Ideas. Stories. Community.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A Tour Of Spanish Harlem, Birthplace Of Boogaloo

Cover for Bobby Quesada and His Boogaloo Band.
courtesy of the artist.
Cover for Bobby Quesada and His Boogaloo Band.

This week on Alt.Latino we're back in New York, in Spanish Harlem to be precisos. We met up with Spanish DJ Turmix on the newly christened Charlie Palmieri Way. Turmix was with us because he specializes in boogaloo, a style of music born in the 1960s in this very neighborhood by musicians like Palmieri.

What was boogaloo exactly? It was this amazing fusion of African-American and Latin culture. It blended R&B, soul, mambo and son montuno. It also mixed English and Spanish lyrics. Bottom line — it was just a fantastic, danceable, delectable style that moved masses.

Join us as we stroll the streets of el barrio and explore DJ Turmix's amazing collection of boogaloo music.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jasmine Garsd is an Argentine-American journalist living in New York. She is currently NPR's Criminal Justice correspondent and the host of The Last Cup. She started her career as the co-host of Alt.Latino, an NPR show about Latin music. Throughout her reporting career she's focused extensively on women's issues and immigrant communities in America. She's currently writing a book of stories about women she's met throughout her travels.