News & Updates — latin

Happy birthday to the great left-handed conguero Louis "Sabu" Martinez, a star who burned out way too quick, much of it due to heroin addiction. NYC-born, he started playing professionally at the age of 11 after learning rhythm by playing tin cans. After a stint in Puerto Rico he was back in NYC, replacing the Cu-bop OG Chano Pozo in the Dizzy Gillespie orchestra in '48 (he got his "Sabu" nickname from Diz) and joining the Benny Goodman band the following year. He worked with Art Blakey off-and-on from 1946-59, appearing on his ground-breaking Afro-percussion records and several Jazz Messengers...

“New York is a great place for Latin music today." — Erica Ramos Enlace Funk No. 56, 2017 For some time now it seems that the new Latin sounds coming out of NYC have been in good health. The ‘Latin Resistance’ – made of sounds that were born in the city of New York – continues to occupy its share within the larger urban underground scene of genuine and authentic music made in the USA, offering quality surprises with bands and songs that deserve more exposure and success. At the head of the Latin Soul scene and the new boogaloo...