Tato Torres, Monxo López and the charter members of the Loisaida Center’s Plenatorium Project came to the WBAI studios in swingin’ Boerum Hill Brooklyn to play us a few songs about life and the labors of love. Using a new configuration that included accordion and guitar, the pleneros filled the studio with a wall of sound that spoke the language of circular migration. Torres has been on the scene for many years now as one of the founders of the seminal Yerbabuena, and the Center has been holding a weekly workshop influence by the style developed in the western Puerto Rican city Mayaguez. I invited them as part of the lead-up to Sunday’s annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade down Fifth Avenue in New York. After a couple of tunes you might be able to feel the room levitating.
