The John Santos Puerto Rico Del Alma Project

A moving concert focusing on rhythms, styles and musicians from Puerto Rico. Despite its troubled colonial history, the tiny island has maintained its profound musical identity and has continually affected music in the US over the last 100 years. Latin music renaissance man John Santos and his longstanding Sextet will host a crew of stellar guest stars from the island in a performance honoring Puerto Rico, including legendary vocalist/trumpeter Jerry Medina and new generation monster cuatrista Pedro Pastrana. The island’s continued legacy of music and musicians who have defined their art through progressive movements of social change offers hope, courage, clarity and love in times of distress. 

Beyond his career as a master percussionist, John Santos is an invaluable educator and cultural activist, a keeper of the Afro-Caribbean flame steeped in Cuban and Puerto Rican folkloric traditions as well as salsa and Latin jazz. Born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District amidst an extended family of Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean musicians, he’s been at the center of the Bay Area’s Latin music scene for well over four decades. As a visionary bandleader and noted historian, he has served on the Smithsonian Institution’s Latin Jazz Advisory Committee.

The John Santos Sextet: