FANTASTIC NEGRITO
Signs to Cooking Vinyl
Debut Album Reissue Out Now
With Two New Tracks
European Dates and Festivals
Grammy Award 2017
The Guardian **** The Mirror **** MOJO****
Uncut 8/10 Classic Rock 9/10
“An Oakland musician whose life story…. is fascinating enough but nothing compared to the compelling brilliance of his new album” – The Sunday Times
“The first great album of the post-Prince/post-Ali world... Tremendous” – The Mirror
“A major work of stunning breadth and originality” – Classic Rock
The new tracks -- “Push Back” and “The Shadows” -- are both produced by Xavier Dphrepaulezz (aka Fantastic Negrito). The extra tracks are available now for download and streaming, and have been released worldwide along with the rest of the album on CD and 180g vinyl. Order the album here:
Musicians on these new recordings include Masa Kohama and Tomas Salcedo (guitars), Cornelius Mims (bass guitar), Lionel Holoman Jr. (piano and organ), with vocals, additional piano, additional guitar, drum programming and claps by Xavier Dphrepaulezz.
In his teens, Xavier ran the streets of Oakland, before finding music and eventually signing with Prince's management. After a slow recovery from a car crash that left him in a coma, Xavier undertook several different musical alter egos, but in the end, he walked away from music -- only to re-emerge years later as Fantastic Negrito.
Watch Fantastic Negrito performing “Scary Woman” (a track off The Last Days Of Oakland), Live At The Viaduct in downtown Los Angeles:
And the twist he gives to timeless folk-blues classic “In The Pines” electrifies the song with an immediacy and relevance torn from today’s racial strife-ridden headlines:
A performer with something to say, Fantastic Negrito runs an arts-collective in his hometown of Oakland, and performed at Bernie Sanders' rallies in New Hampshire, Las Vegas and San Francisco during the 2016 US Presidential campaign. Of the new songs, he says, “We must unify -- not divide -- along the lines of our differences. We have a common enemy: distraction and propaganda. Our strength is in our diversity. We push back against our common enemies: fear, hate, bigotry, misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, classism... these parasites, these carcinogens that live in the shadows of our society. One world, one love, one race.”
Fantastic Negrito has once again invited UK friends, Miraculous Mule to support him at his London, Manchester and Nottingham dates.
UK Dates:
July 28th London @ Nell's Jazz and Blues | BUY TICKETS
July 29th Cambridge @ Cambridge Folk Festival | BUY TICKETS
July 31st Manchester @ Band On The Wall BUY TICKETS
Aug 3rd Nottingham @ The Bodega | BUY TICKETS
