NPR Music - Alt.Latino: The best Latin music of 2026 (so far)

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

It’s that time of the year again: a mix between Christmas and Halloween for me and Felix. We gift you our best album picks of the year so far — and there’s nothing spookier for us than having to choose. So here it is, the music we’ve loved and listened to the most in the first half of 2026, some of the best (in our opinion) from all of Latin America and its diaspora. — Anamaria SayreArtist and albums featured in this episode:(02:15) Trueno - 'TURR4ZO'(07:06) Jonathan Suazo - 'Ricano Vol. 2: Fruto de mi Corazón'(11:16) Broke Carrey - 'HIJO DEL PAÍS'(15:48) X Alfonso - 'AIRE'(22:28) Silvia Pérez Cruz - 'Oral_Abisal'(29:30) Nuevos Rios - 'Nuevos Rios'(32:17) Criolo, Amaro Freitas & Dino d'Santiago - 'CRIOLO, AMARO E DINO'(37:33) Sofia Rei - 'Antónima'This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR music, this is all Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin. Anna, okay, before we get into the music this week... No, don't do it to me. I can't even... I can't say the words. Yeah. I will just say that Mexico is no longer in the running to win the Mundial.

Is how I will frame it. Yeah. We have to bring it up. We have to talk about it. Like, so many people were crushed. It was just not a lot of fun to watch. It was stressful. I actually threw my back out.

whipping so much up and down. I felt like I played the game. You hurt yourself? Yeah, I hurt myself. You know, recently you did a piece on Weekend All Things considered on the phrase ECC, which was people should check out on the NPR website. But it's something you and I were just talking about. The idea of faith, like, what was it about that game, like that created this moment?

You know, I do really mean it when I say, Felix, it wasn't ever about actually winning the Mondial. Like what I felt in that game, what I saw in all the weeks leading up to it, like we really did believe. It's like five seconds left on the clock and we're like, no, no, no, Mexico's going to do it. Like, we're going to do it. We're going to do the impossible. And that's really what it all was about. If we got all the way there, if we got part of the way there, it was the idea that to get that many millions and millions and millions of people to collectively actually like in their bodies believe that something that everyone said couldn't be could be.

There's a power to me there, Felix, that once you connect with that, it's like you don't lose that. It would have been the same feeling, actually, I think, if we had actually won. I don't know that that would have been any different kind of confirmation or different kind of experience. It was the belief that it generated right before that mattered, which it did. And I think that that's something that the people in Mexico City, where you are all over Mexico and everywhere, I think that's something that people, a lesson people can take out of that, which is something that we can use as we transition. To our show this week, we're going to look back at the year that was so far, some of our favorite tracks from our favorite albums that have come out since January.

I think I'm first. And I'm really excited because I went back and listened to this record, Felix, and it never ceases to amaze me. This is Argentine artist Trueno, his album Turazzo, and the song is called Rain Four. First of nothing, thanks for most to show me that in a sector of people without official, sacrifice,

value the double, that with a plate rich, no person is poor. Thank you for to teach me to be a man. Only you and I know for what we pass the times that we limpium the

the same the other man, the other the other people to see to see my my first I think this is the

first I am I'm and I'm for not to make the asses my clasers in the brazo and now I'm

I'm gonna go down I'm gonna I'm gonna continue this sendero, so it's you're doing

your pass and I'm I'm sure that I'm gonna go to be but secure, luching for the future against the mure of

Cansion, Cudan't the pacharitos and defending the apeasido, no van to derrumbar to the palaces, will be to

defending this legado, luched for the caido, and sell for the people censurado, to give us to the vendos of the vendas,

Yambandu from the sky, no saluda, no saluda, and I don't want to be up a family unida and to look like

all the sun against the world to the world, and sell to my men that this world is dangerous, but the

So of all of the really impressive sonic moments that Drono has on this record, I wanted to start us with a song that just shows his pure flow. I mean, he is, Felix, he's up there with, like, the Milojitos of Argentina. Like, this record revisiting it to me was such a lesson in what it is to have, like, a really sonically sophisticated, but you. unique record that does like a lot of these artists pay homage to Argentina, pay homage to his roots. But in a way that's not trying, that's not playing the game that everyone's playing right now. He's doing it because it's like Milo.

It's like what comes from the chest. It's what he feels like he needs to do. I'm going to play you another track quickly that is him and Uruguayan legend, Ruben Rada, called Uruguay. Come to me Is it? Maybe I'm going I'll always You know

You know You're You're Suna planch Plenna for that I'll Bailie You were to

You were To be I'm going to You're going to You're going To be There's a There's

Pugue Let's get the Penta B'Ans Below of the Sun For that it's It's a cold

I mean, I think about I think about Felix like what a dregal was trying to do with his record, paying homage this year to Uruguay. And then I look at a song like this from Tueno, and it's so effortless. Like he brings on an absolute legend, Rurban Rada. I hear Samba. in there, you hear your classic tambour, like there's so many different elements that somehow just fit perfectly. And it makes me think Felix of what we were talking about was it, I think it was last week, about there's just this exposure, especially for these young, young, young artists, like a trueno who's, you know, in his early 20s, where he must have just heard a lot of sounds

growing up in Buenos Aires. He's from the barrio in Buenos Aires. He must have just heard a lot. And that just kind of incorporated into his body and into his creative sensibilities. I mean, there's just so much he does here that feels effortless. And yet it's like each song is a massive statement on, yeah, casually bringing Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil together, for example, in that track. You know, it's really beautiful what he's done. And I want to say very quickly, Anna, that that's one of the things I really like about hip hop from Latin America because the beats underneath are so varied

and coming from so many different places. You just heard the stuff from Uruguay, but also in that first track you played, the strings, that's tango, man. 100%. He's flowing over tango string quartet. Amazing stuff. That was a couple of songs from Troeno's album,

one of my favorites of the year, Turraso. Okay, I'm going to start this episode off with another jazz musician using jazz and folk music to create this whole new language of jazz and folk, actually. This is Jonathan Suazo and alto saxophones from Puerto Rico. This is the track, My Music A Bella, from the album Ricano, Volume 2.

Fruit of My Corazon. Check it out. This is Volume 2. Volume 1 came out in 2003. The canvas is completely blank for musicians. who are looking to folk music from Latin America to express themselves. And, man, Jonathan Suazo, there's a whole... I did a whole show on this a while back,

and he's one of the standouts. Another one is Miguel Zenon, another alto saxophonist from Puerto Rico. In fact, Miguel started a record label, and Jonathan Suazo's albums are on that record label. I think it's the most dynamic part of jazz right now. Musicians from Latin America that are reinterpreting jazz through their own cultural lens, and it's been going on for a while is the most dynamic part of jazz.

And this record is full of this stuff. I played something that had a combination of things just within the first, like, 30, 40 seconds, including vocals by the amazing Fabiola Mendez, who plays the Quatro and his vocalist, and is married to Jonathan Suazo. Just so much stuff. The album cover has this beautiful depiction of a bowl of fruit on the cover,

which exactly replicates what's on the record, this pole peri, this amazing feast of sounds and rhythms and stuff that's in the record. Well, and I think Felix, to your point of, like, Latin American folk being this incredible basis for jazz, like, yes, he opens strong, clearly Boricua with the plena, but then, I mean, he breaks into a rhythm that almost feels like bordering a cumbia to me. There's so much diversity in what folk tradition they're playing with, and that's the thing is when you look at the two continents, right, and all the interaction and the conversation that happens between those rhythms just naturally already, that itself is jazz, right?

Like those things are already playing off each other in a jazz form, that then to bring that into a record is genius and also natural. And I think that that's the part that's not explored by musicians here in North America because a lot of this music, almost all of it has its roots in Africa. Jazz certainly, and a lot of the folk music in Latin America, It's the same route, man. It comes from the same place. And I think that that's what these musicians are exploring, mining,

and really just like making it explode with this amazing sound. That was the track me, Musica Bella, from the album Ricano Volume 2, Fruto of My Corazon. Jonathan Suazo is the artist. Tag, you're it. Okay, so I've decided to keep it going with the Argentines because I'm sorry. like Messi.

They're just, I don't know. I don't know what's in the water in Argentina. Here's another one of my favorite album of the year. It's from an artist called Bro Carey. It was his debut album that he released, and it's called Ijo del Paiz, and this track is called El Aplauzo. I've got to be a while trying to try

after the first impulse. That's that being a chico, some of me, so knower with a life full of the Lago, fame, premiums and lucho. Felix, what was it you were saying you were saying about

rapping or singing over, you know, chopped up tango rhythms and strings and beats, and they just do everything. Like nothing is off limits. It's incredible. This is something I've always said specifically about Argentina is there is such a liberation from and because of the distance. Like to be fully in the cone in the south way far away from any expectations or imposition of ideas of what music should sound like in a contemporary world is really freeing.

It creates for this blank canvas of creativity and that's what I hear every time I hear one of these, especially, you know, a trueno, a me. A Catria Lipako, a Bro Carrie, like what they're willing to do, not just ABLE, but willing, rather, the risks they're willing to take in creating something really unique, but also very rooted in the place. It's spectacular. There's another song I want to play for you, and it's called Miguelito. and they, I suppose apparently he's talking about

Miguel Angel Pichetto, Miguelito, who is a member of the chamber of the deputies of Argentina, and it's just a super simple political commentary on this man,

but in the most subtle way and it's not using the rock of Argentina that's been, you know, traditionally their form of, quote, political critique. And I think the natural next step

a lot of people would assume would be, oh, like drop a rock record right now or drop a regiton, whatever, track. No, he goes back to this very folkloric sound, very simple song and says, no, this is the moment where I'm going to call it the Politico. And every single song is intentional in that way. I could go track by track on this record and tell you all the ways that he does that. But it's so simple,

but so there. It's so, you know, exactly what it needs to be. I, between him and Troiano, I could go for 10 hours. That was a couple of tracks from the Brocary album, I, of the pais. Okay, we're going to go from Argentina to Cuba.

And while you were away, I did a show featuring new music from some of our favorite Cuban artists,

Ibeyi, Okan, Sima Funk, and Ekiz Alfonso. And I think that the X Alfonso album still

sits with me in a very, very emotional way, deeply emotional way. This track is called Havana

Blues. The album is called Aide. This is Echifonso. through you the

the streets of my Havana your your your

and your and your and reflect their fachadas is your soul

in soled the voice the voice of this nation can

sad only I'm in the city dormit Yeah, the title of the album Aire is an acronym. Accordes Inovibles and Romances de Espera,

unforgettable chords and romances of hope. You know, a good friend of mine, Judy Cantornavas, in reviewing this album for her substack, described one of the songs as having a tone of a requiem, and I would push it even further. Like, the whole album really feels like a requiem for Cuba that once was. And the songs from the record are a collection of a collection of, music from the last 60 years, including Nueva Trova from the 60s and 70s, some songs he wrote

himself, some songs he wrote with other people. This track, Havana Blues, is a title track of a film made in 2005 by a Spanish director, and Echis made the music for the soundtrack along with some other artists. The lyrics are about the story in the film, a conflict between art and commerce and between these two guys who have these opportunities, one to stay, one to go. It's really profound. The film is, if you get a chance to see it somewhere, it's really very, very touching. It's even more profound right now when you consider what's going on with Cuba

and geopolitics and stuff. And I want to go forward to the end of the song where it just, I think this is the emotional center of the record where he's singing these lyrics. He says, I have to let you go, putting the sea between us, paying the price of others who live off the contradiction, another family marked by separation,

how to fight with that son, with politics, and God. Check this out. That was the track Havana Blues from the album Aire, and the artist is Echis Alfonso, one of my favorite albums of the year so far. Let's take a break. I think it's time to take a break.

We'll be right back. Okay, welcome back. We're looking at our favorite albums of the year so far. Anna, before we get into it, the last batch of songs, any ideas, any thoughts, any feelings about what's going on this year so far? Felix, this is a really weird moment in Latin America. Goodness.

I mean, we started, literally started the year with what happened with Maduro in Venezuela. And now we're seeing what's happening in Venezuela currently against the backdrop of also the Mundial, where Latin America has been incredibly strong and present. and successful. And so to me, observing it from where I sit, like it's a really weird dichotomy of tragedy and joy that we've been experiencing all the first half of the year. I mean, totally, it's very different to me

from what was last summer, what was the last, you know, first half of the year, which was a Benito residency, which was, it felt a little bit, it was like we were entering the phase of returning to home, acknowledging even the pain of Latin America of what is gentrification, of what is leaving home, of what is losing home. And now it feels like we're living in it.

We're living in our power in a really spectacular way, and we're living in our pain in a really heavy way. And I think that the music, if it's not reflecting it already, it's going there. I think the albums that we're talking about today feel like they're touching on that. It feels, you know, what I've brought so far, what you've brought so far, it's artists who are very easily and seamlessly bringing in tradition without talking too much about it. But still, you know, calling attention to like the Eki Shack you just played about Cuba, calling

attention to what's happening there, the Argentines calling attention. So people are feeling it seems to me a lot more comfortable in the music expressing the pain of the moment right now, but also that is the power of the moment right now. And especially when you consider that these records were made, you know, some of them six, eight months a year ago. You know, there's like there's a, yeah, there's a, yeah, there's. There is a continuation of the moment that continues to go and continues to progress and change. And also, I'm going to add, too, the moment that we had at the beginning of the year with Bad Bunny Super Bowl show.

Also. And about how, you know what I mean? How all of that stuff also, like, just changed everything. And none of these things feel incongruent to me either. I think it is a continuation of last year's moment despite the fact that it feels really distinct. Let's see where we are six months from now at the end of the year when we do our best of the year total. Okay, you're up. What's next? Oh, Felix. Oh, my God.

Sylvia Perez-Cruz, I saw that you were thinking about it. I saw that you were like, is she going to be my pick? And I was like, I'm going to come in here and steal this because she's my pick. You stole it. You stole it. I'm the one who brought her in for a tiny desk. She's my artist. Sylvia Perez-Cruz, the amazing Catalonian Spanish artist, released a new record this year. called Oral Abysal, and this is a track off of it called Helando.

I was borrano, desiburrano Tonto Fliuio me feel I'm tumbling Densphazending

Disfasend I'm moving Tragend Tew-m Not was Cairney No was Cance

Silence and Sown Sin-s No-diseach without Deseas Sin to come No-

No-Foe No- No-Foe No-Foe So the beautiful thing to me, Felix, when we do these, is that most of the time, I think all of these records we brought on initially at some point when they came out in the air, we loved them, we brought them, we talked about them, and it's like you're kind of just coming off of first really getting to know the record. And then probably we spent more time with them afterwards because we love the record. And you always start to discover and experience new things. and this one, for example, was really exciting to me

because I got really obsessed like a week ago with this Brazilian artist, of course, named Jota Punto Pe. And then I come back to this record and I'm like, oh my God, here to track that she collaborates with him on, he's all over this record as a collaborator, like so much of his tone, the way he writes,

like all of it is all over this record. And I remembered, you know, that she had done this record in Brazil, and so you already, you know, you can hear that mix on first listen, but the more that you come back to it, you realize, like, oh, the markers of these individual artists who you then have spent time getting to know, maybe on purpose, maybe like I did on accident. And it just brings a whole new layer and color to what she's doing here.

And I had brought up, you know, when we, I initially brought in this record, the name of this album being oral abysal, abysal being, do you remember this, Felix, that it's like, yeah, Yeah, the deep, dark part of the ocean. And of course, she had to go to the land of Saudaje to make Oralavisad. Like, it just makes perfect sense. The way that Brazilians write,

the way that they do music, this record by a Spanish artist, had to meet me there. And so I wanted to play you another song that I just absolutely adore of this record. It's called El Primer Bezo. When you're When you're

so much I'm with the mihia When you had Tantone When I was

I I I'd and I Monta and and I cantabas I'm literally crying. You know, this is a random thing, Felix,

but I remember when I first brought on Sylvia Perez-Cruz on the show was years ago with a different record of hers, and I distinctly remember saying, Sylvia Perez-Cruz sounds to me like it would have sounded like to hear my grandma when she sang. Oh, yeah, I remember that. Do you remember that? Yeah.

And it's like, tonally, she was really different back then. She was a lot jazzier. She was playing with kind of like an older style of vocalization, so it made sense. it's like this iteration of her, she's trying on a different type of love, a different type of pain, a different type of saudage,

but with that same core in her vocal that just makes every emotion feel brilliant. And that song, you know, that I just played in El Primerazzo, I mean, there's so much beauty about commentary, about life on that through this lens of bezzo. And she just has this perfect voice to capture that. I feel like she could go to any country,

and make a record and capture the ancestry of that place. You know what I mean? And that specifically is such a unique and beautiful and untouchable and unrepeatable quality for an artist to have. It's very specific. And it's like it's like superhero levels, you know? Okay, so I have a question for you real quick. Where were you, let's say, 10 years ago?

Were you still in high school or were you in college? I was in high school. Okay. No, I was, I don't know. Border. Because that's when I first discovered Sylvia Pettus Cruz. she's my artist. We're going to fight over her.

No, I found this CD laying around somewhere. It was a great album she did, and you're right. She did a great album with the bassist Javier Colina and his trio, and it was very jazz, right? So, yeah, she has become something very different, but there's always those roots right there. And, okay, I'll share it with you, because we both have just been infatuated by the work that she's been doing

lately and really exploring. Part of that wave of Spanish musicians doing amazing stuff. Looking within and not necessarily trying to incorporate from externally. That was a couple of songs of Celia Perez-Cruz's album Oral Abyssal.

Okay, this is an album that I played a while back. This is an album with heavy folkloric feel but also speaks to the present moment. It's a new project from a collective of Colombian folk musicians and a French electronic trio the group was called Nuevos Rios.

The album is called Nuevos Rios. This track is called Ojungo. I'm going to tell you all about it when we listen to a little bit of music. I wanted to play this track because at the beginning, as a drummer, the overlaying of rhythms and polyrhythms and stuff is so complex, but it also reflects

like the very organic, elemental nature of folk music from that part of Columbia. This is the southwestern part on the Pacific side. And this group, Nouveos Rios, features a folk group called Canalon de Timbiki, which is referencing the Rio Timbiki right there in that part of the country. Also, as I said, the French electronic group, Reco, Reco. And they're known for mixing Afro-Caribian music, African music, with electronics that are based in France.

And the vocalist Nidia Gongora. She is from that part of the country. And as you know, we've talked a lot about here on Alt Latino. The Caribbean side, the Pacific side, they have different traditions and different features. and different drums and different everything about it. But it's still part of the Colombian folk tradition. I had a chance to see her recently here in DC. She was playing in the Mount Pleasant area here in DC, which you know.

It's very, very Latino part of the town. Man, it was so, so many people from so many different places. She was like the queen for the day in that concert. She has an amazing collection of recordings. Again, the record is called Nouveos Rios. The group was called Nouveos Rios. Nuevos Rios, and the track is called O'Hungo. Okay, Felix, so once again, we telepathed.

We do it every week, I feel like. The track I brought, the album I have brought, feels very perfectly, beautifully paired with the last what you just brought. It's Criolo Amaro Edino, you've heard me talk about them 10 million times. It was like maybe one of the first records I think I brought on at the beginning of the year, and it has remained one of my favorites. The album is called Criolo Amaro Edino, and the track. I want to play right now is called Menina

Do Coco de Carite. I'm seeing your face of awe, shock, admiration, and it's giving to me that you didn't listen to me and you didn't listen to this whole record. Okay, this may have been one of the shows you did without me. Okay? No. No.

Was it? No. It may have been, because I... You would have remembered? Apparently not, Felix. Yeah, let's find out. Let's find out. Our producer, no... Let's do a fact check on this. Our producer Noah is doing a fact check for us. I know you're going to have been there.

This is so classic. Oh, would you look at that? Felix Contreras, present on the day. What do you have to say for yourself? Okay, Anna, I will always listen to you when you tell me to listen to a whole album. I will do it. Okay, okay. Keep going.

This record is Africa. I mean, I've told the story, right, of how these three giants, you know, Creolo, one of the legends of Sao Paulo hip-hop, Maro Freitas, the pianist. He's like the protege, right, of Brazil right now in jazz piano. And then Dino, Santiago, who is like created the Afro-Electronic scene in Portugal in Lisbon. He produced for Madonna. I mean, the three of these people, they came together in this amazing way, and it's beautiful. But what I really do want to talk about is that it's Africa in every way, right? And, you know, we discussed earlier how Latin America has an easier conversation in Latin American jazz, especially with, you know,

different sounds that all clearly originate in Africa. And this is just another beautiful example of that, but specifically through, you know, the Portuguese side of that, the Portuguese offspring of the connection to Africa. And when I, when we did this episode, Felix, I posted on Instagram about it. And Dino told me, he's like, I've never, that's exactly what it is. Because what I said is that what's really interesting is when you listen to this record, what you hear are like all of these different African rooted genres, right? And not because they're trying to make those genres on the tail end. Like, you hear almost like a Dembo-related sound and not because they're trying to copy Dembo from Puerto Rico, but because really some of the most prominent, you know, slave trade routes

from Cabo Verde were, yes, obviously touched Portugal, but went to the Caribbean, to Puerto Rico. So it's not that oh, Dembo's cool, reggaeton's cool, we're going to make something that sounds like that. It's we're making African sounds, which includes this and is an easy conversation with this. You can very clearly trace the history and the migration patterns and the movement of people that creates for the exchange of these sounds. And then, of course, you have that exchange with Brazil. So when we talk about an increasingly contemporary global world where everyone's listening to everything, that all, the roots are already there with how we exchanged,

with each other. And it's funny to me that this is all, you know, I've been talking about the Mundial obviously a lot, but really soccer is the other place where we see this really interesting conversation besides the music, right? Because you're seeing Cabo Vallada they play, you're seeing Portugal play, you're seeing Brazil play. And again, it's that really interesting exchange of players and stories and familial histories where it becomes really personal just like in the music. And so this record to me is just, it's everything. It's like 10 million layers of history. Very well put. I have nothing to Thanks.

That was Menino do Coco de Carite from the album, Criolo Amaro and Dino. This next album is one that's just, it's still like, man, I don't know. It's not a competition, but it's really hard to beat in terms of being one of my favorites. This is Sophia Ray. The album is called Antonima, and this track is called Peter Panico. What more can I say about Argentine vocalist Sophia Re? That I haven't said every time I play some tracks from her latest records, and we've been doing that for a long time here in a lot Latino.

Because the way she manipulates sounds and traditions and electronics and everything, it just keeps getting better and better and better. And I have to give a special shout out and call out to her musical partner, J.C. Mallard, The musical vision they have together is just incredible. This record has a whole bunch of our favorites on it. Midea Ramos, Perrito Martinez, Juanaluna from Argentina. Also, a vocalist we should know more about. Mariana Barra from Argentina, Zinio Rubino from New York City.

I could go on and on and on. But I think it's enough to say for the purposes that we're talking about this week, that it's still sitting up there. It came out in April, I think it was, and it's still up there is one of my favorite releases of the year. The name of the album is Antonima. That track is called Peter Panico, and the artist is our dear friend, Sophia Ray. Okay, that's going to wrap us up for our best of the year so far. It can be interesting to see what's still around or what's still to come between now and December at the end of the year. You have been listening to Alt Latino. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell.

The executive producer of Vampiree Muhammad. And Sunali Menta is the executive. executive director of NPR music. If you heard something that you like this week or anytime, drop us the line, man. We'd love to hear from you. You can write to us at alt-latino at npr.org. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.