Latin Rock in New York City is in rock clubs, night clubs, music halls, arenas, and stadiums.
Rock and roll evolved from rhythm and blues with some rumba, mambo, and cha-cha-chá influences.
In the same way that hard rock evolved into soft rock, Latin rock evolved into all kinds of Latin alternative fusions. A lot of today’s Latin music falls into the alternative frame.
In the early days, playing Latin rock could get you beaten up, jailed, or worse.
“Para bailar La Bamba…”
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New York Latin Rock
Latin rock is part of New York City’s rock and roll scene. There are clusters of rock clubs in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side.
Rock Clubs in NYC
These are all in Manhattan’s Lower East Side:
- Arlene’s Grocery @arlenesgrocery
- Baker Falls @bakerfalls
- Berlin @berlin.undernyc
- Bowery Electric @theboweryelectric
- Heaven Can Wait @heavencanwaitnyc
- Mercury Lounge @mercuryloungeny
- Pianos @pianosnyc
- Rockwood Music Hall @rockwoodmusichall
Latin Rock Venues in NYC
- Barclays Center is an arena in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
- Brooklyn Bowl is a bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. brooklynbowl.com
- Harlem Stage is a performing arts center in Manhattanville, West Harlem.
- Iridium is a guitar club in Manhattan’s Times Square Theater District.
- Irving Plaza is a rock club in Union Square, Manhattan.
- La Boom is a Latin disco in Woodside, Queens.
- Le Poisson Rouge is a nightclub in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
- Madison Square Garden is an arena in Chelsea, Manhattan.
- Music Hall of Williamsburg is a concert hall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
- National Sawdust is a nightclub in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
- SOB’s Sound of Brazil is a night club in Hudson Square, Manhattan.
- Terminal 5 is a music hall in Hell’s Kitchen. terminal5nyc.com
- United Palace is a Latin performing arts center in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
Latin Rock Festivals in New York City
Afropunk is an African American rock festival in Brooklyn with more style than fashion week.
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn is a summer performing arts festival that presents some Latin rock.
Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) is New York City’s big Latin rock festival.
New Colossus Festival is an indie rock festival in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in March.
Summer in the City, Lincoln Center’s summer performing arts festival, presents some Latin rock.
SummerStage is a summer performing arts festival that presents some Latin rock in New York city parks in all five boroughs.
About Latin Rock
Rock and Roll is the world’s most popular music. It was created in African American communities, and then copied by everyone else. Some famous American and English rock songs were inspired by rumba, mambo, and cha-cha-chá.
Rock is defined by an accent on the third beat in 4/4 time. Dominican bachata puts an accent on the fourth beat in 4/4 time, but since it is in 4/4, it’s easy to dance bachata to rock. In the Caribbean, when you see the Electric Slide being danced on the street, it’s probably bachata.
Latin rock began with Mexican bands covering American and European rock songs translated into Spanish.
Ritchie Valens’ 1958 rock and roll hit “La Bamba” is a traditional Mexican wedding song. Los Lobos famously covered it in 1987. But Kongo musicians were singing “La Bamba” in Veracruz, Mexico’s Caribbean gateway city, as early as 1683.
Argentines started composing Rock en Español. It was a big deal for Latin kids to hear music that spoke to their own experience. There was quite a scene in Buenos Aires. At first the Argentine government opposed rock, but since it couldn’t be controlled, decided to make the bands work for the government as Rock Nacional. Some bands left Argentina rather than work for the government.
Gustavo Santaolalla was one rocker who left. His band Arco Iris was one of the first to fuse rock and roll with Argentine folk traditions (which are still strong today). Santaolalla didn’t want to work for the government so he moved to Los Angeles. His band Bajofondo brought Uruguayan candombe traditions into Argentine tango and Latin rock. Santaolalla wrote film scores for acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, winning Academy Awards for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) and “Babel” (2006). Santaolalla also became the father of what we now call Latin alternative.
Mexican American guitarist Carlos Santana burst on the San Francisco scene in 1966, and became a superstar at New York’s Woodstock music festival in 1969 ~ before even releasing his first album.
Things came full circle when Santana covered Tito Puente’s “Oye Cómo Va?, a cha-cha-chá in 1970.
We like this version of this song because it represents the diversity of Latin culture. We really are, Indigenous, European, African, Jewish, Arab, and Asian. “”Mi ritmo, bueno pa’ bailar…” (My rhythm is good for dancing.)