Product Details

• Actors: Narrator: Jimmy Smits
• Directors: Pamela A. Aguilar, Daniel McCabe
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: PBS
• DVD Release Date: October 20, 2009
• Run Time: 240 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002KJ7OG2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,973 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

LATIN MUSIC USA highlights the great American music created by Latinos, and celebrates the Latin rhythms at the heart of jazz, rock, country, and rhythm and blues. It's a fresh take on American musical history, reaching across five decades to portray the rich mix of sounds created by Latinos and embraced by all. BRIDGES: See the rise of Latin jazz with the great Machito and the explosion of the mambo with Pérez Prado. Watch as Latin music infiltrates R&B and rock throughout the 1960s, from the Drifters to Santana and beyond. THE SALSA REVOLUTION: Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in New York reinvent Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms, adding elements from soul and jazz to create salsa. Follow the rise and fall of legendary Fania Records with famed artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, and Rubén Blades. THE CHICANO WAVE: From Ritchie Valens and Freddy Fender to Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, and Selena, a new generation of Mexican Americans raised on rock, rhythm and blues, and country music expresses their cultural identity through Chicano rock, Latin rock, and Tejano. DIVAS & SUPERSTARS: Latin pop explodes with the success of artists like Ricky Martin, Shakira, and Gloria Estefan. But as studios concentrate on star-driven pop, Latino youth gravitate toward the urban fusions of reggaetón artists like Daddy Yankee and rapper Pitbull, while rock en español star Juanes becomes a global phenomenon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of the Latinos/Hispanics and their Influence to American Music, October 19, 2009

By 

Dave P. (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Latin Music USA (DVD)

First things first. I feel that I need to respond to the previous moron's review. A person named Garcia should really do some deep study, not only on Latin Music but also on his/her own Latin culture. To say that Selena brought Latin music to the awareness of the American and Hispanic people is a travesty and an insult to pioneers like Richie Valens, Desi Arnaz, Celia Cruz, Xavier Cougat, Santana and the list goes on and on. Please Garcia, try to sound somewhat intelligent and don't sound off at all. Thank you!

That off my chest, I give this series 5 stars. It has been presented well with research and documentation. It truly gives the background through the eyes of the artists themselves and those who worked with them. It shows how Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and others influenced the Latino music culture in the U.S. I watched this series on PBS and I highly recommend it whether you are Hispanic, African-American, Anglo or any other culture that wants to find out the background to one of the great music genres that melt in to the great American music melting pot.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Documentary with interviews from ALL the important people, November 6, 2009

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Latin Music USA (DVD)

This four-part, four-hour documentary was shown over various PBS stations around the country. In some cities - Philadelphia, for instance - they only aired the last two parts - since these cover rock and roll and the huge crossover artists like Serena and Ricky Martin. But here you get the whole story from the beginning. Actually the series doesn't quite start with the earliest years. In a clever, and successful, effort to draw non-Hispanics into the story, writer/director Daniel McCabe (obviously not Latin) uses Carlos Santa's performance at Woodstock as the opening shot. This episode, titled "Bridges", then takes the viewer back to the artists who came to the US from Puerto Rico and Cuba and planted the seeds of a musical movement which now garners its own Grammy Awards show on prime time TV.

Earlier this year I reviewed an excellent - though much shorter - DVD documentary, "From Mambo to Hip Hop", and gave it five stars. Then this DVD came out and now I've seen two five-star productions on this often overlooked subject.

There is literally something here for literally everyone, though pop and jazz are the prime focus. There's not much here on those artists who brought traditional Latin folk music to the US and kept it in the same form. The emphasis is on how the Latin music melded with the American musical culture to form something new. There will be some surprises for most who only know the obvious Latin acts like Martin, Richie Valens, Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades and Prez Prado. The moment for me was learning of the Fillmore's Bill Graham's Latin heritage and why, and how, he booked Carlos Santana. You'll find your own discoveries.

The only bonus features on the DVD are two VERY brief sections on Selena's father and a fairly dumb section watching Latin hip-hopper Daddy Yankee sitting around. I'm not even sure why these were included. But, the four hours of the actual of the series are enough to make this required viewing for any music lover and it belongs in every high school and university music library. It'll be a long time before this subject is covered this well, and this accurate again!

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2 THUMBS UP., November 18, 2009

By 

William Pollard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Latin Music USA (DVD)

This dvd covers Latin music in the USA as comprehensive as possible. If there's another documentary that's better they've buried it forever. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.