Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" or "The Queen of Latin Music" due to her contributions to Latin music in the United States.
The 37th Annual Grammy Awards were presented on March 1, 1995, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Bruce Springsteen was the night's biggest winner with 4 awards, including Song of the Year while opening the show with his Grammy nominated hit.
The 25th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 1983, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.
Mario Bauzá was a jazz, Latin, and Afro-Cuban jazz musician. He was among the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City jazz scene. While Cuban bands had had popular jazz tunes in their repertoire for years, Bauzá's composition "Tangá" was the first piece to blend jazz harmony and arranging technique, with jazz soloists and Afro-Cuban rhythms. It is considered the first true Afro-Cuban jazz or Latin jazz tune.
Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, singer, composer and arranger.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra is a Latin dance music orchestra based in the United States, founded by Aaron Levinson and Oscar Hernandez.
Terri Lyne Carrington is an American jazz drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many others. She toured with each of Hancock's musical configurations between 1997 and 2007.
"Oye Como Va" is a 1962 cha-cha-chá by Tito Puente, originally released on El Rey Bravo. The song achieved worldwide popularity in 1970, when it was recorded by Mexican-American rock group Santana for their album Abraxas. This version was released as a single in 1971, reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 11 on the Billboard Easy Listening survey, and number 32 on the R&B chart. The block chord ostinato pattern that repeats throughout the song was most likely borrowed by Puente from Cachao's 1957 mambo "Chanchullo", which was recorded by Puente in 1959.
Carlos Alberto Franzetti is a composer and arranger from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Esperanza Emily Spalding is an American jazz bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include four Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award.
Bobby Sanabria is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, producer, educator, radio host of Puerto Rican descent who specializes in jazz and Latin jazz. An 8X Grammy nominee as a leader, he is the musical director of Quarteto Aché, Sexteto Ibiano, Ascensión, and his Multiverse Big Band. He is on the faculty of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, NYU and for 20 years was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Seven of Sanabria's albums have been nominated for a Grammy Award: Afro-Cuban Dream: Live & In Clave!!! (2000), 50 Years of Mambo - A Tribute To Damaso Prado (2003), Big Band Urban Folktales (2007) Kenya Revisited Live!!! (2009), Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! (2011), Multiverse - nominated for two Grammys (2012), West Side Story Reimagined (2018) which was also named Record of The Year by the Jazz Journalist's Association (2019). He has received numerous awards and accolades including the 2018 LeJENS of Latin Jazz Award Keepers of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his leadership and innovation in Latin jazz and the 2019 New York International Salsa Congress David Melendez Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary contributions to Latin music as a musician, teacher, historian, radio host and dedication to preserving the art of Latin music and Latin jazz. He was named "Padrino (Godfather) of the 2019 National Puerto Rican Day in New York City.
Ernesto Antonio "Tito" Puente, Jr. was a Puerto Rican musician, songwriter, record producer and bandleader. The son of Ernest and Felicia Puente, stateside Puerto Ricans residing in New York City's Spanish Harlem, Puente is often credited as "The Musical Pope", "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music". He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that endured over a 50-year career. He and his music appear in many films such as The Mambo Kings and Fernando Trueba's Calle 54. He guest-starred on several television shows, including Sesame Street and The Simpsons two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?". His most famous song is "Oye Como Va".
Vicky Shell is a Dominican singer, educator, songwriter, who is best known for being the first Dominican who has set the precedent for being the first female salsa singer in the Dominican Republic with a full production of Salsa Latin Jazz. She is known as a multifaceted artist of Latin tropical rhythms in addition to other styles of music.
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
ChocQuibTown is a Colombian hip-hop group that fuses various musical genres. Although the band formed in Cali, the members are originally from the Colombian department of Chocó. The group consists of Carlos "Tostao" Valencia (rapping), Gloria "Goyo" Martínez, and Miguel "Slow" Martínez. The band's music draws influence from a wide variety of modern genres including hip-hop and more recently electronica, combined with traditional Colombian genres including salsa, Latin jazz, and Afro-Latin rhythms.
Pacific Mambo Orchestra is a Latin dance music orchestra based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Latin music is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all genre for various styles of music from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States, as well as music sung in Spanish or Portuguese language.
"Contigo En La Distancia" is a bolero which was written by the Cuban singer-songwriter César Portillo de la Luz when he was 24 years old. It was written in the year 1946.
Maite Hontelé is a Dutch trumpeter specializing in Latin and jazz trumpet. She is the granddaughter of André Hontelé (1922-2005); musician, composer and author of books on school music. . She got in touch with salsa through her father's record collection.
David Belove is an American Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz bass guitarist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was born in Kansas City and relocated to California in the early 1980's. He studied at San Francisco State University and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Belove has recorded and toured with Pete and Sheila Escovedo, Tito Puente, the Machete Ensemble, Rebeca Mauleon-Santana, Claudia Villela, and Oscar Castro-Neves. He has also worked with jazz artists Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others. Belove's work in music education includes playing bass on the Salsa and Latin Jazz, Volume 74 of the Jamey Aebersold's "Play-A-Long" series, and he currently conducts classes in Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, California.
