Los Pleneros de La 21

The music and dance of Puerto Rico are preserved with the performances of New York-based los Planeros De La 21. Produced in 1983 by Juan Gutierrez, the 12-piece ensemble spans three years of Puerto Rican music artists, dancers, and artisans. Making use of their complicated, multi-part vocal harmonies established to the rhythms of hand-held plena drums and barrel-shaped bomba drums, the group resurrects the African-rooted bomba and plena musical varieties of Puerto Rico. While Billboard praised the music group because of its “exhilaratingly deep Latino explorations of Afro-Caribbean grooves,” the brand new York Times composed, “the melodies are beautiful and the music perfectly arranged, specific rhythms making method for singing or even a drum section.”