News & Updates — boogaloo

Happy birthday to Trinidadian composer André Tanker, the "Bob Dyan of T&T". Born in Port-of-Spain, he started playing the steelpan at 7 and as a teenager learned guitar and cuatro. He also played vibraphone and harmonica. He worked as an arranger for the Invaders Steel Orchestra, who were based in his neighborhood. His own Hilton Flamingos were a steady-working hotel band in the late '50s and early '60s. His late '60s & '70s work fused Caribbean folk music, Indian "chutney" music, jazz, Yoruba drumming, funk and black power themes, with Mongo Santamaría being a major influence. He scored the music...

Happy birthday to the great Cuban tres player and son montuno legend, one of the founding fathers of salsa and mambo, Aresnio Rodríguez!! His 1940's & '50s conjuntos were major building blocks in creating the mambo style, adding conga, multiple trumpets, piano and tumbao basslines to the son cubano format, leading the way to mambo, salsa and timba to come. Born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, he came from Matanzas, Cuba. His family were African descendants who practiced Palo Monte. He was blinded at 7 years old when a horse kicked him in the face. He was a professional musician by...

Happy birthday to Edulfamid Molina Díaz, also known as Piper Pimienta, one of Colombia's most distinct salsa voices and one of the slickest dancers of his day. His name was inspired by his spicy dance, along with his uncle's claim that he resembled a pepper. Born in Puerto Tejada, outside of Cali, he got his start in the business around 1959 with orchestras such as Sonora del Pacífico and Orquesta Los Supremos. In the early '70s he joined Fruko y sus Tesos and was also a member of the Latin Brothers (with Joe Arroyo), El Combo Candela and the Colombia...

“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...

One of the leading lights of the hard bop era, trumpeter Lee Morgan broke onto the scene as a teen prodigy, playing with John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Mobley and Art Blakey in the mid-to-late '50s. His driving style and clear, bold tone contributed all over the hard bop landscape, from funky to bluesy, and from more adventurous modal stuff to delicate standards. Throughout his short but steadily working career he played with Wayne Shorter, Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, Benny Golson, Jackie McLean, Larry Young, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Smith (The Sermon), Bobbi Humphrey and in...