Word: mambo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...surge of rock 'n' roll and the glitzy brass of a Big Band. The dancers move to the beat like a snake to the charmer's call: the hotter the tune, the cooler the step as the men expertly guide the women through the twists and curves of the mambo, the cha- cha-cha, the merengue and the rumba...
First of all, the marimba is not a dance, like the mambo. Nor is it a folk band, like a mariachi. Nor should it be confused with maracas, those hollow gourds filled with dry seeds that shake, rattle and roll south of the border. Most audiences could not pick it out of a percussion lineup, and concert managers flee at the very mention of its name. For Leigh Howard Stevens, to be the world's greatest classical marimbist must sometimes seem a dubious achievement...
...Music who lives in Asbury Park, N.J., has been booked for as many as 50 performances, and audience reception has been enthusiastic. Says Stevens: "I'm doing everything I can to legitimize the marimba, get it respected and heard as a classical instrument." Everything, that is, except the mambo...
...struck by the time warp. Outside, the 20th century is petering out; in here, it's just getting warmed up. Enormous white tents suspended high over the dancers are lighted to blush pink. On the floor are some real hotshots. They samba, mambo, rhumba, tango, fox-trot, lindy, peabody and what can only be called, in street language, get down! It's like an eternal prom...
...board's hackles were raised by a nightmare sequence in which Mickey Rourke, as a gumshoe named Harry Angel, and Lisa Bonet, as a mambo princess with a murky pedigree, engage in some mad pash while blood leaks from the ceiling of his New Orleans hotel room. The two performers might seem unlikely company -- the star of 9 1/2 Weeks and the prima donna of the Cosby kids -- but their exertions were no more extreme than the acrobatics in many an R- | rated teen farce, and the carnal violence was a lot less toxic than the damage Freddy or Jason...