Remembering "Mambo Express" radio host Victor Parra
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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."