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Recorded on location in lower Manhattan, the Bronx and Spanish Harlem ('El Barrio'), jazz writer and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre explores the history, art and politics of the Latin music scene in New York City from the 1950s to the present – the city that gave birth to salsa.

New York's Latino community has always been a source of artistic richness, with messages of political identity and social struggle never far from the sheer excitement of the music. To be Nu Yorican was to be born in New York City from Puerto Rican descent, drawing on the sounds and rhythms of Cuba and blending them with the sounds of jazz and soul into a unique set of musical forms and styles that took the world by storm.

The hugely vibrant music scene of ’El Barrio’, which produced a wealth of amazing artists in the 1950s and ‘60s from Tito Puente and Ray Barreto to Eddie Palmieri and Joe Bataan, gave birth to a uniquely Nu Yorican music that became a worldwide sensation - salsa. Drawing on its limitless musical energy, the Fania Records label became the Motown of US Latin music, reaching huge listening audiences and drawing on an incredible roster of artists. On the streets of Harlem and the Bronx, in the jazz clubs and dance-halls, Latino and African American musicians played together and mixed styles – the fusion of Latin music with jazz and soul - to create thrilling hybrids such as Afro-Cuban, Latin-Jazz and Latin Soul as well as salsa itself.

The Latino community in New York drew from the African American experience politically as well as musically. Both groups were subject to racism, poor housing, high unemployment and over-policing. Both groups organised coordinated breakfast and welfare programmes, health centres, libraries and places of cultural learning. Political consciousness, through the medium of poetry and spoken word, offered a route out of the gang culture, which was rife in Spanish Harlem (as we hear from Joe Bataan, Felipe Luciano and others). This feature also tells the story of San Juan Hill, once home to a huge Latino community, demolished by Robert Moses to make way for the Lincoln Centre. The 1961 movie adaptation of West Side Story was filmed in the rubble.

Hearing from musicians living and playing in New York, some going back to the origins of salsa, this deeply musical feature showcases the energy and style of Nu Yorican music in all its forms and musical hybrids as Kevin explores the role of music in building a narrative of community.

Contributors include the founder of Latin soul Joe Bataan, former member of the Last Poets Felipe Luciano, spoken word artist and director of The Nu Yorican Poets Café Caridad de la Luz (aka ‘La Bruja’), Fania Records producer and arranger Harvey Averne, historian Johanna Fernandez, veteran percussionist and Tito Puente’s conga player Chembo Corniel, Latin House and Nu Yorican Soul producer ‘Little’ Louie Vega and British curator of Fania Records archive Dean Rudland, composer and salsa bandleader Bobby Sanabria and Latin-soul aficionado Lenny Thomas.

Presented by Kevin Le Gendre
Produced by Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping Production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3

Image: Kevin Le Gendre and Caridad de la Luz (aka ‘La Bruja’) at The Nu Yorican Poet’s Café, New York City.