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Renewed after a 20-month hiatus, The Baboons have returned to the concert stage with a new line-up and a fresh batch of genre-bending tunes inspired by band members’ international travels. “We took some time to clear our palettes in order to paint a new musical canvas, to keep it fresh for the audience and the musicians,” said lead vocalist Majica. “We’re ecstatic to unleash The Baboons once again.”The Baboons’ return marks the rebirth of a South Florida favorite which has been celebrated for its joyful live performances and adventurous recordings since the band’s inception in the early ‘90s. Born at an In-Progress Art Festival at the now-defunct Ft. Lauderdale nightspot Squeeze on July 2, 1993, the amorphous early ensembles featured a rotating line-up of local musicians eager to explore the band’s culturally curious aesthetic. Throughout the years, musicians with diverse backgrounds have added to the band’s sound, and the band has shared the bill with Jimmy Buffet, George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and The Radiators. What the press has to say about The Baboons:
“A gem of a band.” – The Miami Herald “The Baboons are definitively Miami: rife with multiculturality, shirtless and shoeless sand-kicking fun, consistent unpredictability, cramped clutches of hyperactivity…What the tropically topical outfit has been doing for years is generating soul-stirring, ass-shaking music that only a birdbrain would try to pigeonhole.” – Street (Miami Herald) "Ultra-rhythmic, multicultural, eclectic… One of the city’s most promising acts." - New Times Miami "Defies all categories…notorious…infectiously percussive" – City Link
“The ‘boons have released…two CDs, but despite the merits of the recordings, particularly the masterful new release Global Gumbo, it remains their live shows that cream collective musical jeans. All this gifting locals with mad party, half spectacle, half joyful orgy live performances has grown the ‘boons in size and exuberance…” – Street “Reviewers have struggled to classify the music of The Baboons ever since the band premiered a decade ago. ‘Spicy rhythmic gumbo!’ said one. ‘Afro-Cuban funk and roll!’ declared another. ‘Urban-tribal funk,’ one more dribbled. And so on. Would it help if we added, ‘The Baboons are what the Miami Sound Machine would sound like if the Miami Sound Machine didn't suck?’ Whatever. Look, we all know that there are two forces at work today in American music -- the Homogenizers, whose aim is to commodify and Britney-fy everything you listen to, and the Resistance, who, in the pursuit of something new and original, defy the convenience of labels. The Baboons are the percussive commando unit of the Resistance. They were originally into performance art and experimenting with percussive styles and spoken word poetry, but the Baboons have evolved into masters of reggae, blues, and Cuban funk; added a sexy vocalista; released two CDs; and forged a new genre-busting style of Floridian music.” – New Times Broward Palm Beach |
“The Baboons like to call their music ‘urban tribal Afro-Cuban funk-n-roll,’ but it should really be classified as ‘everything but the kitchen sink.’ From airy rockers worthy of Carlos Santana to percussive jams, their tunes incorporate a number of incongruous sounds that, under their direction and care, are collected into a harmonious whole. The Baboons make unabashedly happy music that is easy to enjoy and difficult to criticize. The quintet, led by singer Majica, has been around for a minute (its last album, Global Gumbo, was released in 2000), so it knows how to move a crowd.” - New Times Miami, 5/13/04
"Diverse, stirring, and tropical as an August day on Virginia Key, Evolution is pure Miami and pure pleasure." - New Times Miami, Best of Miami 1999, "Best Album of the Past Twelve Months"