27 Wednesday Jan 2016
Singer and songwriter Joan Soriano seems to embody the very history of his music.
Like bachata, the guitar music from the Dominican Republic he so soulfully interprets and composes, Soriano comes from humble beginnings but has found his way around the world of popular music.
25 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music
It is rare, and ever increasingly so, that a musician would spend a lifetime in a band. But percussionist Johnny “Dandy” Rodríguez Jr. who was a teenager when he was allowed to sit in with the Tito Puente Orchestra and be an apprentice for a few months before earning a place in its rhythm section, was also there at the end, playing alongside Puente until his death, after a concert on May 31st, 2000.
“I went from being a kid, coming into the band as a 16 year old to being the man running the band at the end,” said Rodríguez, 70, in a conversation from his home in Las Vegas.
23 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Home, Latin Jazz, On Music
You may not know his name, but if you have enjoyed the music of The Tito Puente Orchestra, Machito and His Afro-Cubans or the Tito Rodriguez Orchestra, chances are you heard saxophonist Bobby Porcelli. Porcelli, a charter member of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, is one of the musicians who will be honored by Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra in their Tribute to the Great Sidemen of Latin Jazz, at Symphony Space in New York City, on January 29th and 30th.
Jazz With an Accent 