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Legado

Luis Gabriel Núñez Cox

Label: La Buena Fortuna Music
Released: 2025
Duration: 58:24
Views: 20

Tracks

Flores de Primavera; Carnaval; Ella Tiene; Requinto; Dos Ojos; Voy Subiendo; El Bravo; Maria Luisa; Ganas de Quedarte; Tumbalakatín; Remolino de Mar; Tumbao; Hasta Que Amanezca; A Mi Manera

Personnel

Additional Personnel / Information

Victor Vélez: Voice, Barril, Coro, Güicharro, Panderos; Emmaniel Santana: Voice, Coro, Güicharro, Panderos; Miguel de Jesús: Voice, Coro; Rafael Falú: Pandero Requinto; Jonathan Montes: Piano; Joseph Montalvo: Piano; Pedro Dominicci: Timbal; Manuel Rivera: Congas; Rafy Torres: Trombone; Randy Román: Trombone; Cesar Ayala: Trombone; Kenny Ortiz: Trombone; Yanira Torres: Coro; Ricardo Pons: Clarinet; Raul Barris: Guitar; Jeremy Bosch: Flute; Charlie Pizarro: Requinto; Camilo Molina: Percussion; Janice Maysonet: Sax

Album Description

November 21, 2025, San Juan, Puerto Rico – The iconic, GRAMMY-nominated Puerto Rican group, Plena Libre, releases its new album Legado as a heartfelt tribute celebrating the legacy of their late founder, the composer, arranger, and producer Gary Núñez. The full album is available on all digital platforms via La Buena Fortuna Music.

Under the artistic direction of his son, LuisGa Núñez, Legado features 14 songs by Gary Núñez and brings together an all-star cast from the Puerto Rican music scene, including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Elvis Crespo, La India, Milly Quezada, Jeremy Bosch, Norbert Vélez, and David Rivera. These renowned guests are complimented by the group's lead members: Emanuel Santana, Víctor Vélez, Miguel De Jesús, and Sheizel García, whose energy and talent celebrate the history, present, and future of Puerto Rican Plena.

“Legado retraces Plena Libre’s three decades of history and honors the musical identity of my father, Gary Núñez,” says LuisGa Núñez. “I’ve revisited this music and want to offer this album as eternal proof of the various dimensions of what Plena can sound like. It can be love, pain, party, joy, protest, vacilón, grief…and it can be orchestrated by playing with other instrumentation. We can recite poetry on top of it.”

The release is accompanied by the upbeat “Carnaval,” the newest single featuring GRAMMY Award-winning merengue singer, Elvis Crespo. Crespo delivers a joyful and expressive performance as his voice sits at the center of a rhythmic whirlwind littered with brass stabs, coro vocals, and interlocking patterns in the rhythm section. Plena Libre’s enchanting groove and tight performance makes it impossible not to want to dance. When asked about this collaboration, Crespo shared his respect for Gary, his family, the institution that is Plena Libre, and what they represent for Puerto Rican culture, making him “incredibly proud to be a part of this project.”

Furthermore, 6x Grammy Award-winner and Salsa legend, Gilberto Santa Rosa, who is featured on the single, “Dos Ojos,” explains: “Gary Núñez is a hero for Puerto Rican music. He was an individual who believed in his art and brought it forth to success —and to that I take my hat off. Gary was a pioneer of modern Plena and this music is the inheritance he leaves all of us.”

LuisGa elaborates further on his voice as the arranger and producer on Legado: “What sets my dad and me apart is the production approach and the sounds used to restyle these compositions. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to, and understanding, various styles such as Jazz, Reggaeton, Salsa, Plena, and Hip-Hop. All of these influences helped me develop a new sound that is grounded within the structure and tradition of Plena Libre, but has its eyes and ears towards the future. I’m always on the lookout for ‘moments’ and ‘feelings’ in music, so my goal with this record is to transport listeners into our world and to really capture the feeling of Plena, which at the end, aligns with my dad’s vision for the foundation of this group 32 years ago.”

“I adapted certain arrangements in a way that I felt could change the vibe of the songs and give the album a different feel,” explains LuisGa. “For example, in “María Luisa,” I made it a bit more callejera, adding that clarinet touch—because the original Plena was played with a clarinet. In “El Bravo,” the new arrangement starts in a more tropical style, which is then reimagined as a Bomba. We also added keyboards to give a new dimension to the song and made sure that the bass comping had a stronger sense of melody. I love finding the melodies embedded within the comping patterns in the rhythm section, which always breathes new life into the music.”

In this new stage, Plena Libre reaffirms its commitment to Plena as a living cultural heritage of Puerto Rico and to the vision that Gary Núñez left as a legacy: to project Puerto Rican music to the world with passion, excellence, and authenticity. Echoing what Gary said in a 2002 interview, “We’d really like to share this secret that we Puerto Ricans have kept to ourselves … It’s time to take it out and share it with other people and other cultures — and why not have a hell of a time doing it?”

Album uploaded by Jan Esbra