“The drumming, incendiary, complex and precise, made the room rock!”
- The New York Times

“A magical melting of the invisible curtain between performer and audience that occurs so infrequently...Listeners left their seats to dance in the aisles.”
- Albuquerque Journal

Los Pleneros de la 21 are New York City’s preeminent ambassadors of Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba & Plena music and dance. This unique troupe of Puerto Rican master traditional artists and seasoned New York musicians are leaders in the resurgence of the Island’s traditional music in NY. For 23 years, ‘Los Pleneros’ have created an extensive display of performance and recorded work that captures the swinging groove of Bomba & Plena with perfectly balanced contemporary jazzy arrangements for an enjoyable and infectious danceable music to audiences and fans everywhere from NYC to Australia.

While touring extensively, they remain deeply rooted in the NY-Puerto Rican community maintaining an active arts and culture program schedule. ‘Los Pleneros’ Director Juan J. Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1996 for his outstanding work in maintaining and promoting Puerto Rican traditional music.

‘Los Pleneros’ discography includes 4 recordings and a new Smithsonian Folkways release Para Todos Ustedes/For All of You, nominated for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Traditional World Music Album. This outstanding 13-track recording captures these masters at their peak, infusing traditional bomba and plena with contemporary influences, such as música jíbara (mountain music of Puerto Rico), jazz, salsa, and rap. Their 1996 Henry Street/Rounder release Somos Boricuas/We are Puerto Rican: Bomba y Plena en Nueva York has been praised by critics and audiences alike.

LP21 Offers the following and any combination of these

Concert a performance of the bomba & plena traditional and contemporary musical repertoire. This presentation of popular themes, rhythms, and dances is informal and dynamic, yet intimate, participatory and informative.

Dance bomba & plena takes the dancing floor! Los Pleneros will feature bomba & plena musical numbers for your wedding, birthday or dance event, along with salsa, merengues, boleros, cumbias and more!

Workshop interactive presentations and activities adapted to different grade levels. Students are engaged through call & response, rap/hip-hop singing, drumming and dancing. Participation is a must!

Residency a one week to three month intensive seminar on one or more aspects of bomba & plena traditions discussed, analyzed, demonstrated and taught.

Student Performances/Workshops presentation of bomba & plena traditions designed for children of various grade levels engaged through story-telling, call & response and rap singing, rote drum-playing, and “body language dancing.”