Felix Contreras
Felix Contreras is co-creator and co-host of Alt.Latino, NPR's pioneering radio show and podcast celebrating Latin music and culture since 2010 and a curator for the acclaimed Tiny Desk Concert series.
A knowledgeable international ambassador for Latino heritage and arts, "Tio Felix" travels extensively in search of new talent and new music and captures important legacy performers in jazz and Latin genres. He appears regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines, All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Various national and international publications have quoted his expertise on the contemporary influences of Latin culture, music, and media.
He's a recovering TV journalist whose first post at NPR in 2001 was as a Producer/Reporter for the NPR News Arts Desk.
He is also the other NPR Music resident Deadhead and an Afro Caribbean percussionist who performs around the DC area with various jazz and Latin jazz bands.
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For over three decades, Panteón Rococó has been at the forefront of Mexican ska. The band's skankin' grooves slide easily between cumbia and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. -
Tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana and pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba interpret the soul of the Latin American song book at El Tiny. -
For more than 50 years, Los Mirlos has cultivated its own Peruvian twist on cumbia, featuring reverb-heavy, surf-rock guitar. -
Alt.Latino's Felix Contreras explains a surprising new trend in Latin music that's been bubbling for awhile.
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NPR's Felix Contreras explains why this summer was different than most for Grateful Dead fans around the country, and what Deadheads told him about why they got hooked on the band.
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To devotees of the Grateful Dead, the first nine days of August are known as the "Days Between." This annual celebration commemorates the birth and death of guitarist Jerry Garcia.
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To devotees of the Grateful Dead, the first nine days of August are known as the "Days Between." This annual celebration commemorates the birth and death of guitarist Jerry Garcia. -
Several entries in the Latin music category were among the highlights for judges in the 2026 Tiny Desk Contest.
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Vocalist Victor Willis, the former lead singer of the disco band The Village people, has died. He was not only the front man but he also co authored several of the group's hits.
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This week, the jazz world celebrated what would have been Miles Davis' 100th birthday. The late trumpet player is widely considered one of the most innovative and influential jazz musicians of all time.
