I have seen Larry and his accompanist Sonia many, many times at the Union Square station in Manhattan. Common sights at the platform of the L train, these two drummers embody a blend of drumming-heavy genres with origins in the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America. Their powerful hits, stabs, and rolls on plastic drums reverberate throughout the station, and can be heard from the N/Q/R platforms one floor above. Sonia lays down the beat, completely in the pocket, allowing Larry to dazzle us with his quick triplets and show-stopping moves.
Personally, Larry and Sonia’s drumming always makes me feel good. Whenever they aren’t at their usual spot, underneath the staircase from the yellow trains, something feels missing. It’s good, then, that they are there at least 3 times a week! Whenever I come within earshot of these rhythms, I can’t help but nod my head and tap my foot, and imagine that I’m in the Caribbean or a small village in South America.
I highly recommend going to listen to these two drummers. It’s well worth the $2.75.
The interview that Jillian, Violetta, and I conducted with Larry can be heard below. A transcript is also attached. Enjoy!
-Luca Bozzo
Luca: My name’s Luca, this is Jillian, and she’s Violetta.
Larry: Okay, how are you doing?
Lu: Good, thanks! We were wondering how you guys got started with this.
La: I’ve been doing this since I was five years old, started playing out here since I was like six,
five, same thing. I did like, you know, I did a lot of stuff doing this, I was the first one that started this, you know what I mean? I did a Reebok commercial, the Mariah Carey video “Someday,” did the movie “Green Card,” you know, the movie “Sliver.” I did a couple of videos… cameos and videos and stuff like that. I did the Broadway play “Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk” so it’s like, this is what we do, you know? This is what we love to do. This is something that, you know, this is what we do every day all day, you know? And this, I mean, this keeps us out of different, you know, out of trouble and everything like that, you know? Because, you know, we’re musicians and um… basically, you know, we do this every day and people come up to us and tell us, you know, they had a bad day at work and they hear our music, you know? Sometimes they say we uplift them, you know.
Lu: It’s true for me, I see you guys almost every day you’re here
La: Yeah, so basically that’s why we’re out here. We’re out here, you know, to free our minds
and help people at the same time, you know? To make other people happy too, you know what I’m saying? With our music.
Lu: Do you feel that this has been successful for you guys? Not only emotionally and in the
response of people, but in terms of everyday life?
La: Oh yeah, of course! I mean, this is our spirit, this is what we love to do. You know? Me and
her both do everything.
Jillian: I have a question, I was just wondering: I’m very curious about this. I’m horrible at
music, I’m horrible at making music. Do you guys plan this out, or do you just kind of go with it?
La: We just go with it. We don’t even practice.
J: That is amazing.
La: We do all different styles, we try to like, you know, go to different elements on it.
Lu: What would you guys say your biggest influences are?
La: As far as drumming?
Lu: Yeah.
La: I’d say Max Roach and Tito Puente.
Lu: And like, just styles, like from the Caribbean, or…?
La: Yeah, it’s like pretty much Caribbean, jungle music, Latin, mixed all into one.
