Greg Landau is an American, San Francisco-based record and video producer, and an instructor of music and Latin American Studies focused on the social movements that produced revolutionary music and art. [1]
He has produced eight Grammy nominated records and has produced over 80 CDs and numerous film scores including serving as Music Supervisor of the film La Mission . He produced the album "Songs from La Mission". [2] [3]
Landau's parents are poet Nina Serrano and filmmaker Saul Landau. [4] He was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. [5] He co-founded Round Whirled Records with Camilo Landau and Round World Media along with his sister Valerie Landau. He worked with his father and Haskell Wexler on many documentary films in Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the 1980s, Landau toured internationally as a guitarist and tresero with the Nicaraguan Nueva Canción group, Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy and Mancotal, and shared stages with Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Mercedes Sosa, Chico Buarque, Amparo Ochoa and Nicomedes Santa Cruz in music festivals and concerts across Latin America and Europe. [6] He lived and worked in Nicaragua in the 1980s before returning to the US in 1991. [7]
Landau has produced work with PBS, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CNN, LucasFilm, Six Degrees Records, McDonald's and StarMedia. As Executive Producer at Starmedia, [8] he has produced videos with Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, [9] Los Lobos, and Sub-Comandante Marcos. He co-founded Round World Music with Robert Leaver, who owned an eclectic music store in San Francisco. . [7] [10]
He has produced eight Grammy-nominated albums: Carlos "Patato" Valdes's Ritmo y Candela and Ritmo y Candela II in 1996 and 1998, [5] and Peru Blue with Pamela Rodriguez in 2006. [3] [11] [12]
He has worked with artists including Buena Vista Social Club's Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Susana Baca, Bobi Cespedes, [13] Dr Loco, Pete Seeger, Omar Sosa, [6] John Santos, Pancho Quinto, Quetzal, [14] Carne Cruda, [15] Los Mocosos, Maldita Vecindad, poet Piri Thomas, [16] and David Byrne's record label Luaka Bop. Landau, Babatunde Lea, and John Greenham composed and produced "The African Diaspora Suite" in 2005 for a permanent installation in the newly built Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. [17]
He composed and produced the film score for Haskell Wexler's 2006 documentary film, Who Needs Sleep [18] and Peter and Benjamin Bratt's "La Mission", which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. [19] He produced Salve a Bahia then Gente! for the Brazilian group SambaDa in 2009, who say he made their work “more fun, more work, more intense.” [20] [21] He also produced work for Mexican singer and songwriter Arturo Ortega. His most recent work was producing an album called Mondongo (Sept. 30, 2015) with La Cuneta, and previously a CD with Mexican rockers Maldita Vecindad, titled Circular Colectivo, that debuted with a splash in Mexico [22] In 2011 he produced the CD, Calma, for Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, that was nominated for the Latin Grammys in the Instrumental Music Category.
He served as music supervisor for the HBO documentary "Mariela Castro's March: Cuba's LGBT Revolution" directed by Jon Alpert. [23]
Landau received a doctorate in Communication from the University of California, San Diego. [24] He teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz [24] and City College of San Francisco, [25] and he researches the role of music in contemporary societies.
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" due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 10 million copies, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists.
Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
Haydée Mercedes Sosa, sometimes known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout Latin America and many countries outside the region. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of El nuevo cancionero. She gave voice to songs written by many Latin American songwriters. Her music made people hail her as the "voice of the voiceless ones". She was often called "the conscience of Latin America.
Nina Serrano is an American poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer who lives in Vallejo, California. She is the author of Heart Songs: The Collected Poems of Nina Serrano (1980) and Pass it on!: How to start your own senior storytelling program in the schools (Stagebridge). Her poems are widely anthologized, including the literary anthology, Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Writers from California, and three anthologies of peace poems edited by Mary Rudge from Estuary Press. She has also translated two chapbooks from Peruvian poet Adrian Arias. She currently leads storytelling workshops at senior centers and elementary schools through Stagebridge.org. She is the former director of the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program and the Bay Area's Storytellers in the Schools program. A Latina activist for social justice, women's rights, and the arts.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba is a Cuban jazz pianist and composer.
Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras, known as Paquito D'Rivera, is a Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He was a member of the Cuban songo band Irakere and, since the 1980s, he has established himself as a bandleader in the United States. His smooth saxophone tone and his frequent combination of Latin jazz and classical music have become his trademarks.
La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio is a band formed in Mexico City in 1985. They are pioneers of rock en español and one of the most influential rock bands in Mexico.
Israel López Valdés, better known as Cachao, was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga. Throughout his career he also performed and recorded in a variety of music styles ranging from classical music to salsa. An exile in the United States since the 1960s, he only achieved international fame following a career revival in the 1990s.
Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco, known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco became a leading figure in the New York salsa scene in the 1960s and 1970s as the founder and musical director of Fania Records.
Armando Peraza was a Cuban Latin jazz percussionist and a member of the rock band Santana. Peraza played congas, bongos, and timbales.
Simón Narciso Díaz Márquez was a Venezuelan singer and Grammy Award-winning composer of Venezuelan music.
Omar Sosa is a jazz pianist from Cuba.
Reggie Stephens is a former American football player. He played professionally as a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) and in the Arena Football League (AFL).
Bajofondo is a Río de la Plata-based music band consisting of eight musicians from Argentina and Uruguay, which aims to create a more contemporary version of tango and other musical styles of the Río de la Plata region. It was founded in the early 2000s as a studio experiment, which culminated into the successful album Bajofondo Tango Club. This led to touring and eventually to the current lineup. Bajofondo calls itself a collaborative as all members have solo careers as well. The group has toured around the world, particularly in Latin America, the United States, Europe and parts of Asia. Their music is known to a wider audience than those who know their name as their music has been used in film and television.
Half Note Records is a jazz record label founded by the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1998. Although it began releasing live recordings from the club, the label expanded to produce studio albums.
Carne Cruda is a post-Latin band based in Oakland, California. The band consists of five core members and incorporates frequent guest appearances, and also frequently backs up other artists.
Francisco Fabián Céspedes Rodríguez, also known as Pancho Céspedes is a Grammy-nominated Cuban musician, singer and songwriter. Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Céspedes is a naturalized Mexican citizen. He is most known for his 1998 song, "Vida Loca".
Krudas Cubensi, also known as Las Krudas, is an activist hip-hop group with black feminist, queer and vegan politics. Born in Cuba in the 1990s, it is part of the Caribbean diaspora in the United States since 2006. They are now called Krudxs Cubensi, to reflect their non-binary indentity.
"Ríe y Llora" (English: "Laugh and Cry") is a song performed by Cuban recording artist Celia Cruz. The song was written by Sergio George and Fernando Osorio, produced by George and released as the lead single from Cruz's final studio album Regalo del Alma (2003) on 12 July 2003. It was the final song recorded by Cruz, following being sidelined by a brain tumor and before her death on 16 July 2003.
Leonardo Torres Álvarez known professionally as Leoni Torres, is a Cuban singer, composer and music producer. He has recorded six albums as part of his career as a soloist and has collaborated with musical figures such as Rosario Flores, Pablo Milanés, Willy Chirino, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Beatriz Luengo, Carlos Varela, Cimafunk, Francisco Céspedes, among others. He is a member of The Latin Recording Academy and his compositions have been recognized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.