Zon del Barrio at the Puerto Rican Day Parade!

Founded by Latin music historian, composer and musician Aurora Flores and her husband, musical director and arranger David Fernandez, Zon del Barrio is a play on the words “Son” the musical genre found throughout the Caribbean and L.A. and “Zone” where Latinos live, work and struggle to find their balance in the “zon.”

An intergenerational group whose members span several ages, its young percussion section is already being called “los monstruitos” as these “little monsters” of rhythm are making a name for themselves alongside the ladies of ZDB that provide the PANTY POWER of this ensemble’s swing.  Combined with the power of our singer/sonero: Sammy Rosa, our built in arranger and multi-instrumentalist, the music monster himself, David Fernandez & Aurora, ZDB’s composer, Zon del Barrio brings the Music from the Streets of Latin N.Y. to stages alongside classic & original tunes.

“An outfit steeped in nostalgia while exploding into the future”  Zon del Barrio brings “a touch of jazz with a splash of rock & roll on top of a driving, hard core percussive engine to make the dancers hot…. Zon del Barrio is edgy, bold & innovative.”

The official house band of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade two years in a row and the house band for the NY Knicks, Zon del Barrio will be headlining this year’s Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing, July 2, 2011 with special guests, Larry Harlow & Yomo Toro.

Aurora is also a lecturer & writer with thousands of published articles in mainstream and Spanish language periodicals. Aurora can be seen over the PBS television documentary: Latin Music USA!; BET’s Pasos Latinos; BRAVO’s “Palladium, When Mambo was King;” the Smithsonian’s “Latin jazz, La Combinación Perfecta” and in Edward James Olmos’s “Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.” where she appears alongside the late Tito Puente, playing a composition she co-wrote.

She conducts lecture/demonstrations on Latin music and culture in universities and has composed  bilingual songs for Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer.” Aurora edited and wrote the foreword for the book: ¡Salsa Talks! A Musical Heritage Uncovered written by Mary Kent.