of nasty funk, island soul and danceable RnB and is a must-have primer for the new generation of Bay Area original funksters who transcend boundaries and incorporate the party-hardy atmosphere while incorporating layers of complexity ala Sun Ra and George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic. My picks: “Stumble to the Break of Lawn,” “Superfun Teenage Girls,” “What Senor Snatch Likes,” “Fan Club,” “My Strawberry Switchblade,” “Luv Wax,” “Minature Robots” and “Dim Sum Goodies.” Gig alert! Stymie & The Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra sing a simply funked song July 20 @ San Francisco’s Elbo Room.

The Peninsula Symphony
Selections from 2005-2006 Concerts
www.PeninsulaSymphony.org
For over 50 years the The Peninsula Symphony has grown from a “grassroots ensemble to a polished 90-plus member orchestra of well-trained community musicians” delivering stand-out and stirring classical and pop manifestos enriching the musical base of the greater Peninsula area just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. On The Peninsula Symphony Live! Selections from the 2005-2006 Concerts, they serve up well honed versions of classic orchestra treats feeding both the newby listener who simply enjoys the delightful and dramatic turns covering earlier decades of music and the old-school purists who yearn for raw musicianship unfettered, unsynthesized and non-electrocuted to nourish the soul minus the pandering to the base boompa-boompa of modern dance music. They are the full package entreating all to full orchestral swoons and boasting with lush and bold presence. My picks: Wagner’s “Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin,” Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1 in D (“Titan”) Sturmisch bewegt,” Celedonio Romero’s “Concierto de Malaga - Tangos y Tientos,” Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No.2 in E minor Op. 27 - Allegro Vivace” Howard Hanson’s “Symphony No.2, Op. 30 (“Romantic”) - Allegro” and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” featuring Thomas Hanson on piano. Gig alert! The Peninsula Symphony under the direction of Mitchell Sardou Klein presents Peninsula Symphony’s Annual Free Summer Pops Concert July 29 @ Palo Alto’s Oak Creek Apartments.

Tiffany
Just Me
www.TiffanyMusicSite.com
Trying to turn the page to a new chapter is alt-pop, faux country, singer-songwriter and adult contemporary celeb reinvention Tiffany whose latest album, Just Me , hopes to keep her star burning a little brighter as she battles for well-deserved attention in a world that’s increasingly segmented and divided. Her rise to world attention came as the then 15-year old toured the nation’s malls as she, and most of her fans, were too young for clubs. Called, (I’m not making this up), “The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour ‘87” she paved the way for Britney Spears and Avril Ligne to use the malls as springboard to fame and exposed the music industry that “mall rats” are actually tweens with cash. She got immense exposure and soon topped the Billboard charts and remains the youngest female with a debut. Just Me, is a deep departure from the pop candy that she pioneered so well, offering twangy and heartfelt womanly wisdom and exposing her talent as an interpretive artist finding girl-next-door purity with a spark. My picks: “Calling Out Your Name,” “Mind Candy,” “Be Alright,” “This Love,” “Winter’s Over,” “Hiding Behind The Face” and “Streets of Gold.” Gig alert! Tiffany torch, twangs and turns the page Aug 3 @ Santa Cruz’s Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.