Larry Harlow

One of the extraordinary artists of the 60s and '70s, Larry Harlow served as producer for countless LPs, musical director of Fania All Stars, and captain of his own Orchestra Harlow, which sailed with many great musicians and with some of the greatest soneros of all time, Ismael Miranda, Nestor Sanchez, Junior Gonzalez. 
 Harlow, born Ira Kahn in Brooklyn in 1939, was greatly influenced by his father Buddy Kahn Harlow, a bassist and bandleader. He began piano studies at the age of five, and planned to become a jazz pianist until he first heard the mambo while attending Music and Art High School during the early '50s. During the 1964 World's Fair (held in Flushing, Queens), Harlow played piano for Johnny Pacheco's conjunto before creating the Larry Harlow orchestra. Heavily influenced by the Arsenio Rodríguez sound, Harlow modernized it and was hailed a disciple of "El Ciegito Maravilloso" ("The Marvelous Blind One") and was himself dubbed "El Judio Maravilloso" ("The Marvelous Jew"). After Arsenio Rodríguez's death on December 31, 1970, Harlow emotionally moved the Latin music world with the Fania album Tribute to Arsenio Rodriguez in 1971. Two years later, Harlow made headlines with album Hommy, A Latin Opera, which was staged at Carnegie Hall. For more information: www.larryharlow.com