Felix Contreras
Felix Contreras is co-creator and host ofAlt.Latino, NPR's pioneering program about Latin Alternative music and Latino culture. It features music as well as interviews with many of the most well-known Latinx musicians, actors, filmmakers, and writers. He has hosted and produced Alt.Latino episodes from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and throughout the U.S. since the show started in 2010.
Previously, Contreras was a reporter and producer NPR's Arts Desk and, among other stories and projects, covered a series reported from Mexico on the musical movement called Latin Alternative; helped produce NPR's award-winning series 50 Great Voices; and reported a series of stories on the financial challenges aging jazz musicians face.
Contreras is a recovering television journalist who has worked for both NBC and Univision in Miami and California. He's a part-time musician who plays Afro-Cuban percussion with various jazz and Latin bands in the Washington, DC, area. He is also NPR Music's resident Deadhead.
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The Austin-based rock band is nominated for the album and record of the year at next year's Grammys. See why in this Tiny Desk quarantine concert. -
The Cuban percussionist brought the rhythms of Havana to New York's jazz clubs in the 1940s and never stopped performing.
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Two members of Brazilian musical royalty unite for a special Tiny Desk quarantine performance (and a heck of a view).
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An indomitable musical culture survived the tragedy of the international slave trade. Alt.Latino captured a weeklong celebration featuring artists Trombone Shorty, Tank and the Bangas and Cimafunk.
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Sometimes the musicians who visit Alt.Latino prefer to express themselves in Spanish. Founders of the genre-busting Cuban band Sintesís share their love of Freddie Mercury and santería.
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Can you hear the cha-cha-cha in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"? Or the mambo in "What I'd Say"? Dive into early rock and roll's Cuban DNA.
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Santana's debut album was released on this day 50 years ago. NPR's Felix Contreras considers it a game-changing moment in the marriage of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and rock 'n' roll.
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Piña mined the traditions of cumbia and expanded the limits of the accordion.
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The song "Afilando Los Cuchillos" was a major feature during the protests in Puerto Rico that led to the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rossello last week.
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"Puerto Ricans are waking up." We explore Residente, iLe and Bad Bunny's sharp-edged takedown of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and its influence on the protesters in the streets.
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Amid the most crucial political crisis to hit Puerto Rico in its modern history, Puerto Rican artists Residente, Bad Bunny and iLe respond with music in real time.
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The Brazilian singer and guitarist, who won wide acclaim for his abundant technical skill and minimalist style, was behind one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, 1964's Getz/Gilberto.
