Darondo RIP

Just in from the Ubiquity Records Facebook page, Darondo has passed away at the age of 67. Darondo was an incredible lost talent of 70's funk and R&B who had been rediscovered by Ubiquity with great success several years ago. With a murky past (stories of pimping etc), not to mention some fantastic long out-of-print reissued music (not much different than a raw, lower budget version of a funky Al Green), he even made some rare live appearances in the past few years. This included SxSW in 2008 where I was lucky enough to catch him. Rest in peace, indeed, my funky, funky man.

South By Southwest, Part 10

Darondo. I save the best for last. Man! Read my friend Greg's review of the Friday gig Darondo played over at the Deeper Shade of Soul blog.

Basically, Darondo played 2 songs on the Friday afternoon, and 5 the following night. If all he had played was the 2 the first day, he still would have blown away all comers. He is by far the heavyweight soul & funk champ, and deserves a much bigger audience. Let's hope Ubiquity Records is up to the task. After seeing him on the Friday, I talked at least 9 or 10 people into seeing him on Saturday. They all showed up & not one was disappointed. I had no idea he was going to be in Austin, and never had any hopes of ever seeing him live, so the legend of Darondo had grown quite large in my imagination. I'm very pleased to report that not only was he as good as I could expect, he was even better. Beyond! Unbelievable!

Listen to the live version of "Legs" recorded at SxSW at Darondo's myspace page. It just might change your life!

















Get yourself some Darondo! Available on vinyl & CD.