Coati Mundi is the stage name of Andy Hernandez, vibraphone player and member of
Kid Creole and the CoconutsKid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular "American and Latin American, South American, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Calloway" and conceptually inspired by the big band era...
as well as
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah BandDr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band was a big band- and swing-influenced disco band, formed in the Bronx, New York. They are best known for their #1 US dance hit, "Cherchez La Femme"/Se Si Bon]], from their self-titled debut album....
. He scored the Top 40 UK hit "Me No Pop I" in 1981, just before the release of
Tropical GangstersTropical Gangsters is the 1982 album by Kid Creole and the Coconuts. It was their most successful release, peaking at #2 in the UK and spinning off the hit singles "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy", also a #2 hit on the singles chart, "Stool Pigeon" and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby"...
. He produced and arranged an album by "
Don ArmandoDon Armando Bonilla formed the Second Avenue Rhumba Band with vocalist Fonda Rae and scored a #1 hit on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Deputy of Love" in 1979. Bonilla was also a percussionist with Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band...
Second Avenue Rhumba Band", which spurred the disco hit song "Deputy of Love".
Hernandez is a first generation Puerto Rican who grew up in Spanish Harlem, NYC.
Coati Mundi is the stage name of Andy Hernandez, vibraphone player and member of
Kid Creole and the CoconutsKid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular "American and Latin American, South American, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Calloway" and conceptually inspired by the big band era...
as well as
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah BandDr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band was a big band- and swing-influenced disco band, formed in the Bronx, New York. They are best known for their #1 US dance hit, "Cherchez La Femme"/Se Si Bon]], from their self-titled debut album....
. He scored the Top 40 UK hit "Me No Pop I" in 1981, just before the release of
Tropical GangstersTropical Gangsters is the 1982 album by Kid Creole and the Coconuts. It was their most successful release, peaking at #2 in the UK and spinning off the hit singles "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy", also a #2 hit on the singles chart, "Stool Pigeon" and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby"...
. He produced and arranged an album by "
Don ArmandoDon Armando Bonilla formed the Second Avenue Rhumba Band with vocalist Fonda Rae and scored a #1 hit on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with "Deputy of Love" in 1979. Bonilla was also a percussionist with Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band...
Second Avenue Rhumba Band", which spurred the disco hit song "Deputy of Love".
Early life
Hernandez is a first generation Puerto Rican who grew up in Spanish Harlem, NYC. As a young teenager, the first band he played and recorded with was called Eddie Hernandez & his Orchestra.
Career
Mundi has worked with assorted musical groups and artists including
Ralfi PaganRalfi Pagan was a Bronx, New York based 'Latin soul' and salsa singer of Puerto Rican parentage who was active from the late 1960s to the mid 70s. He specialised in soul ballads sung in Spanish and English and released five albums during the 1970s...
,
Joe BataanJoe Bataan is a Filipino-American Latin R&B musician from New York. He was born Bataan Nitollano and grew up in the 103rd and Lexington part of East Harlem where he briefly lead the Dragons, a local Puerto Rican street gang before being sent to the Coxsackie Correctional Facility to serve time...
,
Vernon ReidVernon Reid is a British-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...
,
N'Dea DavenportN'Dea Davenport is a Grammy-nominated American R&B/soul singer-songwriter best known for her role in the Brand New Heavies, a British funk/R&B band, a group responsible for the Acid Jazz wave in the early 90s.-Biography:...
,
Nona HendryxNona Hendryx is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress...
,
Tito PuenteTito Puente, Sr., , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., was a Latin Jazz and Mambo musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey" of the timbales and "The King of Latin Music"...
,
Manny OquendoManny Oquendo was an American percussionist. His main instrument was the timbales, and was strongly influenced by Cuban drumming.Oquendo grew up in New York, and began studying percussion in 1945...
& Conjunto Libre,
Hall & OatesHall & Oates is a pop music duo made up of Daryl Hall and John Oates. The act achieved its greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul." Critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine & J...
and
MachitoMachito , born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo in Havana, Cuba, was an influential Latin jazz musician. Machito played a huge role in the history of Latin jazz. His bands of the 1940s, especially the band named the Afro-Cubans, were among the first to fuse Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz improvisation...
.
He was known as Sugarcoated Andy while in Dr. Buzzard's band and played vibes, marimba and percussion for them. Credits Stony Browder, August Darnell and Cory Daye of Dr.Buzzard's band as major influences.
In 1979, he helped create along with Adriana Kaegi the "Kid Creole and The Coconuts" band. Andy was the musical director and arranger for the Coconuts band until his departure in 1989.
Mundi is a self-taught musician. Main instrument is the
vibraphoneThe vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion family....
but also plays piano, percussion, flute and is a music arranger/composer.
In an interview, he once said: "I have never let the lack of talent stop me from doing anything". He cited an example of this regarding the "Gichy Dan and Beachwood 9" record produced by August Darnell. He was being interviewed for the job of arranger-orchestrator by the Head of A&R at RCA records. Andy was asked if he knew how to arrange for strings. He said without hesitation "Of course". Andy convinced RCA Records to give him the job. In actuality, he did not know a thing about string arrangements. Immediately after the interview, he bought a book on arranging for strings and woodshedded day and night. What resulted was a successful arrangement job. He even received a wonderful compliment from the great violinist
Harry LookofskyHarry Lookofsky was an American jazz violinist. He is also the father of keyboardist-songwriter Michael Brown, who is well-known for his work as a member of The Left Banke ....
who served as concertmaster on the date.
In 1983, he released a solo album titled
Little Coati Mundi The Former 12 Year Old Genius. Mundi composed, produced and provided the lead vocals. It contained a version of Captain Beefheart's "Tropical Hot Dog Night" featuring salsa singer
Rubén BladesRubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
. The album also featured former Kid Creole & The Coconut singer Lori Eastside.
Coati Mundi appeared as an actor in the film
Who's That GirlWho's That Girl is the name of a film released on August 7, 1987 by Warner Bros. starring Madonna and Griffin Dunne. The film was written by Ken Finkleman and directed by James Foley....
starring
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
and
Griffin Dunne-Personal life:Dunne was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
. He wrote and performed a song for the soundtrack album called: "El Coco Loco". Mundi has acted in several
Spike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University...
films, including
Mo Better Blues,
He Got GameHe Got Game is a 1998 sports-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee, and starring Denzel Washington and current Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen as a father and son trying to reconcile on the eve of the signing day for his son, the #1 prep player from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn,...
and
Girl 6Girl 6 may refer to:*Girl 6, a 1996 film by Spike Lee*Girl 6 , the soundtrack for the film, composed by Prince*“Girl 6” , the title song for the soundtrack...
. He can also be seen in the film
We Own the NightWe Own the Night is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. It is the third film directed by Gray, and the second film to feature Phoenix and Wahlberg together, the first being The Yards...
.
He is credited as one of the music supervisors for the Miramax film
5454 or Studio 54 is a 1998 film starring Salma Hayek, Ryan Phillippe and Neve Campbell. It also stars Mike Myers as Steve Rubell, the cofounder of Studio 54, a New York City disco club famous in the late 1970s and the setting for the film. The film was directed by Mark Christopher who also wrote the...
and as producer of several of the film's songs. Mundi has composed music for various films, including
Spike of Bensonhurst.
Coati Mundi is the composer and sound designer for a series of educational DVD's for children produced by
Karyn ParsonsKaryn Parsons is an American television and film actress and model best known for the role of Hilary Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.-Early life:...
(
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air).
External links