Beautifully Blurred

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Musical miscegenation is the order of the day. Salsa sleeping with ska, rock 'n' roll and hip-hop giving birth to rock-hop. We live in an age of diversifying demographics and turntable mixing, and the result is often beautifully blurred music. Right now, there's no one better at putting out albums that blend the sounds of the times than the New York City-based nonprofit Red Hot Organization. Over the past nine years, Red Hot, working with various record labels, has produced a dozen albums, each one featuring some sly subgenre mix, with all net profits going to the fight against AIDS. Red Hot's latest compilation, Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon (Bar/None), features music from Portuguese-speaking countries (Brazil, Angola, etc.) crossed with clubland beats. Obscure? Maybe. Cool? Definitely.

Red Hot founder John Carlin's credentials are unconventional and upscale: a degree in comparative literature from Columbia University, a Ph.D. from Yale in the same subject, and a law degree from Columbia. After a stretch as an art curator, he moved into entertainment law but decided to change careers. He had an improbable dream: to create an AIDS charity album with pop stars singing Cole Porter songs. In 1990 the dream was realized when Red Hot + Blue was released, featuring such stars as David Byrne and U2. Carlin, 43, still can't believe he pulled it off: "That CD was inspired by naivete and sheer will."

So far, Red Hot has raised nearly $7 million for AIDS relief and prevention. Says Ronald Johnson, managing director for public policy and communications at Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City: "What is significant is their fund raising does not compete with local AIDS service organizations. They tap basically new money, and that's very important."

Red Hot albums are not just good-hearted, they're also good listening--and almost always on the cutting edge. Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool (1994) deftly combines the talents of jazz acts (Ron Carter, Joshua Redman) and hip-hoppers (the Roots, Spearhead). Red Hot + Rio (1996) features such performers as Maxwell, Sting and Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora exploring the music of Brazil; a terrific companion CD, Nova Bossa: Red Hot on Verve, showcases the work of Brazilian acts from the '50s, '60s and '70s (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso).

Red Hot's newest release, Onda Sonora (Portuguese for sound wave), explores similar territory. It's a challenging album that offers peformances by Veloso, k.d. lang, Cape Verdean singer Lura as well as the enchanting sound of Fado--a kind of Portuguese folk-blues. Next up: a CD featuring R.-and-B. stars tackling the music of Duke Ellington. Looks as if Red Hot will stay that way for a long time.

--By Christopher John Farley