Bio Ritmo

Bio Ritmo is a 10-piece salsa band with ties to Puerto Rico that has been based out of Richmond, VA for over thirty years. They are known as pioneers of the indie-salsa music revival, inspired by classic salsa dura artists of the seventies such as Marvin Santiago, Bobby Valentine, Roberto Roena (and many more) but who have created their own unique sound, some say “experimental” for their mixing of influences not commonly found in salsa music. Their albums have received global acclaim, with critics calling the group “Latin music visionaries” and “one of the most innovative salsa bands of the 21st century”.

Bio Ritmo’s dance-forward and sometimes-experimental marriage of a formidable brass section with Puerto Rican percussion traditions—bongos, congas, timbales, claves, and guiro—can sound undeniably new. But it’s also the recipe that gave birth to a salsa revival in the New York barrios of the 1970s, when traditional musicians from the Puerto Rican and Cuban diaspora began to collaborate with New York-trained jazz artists. As opposed to the glossy and often commercial salsa romantica that followed, this collision of tradition and transformation was a perfect inspiration for a band hailing from Virginia, where self-invention was the only way to create a salsa scene.