News & Updates — soul!

Feliz cumpleaños to the great salsero Cheo Feliciano. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, his family moved in the '50s to Spanish Harlem. As a teenager he started playing percussion with Tito Rodriguez' orchestra and with Kako's group. As well, he toured as a roadie with Mon Rivera. In 1956 he joined the Joe Cuba Sextet as their baritone-voiced Español-singing counterpart to the velvety English-languaged voice of Jimmy Sabater. The group became hot shit and made several amazing records for Tico and Seeco. In '67 Cheo left the group to join the Eddie Palmieri band. He sang with them until '69,...

Jerry Felder, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish kid who suffered from polio, became a champion songwriter for the likes of Elvis Presley (who recorded a couple dozen of his tunes), Ray Charles, The Drifters, Phil Spector, Dr John, BB King, Bobby Darin and many, many more. He was originally a sax player, but in the early '40s he took the made-up name of "Doc Pomus" and started singing the blues in clubs. Fairly successful with this, he cut a bunch of records with Milt Jackson, King Curtis, Mickey Baker and others. By '57 he was a full-time songwriter in the Brill Building....

Happy birthday to the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, born on this day in 1925. A multi-instrumentalist from a musically-accomplished family, his music combined blues, cajun, jazz, rock & roll, waltzes and R&B to modernize and popularize the zydeco style. He recorded for Chess, Arhoolie, Specialty, Crazy Cajun and other labels, in a recording career that started in 1954 (he had been performing since the mid '40s) and continued until his death in '87 from diabetes. He sang, played accordion, harmonica and guitar. He came from a musical family and he dug early on into the burgeoning rock & roll scene,...

Happy birthday to one of NYC's best, Jimmy Castor! He sang doo-wop with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and the Teen Chords, as well as playing reeds and percussion. He started playing timbales after hearing Tito Puente and in the early '60s became the bandleader for Dave "Baby" Cortez, as well as recording with Bill Doggett. The Jimmy Castor Bunch became a hot item on the NYC club scene with their blend of Latin jazz, boogaloo, calypso and funk. They were sharing a lot of bills with Joe Bataan, Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers and Kool & the Gang...

Kako was a well-respected percussionist, dancer and bandleader in the Latin music scene starting in the '50s. A Puerto Rican who moved to NYC, he played timbales, congas, bongos & quinto for Tito Puente, Arsenio Rodriguez, Mon Rivera, Mongo Santamaria, Charlie Palmieri, Patato Valdez and others, as well as working in a multi-capacity role (session musician, composer, talent scout, A&R, executive) for Alegre Records. He recorded as a leader and also helped put together the Alegre All-Stars (the format of which was copied from the old Cuban descarga sessions but became more famous for the Fania All-Stars later on), who...