PBS to release "Latin Music USA"

From jazz to rock to pop and R&B, Latin artists have made a profound impact on American music and culture for decades. In the new PBS DVD release Latin Music USA, viewers will be able to get their groove on while hearing from an incredible range of Latino performers and industry insiders. Latin Music USA, set to broadcast on October 12th and 19th and debuting on DVD October 20, profiles some of the most important Latino artists, past and present, whose music continues to reverberate throughout American music and influence today’s recording artists.

Latin Music USA takes a special look at the greatest 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.

This four-part series includes the following highlights:

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.

DVD bonus features include:

Spanish audio track
Printable viewing guide in English and Spanish
Two bonus videos and accompanying articles — “Meeting Selena’s Father” and “Hanging with Daddy Yankee”
English closed captions

To order a copy of Latin Music USA, please call (800) PLAY-PBS or visit www.shopPBS.org.

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PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally. Jointly owned by PBS (Arlington, VA) and WGBH (Boston, MA), PBS Distribution extends the reach of public television programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and our production partners. PBS Distribution offers a diverse range of programming to our customers, including Ken Burns’s films (The War, Baseball, Jazz, The Civil War), documentaries from award-winning series NOVA (The Elegant Universe), FRONTLINE (Bush’s War), and American Experience (We Shall Remain), dramas from Masterpiece (Jane Eyre, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries), films from independent producers (The Story of India, Journey into Buddhism, I.O.U.S.A.), and popular children’s programming from Super Why!, Wordgirl, Cyberchase, and Arthur.

TITLE: LATIN MUSIC USA
RUNNING TIME: approximately 4 hours
FORMAT: DVD
SRP: $39.99
PREBOOK: 9/29/09
STREET DATE: 10/20/09