Ray Barretto’s career has been a long and varied journey. Born in Brooklyn on April 29, 1929, he is the quintessential Nuyorican, a Puerto Rican born and raised in New York City. By the age of two, his family had moved to Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem and by seven, the South Bronx. Barretto’s bi-cultural experience was reinforced during his stint as …
In Latin music, as with all non-mainstream parts of the US recording business, the ultimate goal is to cross-over. It’s all very well being a big fish in your own pond, but the benefits of a US pop hit are so mighty that any independent label would have trouble turning it down. Until the 1990s it was very much a …
La Lupe Puro Teatro – A Lady And Her Music Liner notes by Matt Rogers “I think people like me,” the legendary La Lupe told Look magazine in 1971, “because I do what they’d like to but can’t get free enough to do.” True, some would say La Yi Yi Yi—one of the most electrifying singers to ever blitz Planet …
There is so much to the story of Harvey Averne and his career in music, that only a book – and I do hope that he writes his autobiography one of these days – could do it justice. The summer of 2009 marks Averne’s 60th anniversary in the music business. At the age of 72, he is as enthusiastic and …
