Victor Parra through the years. Photo collage courtesy of WDCB
A vast library of Latin music knowledge vanished last week with the passing of "Mambo Express" radio show host and bandleader Victor Parra. He was 87.
Backstory: Growing up in a big Mexican-American family in Little Italy, Parra fell in love with Afro-Cuban music as a teen after hearing his first Pérez Prado record.
The big picture: He poured that passion into his Mambo Express band, Wicker Park's VP Records and three decades of "Mambo Express" radio shows on WBEZ and WDCB.
"I loved it, it was easy, it was a pleasure," Parra told me for a 1999 Tribune profile, noting that folks told him they "planned parties around my show."
What they're saying: "He opened my eyes to the world of MAMBO!" Former WBEZ music producer Dayna Calderon tells Axios in an email. "The rhythms were familiar but the names were not — Machito! Mongo Santamaría! Celia Cruz! I was an instant fan of this person and his show."