Dictator of Taste...

We saw one of my heroes last night at the Heights Theater in Houston, Tx. Think if you rolled the Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, Archie Bell and the Drells all into one then spiked blues singers Ledbelly and Mississippi Fred McDowell's whisky with ayahuasca and you get what Fantastic Negrito calls "black roots music for everyone."  

I called this blog "Dictator of Taste" because that's what he had painted on the back of a gold flowing thrift store costume he wore. Fantastic Negrito's story is a good one and it's why he's my hero. Poised for pop success with an album out in 1996 under his given name of Xavier he suffered a near fatal car cash which left him in a coma for three weeks. The crash left permanent damage to his right hand. In 2015 he won NPR's Tiny Desk Concert contest and has since won three Grammy's. 

His stage show is very energetic and his dancing energy does not indicate that he's 56 years old. The songs are the story of a man examining his life. His experiences guide the music and he is an independent artist with his own record label for people who were told the were too old, the wrong body type or the wrong color. The backing band was treat. Everybody was a singer and sometimes there was so many parts going on vocally, high gospel harmony and low bass singing that it could be hard to keep up with.       

I did not get the guitar players name. Good playing and singing, a strong back up man, doing it all. Great costume also. A stage show, it's what we want to see. 

We enjoyed the show from the gallery balcony seating. I'd say maybe 200+ people at the show and while certainly dedicated fans our seats were good and not crowded. 

There was a great performance of Ledbelly's "In the Pines." That's a good song for me as I have an oscilloscope reading of this tune tattooed in tribal style around my left upper arm. As I say, we connect. 

  Fantastic calls himself a recovering narcissist. "My dog died, my cat died, how can I make this about me?" He says there a lot of steps to this journey of taking the bullshit and turning it into good shit.    

Opening band was the Houston based Mighty Orq. Great guitar sound playing electric and a wonderful delay drenched cigar box guitar and resonator used to good effect. I think he has played locally at the Live Oak Listening room and looks like he has guitar lessons on his YouTube channel  

Check out these bands and check out the Heights Theater. Be a Dictator of Taste. Turn that bull into something good.