Pucho Sanchez and His Latin Soul Brothers July 18, 2008

Pucho began recording in 1963, and really hit his stride between 1966 and 1970, when he cut over half a dozen albums for Prestige. On these he helped pioneer a style termed "Latin boogaloo," which mixed jazz, New York-style Latin music, R&B/soul, and the sort of funk that was just emerging from James Brown and other performers. When his brand of Latin-soul-jazz fusion started to fall from commercial grace in the early '70s, Pucho disbanded the Latin Soul Brothers. Happily, he made a return to Latin-soul-jazz-funk with his 1995 comeback effort, 'Rip a Dip,' which found his skills intact. 'How'm I Doing' followed in mid-2000.