Biography:

In the beginning there was a vision - the vision of a multicultural carnival without stylistic limitations; the vision of a colorful theater with fascinating characters; the vision of an exuberant joyous lifestyle full of irony, humor and sophistication.
To be sure, in the beginning there was a need to present an invitation to a dance called Escapism.
The visionary was Bronx born August Darnell. Disillusioned by the politics in his big brother's band, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Mr. Darnell jumped ship in 1981 and formed Kid Creole and the Coconuts with his wife Adriana Kaegi and his buddy Sugar Coated Andy. Thus began the odyssey. Fast forward to 30 years later and the man and his band are still synonymous with over-the-rainbow adventure: Deluxe Escapism.
"In other times, Darnell might have been called a wit. His best songs are dazzlingly witty: they can also be sarcastic, ambiguous, deceptively eager to please. It’s pop as a moving target, brightly-coloured – even garish, but rich with shades of grey." (David Peschek)

The Kid Creole credo is best summed up by August Darnell himself:
“The beauty of music is its possibilities for mutation, and that mutation represents a larger global ideal: global coexistence.” Indeed.

"Darnell charted the glorious polyglot pop music of New York City in the 1970s and '80s as well as any one individual could. His body of work has kept him relevant well into the 21st century; his songs have been sampled by Ghostface Killah, M.I.A., Cee Lo Green, and the Avalanches (to name a few), and the growing interest in New York's disco history via acts such as LCD Soundsystem, !!!, and Hercules and Love Affair has further prolonged interest." (Andy Beta)
“Darnell unveiled a project that would both define his career and subvert notions of category in pop music – Kid Creole and the Coconuts. He explored reggae and calypso through a prism of funk, pop, new wave, and disco.”(Christian John Wikane)

"Darnell's band Kid Creole and the Coconuts is the finest iteration of his musical razzmatazz. The band was an amalgam of bygone outsized personas like Jimmy Durante,Carmen Miranda, and of course, Cab Calloway, its music navigating the waters between disco, calypso, show tunes, soul, big band, pop, funk, and new wave." (Andy Beta)

The gleefully multifarious KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS released their 15th studio album in Sept. 2011. It was entitled I WAKE UP SCREAMING. And now the band has joined forces with Tommy Boy Records. The first fruit of this union comes in November of 2012: a song called MUCHACHACHA.

"There really isn’t anyone who creates music that you can dance to and wince at the story at the same time." (Andy Snipper)

The man who once penned the unforgettable line “when you leave New York you go nowhere” (Going Places) now resides in the woods of Southern Sweden!
How very strange. But as the wise man says (while chasing a wild boar from his garden), "You can take the man out of Manhattan but you can't take Manhattan out of the man!" Amen!


The cast of characters:
Eva Tudor-Jones (Mama Coconut; longest standing Nut in the history of the band)
Bongo Eddie (longest standing band member, 30 years in the Banana Boat)
Jessica Forsman (Coconut)
Aimee Bramall (Coconut)
David Imbrechts (drums)
Jamie McCredie (guitar)
Christian Douglas (bass)
Mike Gorman (keys)
Chris Storr (trumpet)
Barnaby Dickinson (trombone)
Edgar Jones (saxophone)
Elvira Jones (chanteuse)
Janet Orme (personal assistant to the Kid for 22 years)