I was a young black man of about 18, in 1966-66 when latin music evolved in my St. Albans, Queens New York neighborhood as the premier dance at house parties. We danced and went to see first the charanga bands then the conjuntos. As far as "All Stars" is concerned, What about the Alegre All Stars, with stars such as Charlie Palmeri, Kako, Bobby Rodrigues, Frankie Malabe, Mark Weinstein, Barry Rogers, the names go on, Johnny Pacheco was learning how to play charanga flute when all this was going on. Then there is the forgotten genius of Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz, the wild antics of the boogaloo era with Joe Cuba, Orlando Marin, the then hard stomping, Eddie Palmeri and La Perfecta.

I remember going to the dances at Roseland, the Action House, The Corso, Manhattan Center, the St. George Hotel.

We would call it the "Latin Dance" because it was so big and so much going on every night of the week. I feel that both of the gentlemen who preceeded me are both right. They both refer to points that I agree with.

I played "la musica" during the 70's in San Francisco, trying very hard to emulate my hero's of New York, and I got very much into the spirituality of the music and started really tracing the true history of the music which believe me has nothing to do with Jerry what's his name. Yes, I do believe that he served some good as far as promoting the music but he also did it for mainly for profit.

I just passed my 50th birthday and I was born and raised in New York City. And there are still a great many brothers around like myself im the hood that can still quote the history of the music "Afican Style".