New York Latin Culture Magazine™

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Latin Music NYC

Latin music is as diverse as we are. Jazz is from New Orleans, but is Caribbean music. Latin jazz, salsa and hip-hop were made in NYC. Reggaeton passed through on its way to becoming the sound of global youth. Regional Mexican is the most popular Latin music in the United States.

Latin music is a mix of influences. The European Diaspora claimed everything as their own and continue to do so, but popular music’s deepest roots seem to always be African or Indigenous. European classical music has its own timeline, but the forms of popular Latin music we know today all developed as human slavery was outlawed in the Americas in the late 1800s.

During the colonial period, expressing your own culture could bring on sadistic punishments and even get you killed, so it was done in secret. The same was true during the Latin rock era in Argentina and Mexico. So Latin music is a form of resistance. It is always threatened, but always survives because it is a true expression of the people.

NYC has some great music festivals. You can discover new artists at music awards.

Latin Music News

  • Sarah Cabral sings Brazilian pop at LunÀtico in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on Mon, Aug 2 at 9pm. $10/person suggested donation 🇧🇷
  • Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective with the Turtle Island Quartet celebrate Wayne Shorter (Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis, Weather Report) for Carnegie Hall Citywide in Bryant Park in the Garment District on Fri, Aug 6 at 7pm. FREE 🇺🇸
  • Gili Yalo sings Ethiopian Israeli pop at Drom in the East Village on Fri, August 6, 2021 at 8pm (7pm doors). $25 🇪🇹🇮🇱
  • The Red Bull Batalla freestyle rap championship of Costa Rica is on redbull.com on Sat, Aug 7. 🇨🇷
  • Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble play Birdland in Hell’s Kitchen on Sun, Aug 8 at 7pm. 🇨🇺
  • Extranjero (Joel Moscoso) plays Latin rock at Drom in the East Village on Sat, August 7, 2021 at 8pm. (7pm doors). 🇪🇨
  • Caribbean Beach Fest features Dexta Daps and Lyrikal playing reggae and soca at the Ford Amphitheater on the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn on Sun, Aug 8 at 8pm (7pm doors). From $83 seasideparkconeyisland.com 🇯🇲🇹🇹
  • The Blue Note Jazz Festival is June 15 – Aug 15 🇩🇴🇮🇹🇵🇷

Coming Soon

  • Craig Harris’s Nocturnal Nubian Ball tributes Sun Ra for Harlem Stage at Bryant Park in the Garment District on Thu, Aug 12 at 7pm. FREE 🇺🇸
  • Young Stars of Jazz play for Jazz at Lincoln Center in Bryant Park on Fri, Aug 13 at 7pm. FREE 🇺🇸
  • Jerry Rivera sings salsa at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Friday, August 13, 2021 at 10pm. From $45 🇵🇷
  • Grupo Rebolú plays Colombian Caribbean jazz for Carnegie Hall Citywide at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens on Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 5pm. FREE 🇨🇴
  • The Gino Sitson Trio sings Cameroon colors of African music live at Flushing Town Hall in Flushing, Queens and streaming on YouTube on Fri, Aug 20 at 7pm. $12/$7 🇨🇲
  • Edmar Castaneda plays jazz on his Colombian harp opening for Johnathan Blake on Fri, Aug 20 at 7:30pm (6:30pm doors). $30 🇨🇴
  • New York City Opera presents a family concert of opera favorites in Bryant Park on Sat, Aug 21 at 7pm. FREE 🇮🇹
  • Stephane Wrembel brings his Django Experiment of French jazz to Drom in the East Village on Sun, Aug 22 at 7:30pm (7pm doors). $30 🇫🇷
  • New York City Opera performs a new version of Verdi’s Italian opera “Rigoletto” in Bryant Park on Fri, Sept 3 at 7pm. FREE 🇮🇹
  • The 5th Freestyle Funhouse brings Latin freestyle rap legends to the Ford Amphitheater on the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn on Sat, Sept 4 at 7pm. From $29 seasideparkconeyisland.com 🇵🇷

Small clubs resumed live music first. After a year of New York rents with little revenue, they need our support. Let’s go back to:

  • Barbés eclectic bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • Drom world music club in the East Village
  • Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village
  • Nublu, the eclectic jazz night club in the East Village
  • Terraza 7, the Latin jazz club in Elmhurst, Queens
  • Zinc Bar, the cellar jazz club in Greenwich Village
Music Archive

Latin Music is as Diverse as Latins

In the Latin world, music can be an expression of faith, family, friendship, community and love. The stage is one thing, but the natural habitat of Latin music is living rooms, patios, yards, playgrounds, parks and the street. Drumming, singing and dancing aren’t extraordinary. They are a natural and essential part of who we are. Everyone participates (that’s the great beauty of it) and music and dancing go together.

If you want to know the real history of a region and the real history of a community, you listen to the songs.”

Gianluca Tramontana (Rolling Stone, Radio Free Brooklyn) for “Changüí: The Sound of Guantánamo” on Petaluma Records in 2021

Swing (1935-1946), bebop modern jazz (1940s), Latin jazz (1943), disco (1970), salsa (1970s) and hip-hop (1970s) are musical forms of the City itself.

Jazz and reggaeton passed through and were forever changed by New York. House music (1980s) was started at the Warehouse Club in Chicago, but by New York DJ Frankie Knuckles.

The music publishers and Tin Pan Alley are New York. It all gets mixed up with Broadway too. As the world media capital, whatever happens in New York gets sent out into the world.

The Caribbean Roots of Hip-Hop

Latin Music NYC (Alessandro Flore/Dreamstime)
Latin Music NYC (Alessandro Flore/Dreamstime)

This is a Jamaican sound system. It’s for a party in the neighborhood. Nowadays there is sound system culture in Brazilian favelas, Colombian comunas, and in cars in New York City, but it’s originally a Jamaican thing.

DJ Cool Herc (Clive Campbell) threw the first hip-hop parties. It all started at “His Back to School Jam” at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Morris Heights, The Bronx.

Herc did several hip-hop firsts, but he is remembered for his giant speakers, his “herculords.” Campbell is a New Yorker, but he was born in Kingston, Jamaica. So these are some of the Caribbean roots of hip-hop.

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