Oscar Hernandez & The LA-NY Connection at Jazz Live: 2011

Oscar Hernandez represents New York Latin jazz at its most authentic and powerful. As pianist, arranger, and founder of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, he carries forward traditions from Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and the golden era of New York salsa. His Jazz Live performance with The LA-NY Connection brought that energy to San Diego with results that made sitting still impossible.

Hernandez's piano playing combines jazz sophistication with Latin rhythmic drive. His montunos (the repeated piano patterns that anchor Latin music) are intricate and propulsive, creating foundation for horn sections and percussion while contributing melodic interest. His solos demonstrate bebop fluency applied to Latin harmonic frameworks.

The LA-NY Connection features brass section (trumpets and trombones), Latin percussion (congas, timbales, bongos), piano, bass, and vocals. This instrumentation creates the full salsa sound, capable of generating massive energy while maintaining musical sophistication.

What distinguishes authentic Latin jazz from superficial versions is understanding of clave, the rhythmic pattern that governs all arrangements and improvisations in Latin music. Every instrument must relate to clave properly or the music falls apart. Hernandez and his musicians understand this completely; their music locks into clave while creating complex layers above it.

The brass arrangements showed Hernandez's skill as arranger. Latin brass writing differs from jazz big band writing, emphasizing rhythmic punctuation, call-and-response with percussion, and specific voicing traditions. Done well, it creates excitement and drive that pure rhythm section can't achieve.

The percussion section deserves special mention. Latin percussion is complex, requiring multiple players contributing interlocking rhythms that create the genre's characteristic drive. The interaction between congas, timbales, and bongos, all while maintaining relationship to clave, demands serious skill.

The Lyceum audience responded enthusiastically, many dancing in aisles or moving in seats. Latin jazz done authentically demands physical response; the rhythms are too infectious to resist. This differs from jazz's usual concert presentation where audiences sit quietly, but Latin music carries different expectations.

Hernandez's music connects to Spanish Harlem's cultural history, where Puerto Rican and African American musical traditions mixed, creating salsa and Latin jazz that influenced both communities. This isn't museum piece recreation; it's living tradition maintained by musicians who learned it directly from the masters.

Oscar Hernandez & The LA-NY Connection at Jazz Live demonstrated Latin jazz's power when performed by musicians who understand it deeply. The energy, the musicianship, and the authentic connection to New York Latin music tradition created performance impossible to experience passively.

For audiences wanting real Latin jazz rather than watered-down versions, Hernandez delivered the genuine article.