SOMA Magazine May 2012 : Page 75
came friends, community. While in college, I worked for Latino 96.3, the first bilingual radio station in LA. There was new music becoming popular: Pitbull, Calle 13, Don Omar. Suddenly Spanglish was acceptable, MTV Tres started and all the Latino magazines – all new media to fit the new demographic and I was at the heart of it. My two worlds collided: Latino culture and urban music. I felt I belonged. What was your lucky break? In 2007 when I worked indepen-dently after leaving radio. My first gig was Pitbull at the Shrine Auditorium. During the show I looked into the crowd from above the stage and saw thousands of people screaming, singing along and having the time of their lives. It gave me chills and I realized bringing concerts to people was not only what I wanted to focus on, but was something I could do well. Why the move to nonprofit Levitt Pavilion? After hustling to sell tick-ets for concerts I was promoting, I wanted to do something that was more about the love of music. Levitt was a small concert series, but with free admission it had a built-in audience that filled the venue based on trust. I took advantage of that and started getting creative with programming and made it what it is today—a nationally recognized concert series. In Pasadena the goal is to bring generations together. There’s exciting music happening right now like surf rock, indie folk, retro funk, and experimental jazz that can bring young and old together to enjoy the same music. What about LA’s MacArthur Park? MacArthur Park had problems figuring out what music worked there and breaking the stereo-type of it being unsafe. Our concerts are now bringing people in from all over LA and the new vibe in the community is amazing. Latin Alternative is one focus, because it brings in young Latinos from other areas, along with traditional Latin music famil-iar to the local immigrant community. What’s exciting is that MacArthur Park has the potential to be the number one multi-cultural melting pot in LA, if not the U.S. It’s the most densely populated Latin immigrant community in the United States and is surrounded by artsy, hipster, and young professional neighbor-hoods. When you put the right artist on stage, they all spill into the park and you have a full representation of what LA is. What’s playing on your iPod right now? I’m listening to a new group, the Alabama Shakes, who I think will be huge. Gary Clark, Jr., is also exciting. I found this group from Colombia, Monsieur Periné, that I can’t get enough of. Thundercat is one of my cur-rent favorites. I like what’s happening in hip hop with new young artists like Kendrick Lamar, and the new electronic styles like moombahton and DJ Munchi coming out of that scene. It will be a different playlist tomorrow though.. . for sure. 75
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