Poncho Sanchez

Concert Details

For more than four decades, Grammy-winning conguero Poncho Sanchez has been at the forefront of Latin jazz’s trailblazers, merging straight-ahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career, Sanchez has carried the torch lit by such Latin jazz innovators as Mongo Santamaría, Tito Puente, and Cal Tjader.

Sanchez’s influences are numerous, and his catalog is rich with deeply personal homages to several of his mentors—Santamaría, Puente, and Tjader among them. But alongside those Latin pioneers, one of the most prominent figures informing Sanchez’s music is the iconic saxophonist John Coltrane. On Sanchez’s Grammy-nominated album Trane’s Delight, the conguero pays tribute to the jazz legend with Latin-tinged reimaginings of Coltrane classics as well as spirited originals composed in honor of the tenor titan.

2026 Concert Series sponsored by

Sanderson Lincoln