The very real but unlikely story of a Jewish kid from Brooklyn
who--through a truly unusual series of events--became a Latin music
legend.
His is an unlikely story. A musical story. A New York story. A spiritual
story. An amazing improbable journey that crosses cultural borders. The
story of Larry Harlow, "El Judio Maravilloso," (The Marvelous Jew) who
grew up in one world--a Yiddish-speaking Jewish household in
Brooklyn--and ventured into another, far different one, pre-Castro Cuba.
Born Lawrence Ira Kahn, Harlow comes from a family of musicians. His
mother was an opera singer; his grandfather played piano for silent
films and in the Yiddish theater; and his father was a vaudevillian and
orchestra leader who used the stage name Buddy Harlowe, and for many
years led the house band at the Latin Quarter nightclub. It was
summering at Jewish camps in the Catskills as a young boy where Harlow
first acquired a taste for clave. He enrolled at Brooklyn College to
study music, but his love for Latin culture and sound eventually led him
to pre-Castro Havana, where he attended music classes by day and hung
out in clubs and dance halls at night. When dangerous circumstances
forced Harlow to leave Havana, he took with him a treasure trove of
tapes and a deeper understanding of music with African roots and
spiritual rhythms.
He returned to a New York of John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, and Allen
Ginsberg, bringing with him the sounds and music that no one else was
playing. He was signed by Fania Records, a fledgling label that would
become the Motown of Latin music, in large measure due to Larry's role
as its creative architect. There, as both a recording artist and record
producer, he combined his strong classical and jazz background with his
love of Cuban music, and became one of the creators of a unique New York
sound that would captivate the world, and become known as salsa. With
his groundbreaking salsa opera Hommy, Harlow helped rejuvenate the
career of Celia Cruz. His influence, however, did not stop there. He has
inspired successful Cuban musicians including Gloria Estefan, Arturo
Sandoval, Buena Vista Social Club, and many, many more.
This is, simply put, the unlikely tale of how a Jewish kid from Brooklyn
grew up to become a Latin music legend.
