Puerto Rican

I have always admired Chita Rivera, the legendary Broadway star who, to me, was more than an actress, singer, and dancer. She was a trailblazer, a humanitarian, and a role model for Latinas. Chita was the first Latina to receive a…

Carlos Henriquez, the talented Nuyorican bass player, released "The South Bronx Story" his third Latin Jazz album as a bandleader. Henriquez is the bassist for Winton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and presented this project…

Puerto Rican folk group Atabal released their awaited EP "Yo Soy Atabal" just in time for the festive 2018 Christmas season. "Yo Soy Atabal": the EP The new EP contains six songs of which four have been previously released as singles.…

Miguel Zenón released 'Típico", his 10th album as a Jazz bandleader and which he dedicates to his quartet. As most Zenón albums, it has a mix of high energy and soothing songs. I decided to do this review in video format so to try to…

In Puerto Rico, the period after the 3 Kings Day ("Día de los Santos Reyes Magos") is known as the "Octavitas". This tradition has changed through the decades. Unfortunately, it has been rapidly fading away. Therefore, it's worth taking…

If you have less than 2 minutes and care about the Puerto Rican music rhythm of Bomba, here's a great snippet of Bomba history. A main Puerto Rican newspaper published a short article on 5 early influencers of Bomba. It was from these…

Miguel Zenón's latest initiative involves mixing jazz with video to educate audiences on the complicated topic of the Puerto Rican identity. In Zenón's concert he explores this topic from the Puerto Rican diaspora perspective, and uses jazz…