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Musician

Poncho Sanchez

Born:

GRAMMY-winning bandleader, conguero, and percussionist Poncho Sanchez is among the most influential percussionists in jazz.  For more than four decades, he’s stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career, Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of Latin Jazz.

Sanchez was born in Laredo, Texas, in 1951 to a large Mexican-American family, but grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, where he was raised on an unusual cross section of sounds that included straightahead jazz, Latin jazz and American soul. By his teen years, his musical consciousness had been solidified by the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, Wilson Pickett, and James Brown. Along the way, he taught himself to play guitar, flute, drums and timbales, but eventually settled on the congas. Sanchez landed a permanent spot in Cal Tjader's band in 1975, and remained with him until the bandleader's death in 1982.  Sanchez then shifted his focus to his own group, which he had formed in 1980, and signed with powerhouse label Concord for the release of ‘Sonando’, beginning a musical partnership that has spanned nearly four decades and yielded more than two dozen recordings. 

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News: Recording

'El Maestro' Irving Flores Readies Thrilling Afro-cuban
 Jazz Sextet Project With Giovanni Hidalgo & Horacio “El Negro” Hernández; 'Armando Mi Conga' Arrives August 26

'El Maestro' Irving Flores Readies Thrilling Afro-cuban
 Jazz Sextet Project With Giovanni Hidalgo & Horacio “El Negro” Hernández; 'Armando Mi Conga' Arrives August 26

Acclaimed pianist, composer, and arranger Irving Flores is set to release his most ambitious project to date, ;Armando Mi Conga (Amor de Flores Productions), available on CD and all streaming platforms beginning August 26, 2025. A vibrant celebration of Latin Jazz and Afro-Cuban Jazz, the 9-song album blends virtuosity with soul — and features an all-star ...

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Article: Radio & Podcasts

Basketball and Jazz: The Art of Improvisation, Part 1

Read "Basketball and Jazz: The Art of Improvisation, Part 1" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


This time we felt like exploring the interplay of basketball and jazz, focusing in particular on a great jazz advocate like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, on the soundtrack of the HBO series The Winning Time, on an oneiric game played with a basketball fish, and on Stanley Clarke's tribute to this sport, to which he devoted as ...

Album

Huracan

Label: Liberation Hall
Released: 2023
Track listing: Ritmo Caliente; Desposado; Bachi; Huracan; Funquiado; Tres Palabras.

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News: Recording

Jazz Detective Launches Never Before Released Cal Tjader Live Sets Recorded In The 1960s At The Penthouse Jazz Club In Seattle

Jazz Detective Launches Never Before Released Cal Tjader Live Sets Recorded In The 1960s At The Penthouse Jazz Club In Seattle

THIS IS THE FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE OF PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED LIVE CAL TJADER MUSIC IN NEARLY 20 YEARS! Transferred from the original tape reels and mastered for vinyl by Bernie Grundman, Cal Tjader: Catch The Groove – Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967 is presented as a 180-gram vinyl limited edition 3-LP SET and will also be available ...

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Article: Live Review

Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley

Read "Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley" reviewed by Jack Gold-Molina


Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band Dimitriou's Jazz Alley Seattle, WA August 12, 2022 Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band performed two sets at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley on Friday, August 12th. Still touring to support 2019's Trane's Delight, they have faced numerous cancellations and delays due to COVID restrictions. As Mr. ...

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Article: Album Review

Poncho Sanchez: Trane's Delight

Read "Trane's Delight" reviewed by La-Faithia White


After a seven-year hiatus Poncho Sanchez pushes through with a passion project and a meaningful tribute to one of his mentors, saxophonist John Coltrane, on Trane's Delight. The feeling of jazz comes together beautifully in this tribute to Coltrane as well as in the remake of the Duke Ellington classic “The Feeling Of Jazz."

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Article: Album Review

Joe Rizo's Mongorama: Mariposas Cantan

Read "Mariposas Cantan" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Mongorama is a nine-piece Latin Jazz all-star band built and guided to honor Mongo Santamaria by the hand of José Rizo, a Latin musical legend in California who's been broadcasting from KJazz 88.1FM (Cal State University, Long Beach) for more than three decades. On their 2010 debut, Rizo enlisted such legends as Poncho Sanchez and Hubert ...

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Article: Album Review

Various Artists: New Orleans Mambo: Cuba to NOLA

Read "New Orleans Mambo: Cuba to NOLA" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


The distance between New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) and Havana (Cuba) is almost exactly 670 miles, about a two-hour flight. But it takes only one listen to Putumayo Records' anthology New Orleans Mambo: Cuba to NOLA to bridge the distance between the two. With such a wide and colorful net to cast, assembling this collection ...

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Article: From the Inside Out

Soul Songs, Mose Songs & COVID Aid for Djibouti

Read "Soul Songs, Mose Songs & COVID Aid for Djibouti" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Bahama Soul Club Bohemia After Dawn Buyú Records 2020 Soulful original music laced with judicious and striking samples, Bohemia After Dawn serves a textbook example of music that packs an impact larger than the sum of its parts. Written, arranged, produced and performed by Oliver Belz ...


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