Oscar D'León and Willy Chirino

Oscar D'Leon is proof that in all forms of music, heart comes first. You can be as technically gifted and naturally talented as you want to be but if the drive to perform and entertain isn't in your guts and at the forefront of your mind, forget about it. D'Leon is very much that kind of artist, the kind who is so musical that when he was a kid, his constant tapping of rhythms on tables would get him into trouble at school. By his teenage years, he was driving a school bus and a taxi by day while teaching himself the double bass and playing as many local clubs as he could by night. He became something of a local sensation for his riotously entertaining club act, but wouldn't achieve mainstream success until 1972, and the formation of La Dimensión Latina.

Thanks to La Dimensión Latina's success, D'Leon spent the rest of the 1970's as one of the most famous salsa players around, forming many other bands after his time in his original group came to an end like La Salsa Mayor and La Critica. Ever since then, D'Leon has remained one of the most respected salsa artists of his time, with forty years worth of performing experience making his live shows second to none. He blazed a trail for musicians of his ilk, as one of the first salsa musicians to tour Japan and the first latino to sign a record deal with the BBC in the United Kingdom. To this very day there are precious few artists like him in any genre of music, and as he sails past his seventh decade of life without missing a step, Oscar D'Leon comes highly recommended.