David Rivera

Biography
Influencers

David Rivera is a hot Puerto Rican singer/songwriter/drummer who is going places. In fact, he and his band have just been selected to appear at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall for the 2026 GLOBALFEST on January 11. And, he has already shared the stage with noted artists such as Puerto Rican singers Pedro Capó and Obie Bermudez, Nicaraguan singer Luis Enrique, singer/songwriter Danny Rivera, saxophonist/composer Miguel Zenon, bandleader/singer Gilberto Santa Rosa and many others.

David and his group “La Bambula" offer a mix of tropical elements seamlessly combined with R&B and hip hop as well as the powerful dance music of the Caribbean from the 1970s and then the music is overlayed with modern, provocative lyrics. His music attracts an audience that enjoys the risk of listening to new rhythms and sounds.

According to Wikipedia: “originating in Africa, the bamboula form appears in a Haitian song in 1757 and bamboula became a dance syncopation performed to the rhythm of the drum during festivals and ceremonies in Haiti. It was later exported to the United States—notably to Mobile, Alabama and the Virgin Islands—and through Louisiana by the slaves who were deported to New Orleans during the 18th century with the arrival of the displaced French settlers from the island of San Domingo, especially after the Haitian Revolution. The slaves congregated on Congo Square near the edge of the area of the French Quarter of New Orleans to dance the bamboula.

“To ME however, ’Bambula’ means to reconnect with your community and your culture through the drum,” says singer/songwriter/drummer David Rivera.

“I lived for quite a while in Boston (graduating from Berklee College of Music and also attending the Boston Conservatory). Later I moved to L.A. for a year and then I was forced to go back to Puerto Rico because of the pandemic and so it was then that I decided to call my new band ‘La Bambula,’” he states.

Rivera’s recent 2025 tour brought the La Bambula band to nine cities and towns in Puerto Rico as well as dates in New York City, Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. And, this past summer he was also a band member and a featured Special Guest with the six-time Grammy® winning Puerto Rican bandleader and singer Gilberto Santa Rosa. With Santa Rosa, David toured Europe hitting the cities of Murcia, Milan, London, Barcelona and Madrid.

Rivera was/is also a key player in the popular Boston-based band known as Mango Blue, led by Ecuadorian bassist, composer and singer, Alex Alvear, a musician and band leader that Rivera credits as being highly influential in his musical journey.

Recordings:

Now in 2025, the prolific Rivera just released not only an EP entitled Maquetas (Mockups) but also earlier this year, a full album titled Cuentos & Remixes (Stories & Remixes). In addition, also this year, he released an 8 song album called David Rivera Live at The Black Room Sessions which is available as a live TV concert experience on YouTube where the audience is seated within the band stand:

In the comments below The Black Room Sessions, a savvy viewer on Rivera’s YouTube channel [@arthurowen7089] wrote this (translated from Spanish): ”It's truly gratifying to see a true musician emerge these days, an honest musician who doesn't submit to industry-imposed formulas, with an original approach that isn't limited to what radio programmers demand, but rather searches within and creates music based on the dictates of his talent and heart. It's been a while, a long time, since I've heard a band with this creativity, one that draws on diverse sounds like soul, jazz, funk, and rhythm and blues to amplify the traditional sound of salsa and Afro-Cuban music. Arrangements of songs like "Chévere," "La Epidemia," and the impressive "Pasiva-Agresiva," in a boogaloo key, demonstrate the incredible level of composition and interpretive quality of this orchestra. Their mega-hit "La Huella" demonstrates that romantic salsa can be created without the saccharine slush and bad taste of the unfortunate salsa ballads that nearly killed our music. David Rivera is the successor of bands like Batacumbele, Irakere, Van Van, or Guaco, he is the type of artist who can really make our music evolve.”

In 2024, he released Cuentos (Stories), a 4 track EP and in 2023, Desde La Loma Live Sessions, a full album with 8 tracks.

Rivera has also released six singles since 2020,“La Huella” (The Footprint), “Chévere” (Cool),“Enemigos” (Enemies), “Reboten” (Bounce), “Friendzoneo” (Friendzoning) and “La Epidemia” (The Epidemic). Of these, “Reboten” is his most popular track, with 278,350 plays and counting. Rivera receives an average of more than 18,000 monthly listeners on the Spotify streaming service.

Early Beginnings:

The genesis of this wonderful musical journey and success came about as David started playing music at his church in Cupey Alto, a suburb of San Juan, when he was around 16 or 17. “I wanted to play drums when I was younger but I had to stop because my mom said it was too loud! So I didn’t really start playing until I was 16. I was what you might call, ‘a late bloomer.’”

Then he took some lessons and he was hooked. He loved it so much that at age 21, he quit his day job in order practice incessantly so that he could be good enough to audition to go to Berklee and it worked! He moved to Boston and started his years at Berklee in 2005 and hasn’t stopped.