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Context and background

Por la Plena y Otros Asuntos (For la Plena, among others) is the latest production of Grammy nominated Los Pleneros de la 21, New York’s Bomba and Plena ambassadors to the world. The release comes on the heels of the group’s milestone fortieth anniversary in 2023. True to its name, this album is a heart-felt ode to this Puerto Rican traditional expression–La Plena–as conceived, curated, and orchestrated by Los Pleneros de la 21’s founder and longtime director, ‘Juango’ Juan J. Gutiérrez Rodríguez.

An endeavor embarked upon in late 2019, at the early onset of COVID-19, the production of the album has journeyed through several iterations and concepts, all stemming from Juango’s contribution to the avalanche of creative inspiration, ingenuity, and search for reconnection experienced by so many artists and musicians during the pandemic. What remained true throughout the evolving concepts and visions for the production was Juango’s desire to create an album that featured not just the talents of the LP21 ensemble, but one that also paid tribute to his island-based ‘camaradas’ pleneros, pleneras and traditional practitioners, a duty he has felt compelled to fulfill if only to honor the musical expression that has enriched his life for so many years.

The final product is a deep-seeded act of camaraderie, with arrangements and orchestrations shared equally by both Juango and long-time Puerto Rican-based collaborator, Ricardo Pons – this album’s Co-Producer. With a multi-generation collective of over thirty musicians from LP21’s New York City backyard and the island of Puerto Rico, Por la Plena y Otros Asuntos gathers within a single production today’s top voices, creative geniuses, and influential practitioners of la Plena. From cuatro to trap set, classic Plena drumming to layered orchestration, and from harmonized nostalgic duets to fun-loving sung repartees, the album is a musical menagerie across time, place, and aesthetics, ultimately offering a testament of la Plena and the experiences of the musicians that have journeyed through the Puerto Rican diaspora. Por la Plena y otros asuntos brings to life the passion for la Plena felt by each of these musicians as well as their unwavering love for Los Pleneros de la 21, a group whose four decades of teaching, performing, touring, and recording has crafted many pathways for generations of pleneros to come.