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Latin Jazz NYC

Latin Jazz in NYC is native. It has long roots, but was defined here by Mario Bauzá, music director for Machito and His Afro-Cubans in Spanish Harlem in 1943.

Thanks to our recent Latin jazz sponsors: Carnegie Hall, Harlem Stage, Hostos Center and Robert Browning Associates.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is the world’s premiere jazz institution. Birdland and the Blue Note are legends. Minton’s is where bebop was born. The Village Vanguard is New York’s oldest continuously operating jazz club.

Hostos Center has the Northeast’s most adventurous Latin jazz programming. Harlem Stage hosts legends and is an incubator for artists who become legends. The 92nd Street Y has a strong jazz program. Drom is a world music club that hosts a lot of latin jazz. Terraza 7 is New York’s most Latin jazz club.

If you love jazz, you love New York.

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Hostos Center is One of Leading Latin Performing Arts Centers in the Northeast

One of New York’s most adventurous Latin presenters.
MOTT HAVEN, THE BRONX

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African, Afrobeat, Afro-Cuban, Bhangra, Bollywood, Bomba, Break Dancing, Caporales, Carnival, Dancehall, Flamenco, Folkloric, Hip-Hop, House, Jazz, Latin, Majorette, Mexican, Moko Jumbies, Reggae, Salay, Salsa, Samba, Soca, Street, Tammurriata, Tap, Tarrantella, Tinkus, and more. 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇮🇹 🇯🇲 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇪 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇹🇹

DANCEFEST Tompkins Square Park
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Carnegie Hall is One of the World’s Great Concert Halls and Citywide

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Latin Jazz archive

Latin Jazz is From New York

Latin Jazz in NYC is native. It was a long time coming, and we think jazz was Latin from birth, but latin jazz (cubop) was created by Mario Bauzá, music director for Machito and his Afro-Cubans, at the Park Avenue Ballroom on the intersection of Harlem and “El Barrio” East Harlem on May 29, 1943.

That night Bauzá composed “Tanga,” the first song that fully expressed the latin jazz form. It was the first true blending of New Orleans and Cuban jazz traditions. Listen to it on YouTube.

So bebop (modern jazz) and cubop (latin jazz) were created Uptown in Harlem and East Harlem by people who were playing together. Dizzy Gillespie completed the reunion when he later asked Bauzá for a conga player. His collaboration with conguero Chano Pozo led to jazz classics “Manteca” and “Tin tin deo.”

The Caribbean hero twins, separated at birth by colonial divisions in New Orleans and Ayití (Hispaniola), were reunited. It sounds like magical realism, but it’s real.

Don’t think badly of us for pointing this out, but “tanga” means cannabis in one of the African languages, and g-string in Spanish. Those two go together like jazz and latin jazz. It takes us back to the beginning of jass in Storyville, New Orleans.

Turns out Bauzá also played sax on “El manisero,” the first global Latin hit recorded by RCA Victor in 1930 New York. You can’t make this up.

Latin music