Lifelong San Francisco Bay Area Latin jazz percussionist, producer, and Machete record label founder John Santos recalls his Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean family roots and his path into a career of music. He philosophizes on the power of a recording and the value of album notes that place the music in a meaning-giving cultural and social context.

Built on the Afro-Caribbean past, forged by visionaries such as John Santos and his comrades, and steeled by its rootedness in American life, Latin jazz is a major force shaping contemporary American musical culture. Over decades of performing, arranging, producing, and teaching, Santos has helped make the San Francisco Bay area a Latin jazz stronghold. On 2020's Art of the Descarga, The John Santos Sextet and a parade of stellar guests mine the music’s imaginative motherlode, the descarga—the spontaneous, improvisatory interplay that is the beating heart of Latin jam sessions.